How can you read the OS handle if your bar is at the end of your 3 foot leash?BWD wrote:OSH is no panacea but the typical scenario is you release the CL or unhook and throw it -and the bar does not shoot away from you because the safety line or 5th line is jammed or stuck in some piece of hardware (e.g.: swivel, cleat).
In this scenario, you grab the OSH which is still right there by you.
The times I've used it was when wind picked up suddenly and I had to self land. I changed my leash over to the OS handle while I was on the water and then came ashore and pulled the release.ronnie wrote:So do you have the time to figure out that the O/S is the best option before popping the Q/R?
You don't have the tethered launch/landing perfected yet or did you end up on some other part of the beach and couldn't get to it? Just curious as a lot of folks use the tethered solo launch/land technique fairly regularly for SLE kites.Bill wrote: I was out by myself the other day and it was pretty windy. Really did not know how I was gonna land the kite, but fortunately there was a windsurfer there who landed the kite for me.
Hand over hand.How can you read the OS handle if your bar is at the end of your 3 foot leash?
no you have to wait until it crashes, unless it is light wind. If light wind, you actually CAN, if properly motivated. If the conditions are tough, and the kite is in the death spiral, you are probably going to have to let it go..there's no way you're climbing up the leash to grab an OS handle as your kite loops through the power zone!
Totally Agree.BWD wrote:Hand over hand.How can you read the OS handle if your bar is at the end of your 3 foot leash?no you have to wait until it crashes, unless it is light wind. If light wind, you actually CAN, if properly motivated. If the conditions are tough, and the kite is in the death spiral, you are probably going to have to let it go..there's no way you're climbing up the leash to grab an OS handle as your kite loops through the power zone!
Another of the many reasons to have an OSH is in case your safety line breaks, obviously.
Typically this will send a kite wildly across the power zone into a crash, from which it may or may not relaunch totally out of shape and out of control. Guess what: if you then grab the OSH, it won't relaunch and drag you!!
Lots of other possibilities too.
If you don't see the point of OSH yet, its worth your time to experiment with one and see how it can be useful, and how it might help with your kite in your conditions.
OSH doesn't suit every kite and situation all the time, but there is a reason they are still made: redundancy.
Redundancy may be boring and inelegant, but not in safety systems.
Example: in airplanes, it's possible to link the rudder to the stick so you might never need the pedals. Yet it's still a good idea for the pedals to be there.
Likewise, your car's brakes and steering could be made so they only worked with power assist, or only worked when there were no leaks and had the proper voltage to various sensors. Perhaps that would be lighter, cheaper, simpler or more elegant.
But it might also kill you.
Having a broken front line doesn't stop a mini-fifth from working. It makes it work better! If you break a front line then you are essentially releasing to a single front line right? Unless the mini fifth isn't long enough to pull only on one fornt line?vkngktr wrote:My Best Bar has a mini 5th. When one of my front lines broke the other day the kite did lose power but also twisted and started to loop. I was lucky enough to be in only waist deep water but the kite was definitely pulling me. I simply grabbed one of the OSRs, used the CL QR and the leash QR. No more pull. Simply walked hand over hand to my kite and walked the whole mess in. If I were in deep water without the OSR I would have been pulled quite a ways and eventually would have had to ditch my whole kite which is something I hesitate to do especially when there are people downwind of me.
The only time I can see a mini-fifth line breaking is when you release to the mini-fifth line. If it breaks after you've released to it, then your kite is gone anyway. I guess when you are running down the beach and you catch up to the bar you can grab the OS handle though?BWD wrote:Another of the many reasons to have an OSH is in case your safety line breaks, obviously.
No they're not, mini 5th in almost all cases flags to one center line and depowers 100%. If it doesn't then you need to untwist your center lines (or get a better swivel).JGTR wrote:Are you mad?
Mini 5th lines are not a FULL flag out safety system. They are the equivalent of riding suicide and relying on the inherent depower of the kite to save you. Any problems such as bridle wraps and a death looping kite and the mini 5th line is USELESS, if not dangerous.
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