Kiteforum.com

In Egypt the kite center had a wind station with max and average winds meassured.
Maybe 4-5m off the ground. There I saw the average 8 knots and just beore I stayed upwind.

BS if you think, I talk experience with the info I had.

What a kite needs to waterstart is a pull of around 40lbs.
What is needed to ride, once up, is less.
What is needed to go upwind is a pull at a certain vector, and adequate lateral resistance.
A given kite needs a certain airspeed over the canopy to produce the required force.
To take away the BS all you need is an anemometer on the kite reading out down below.
Fly the kite up to zenith and see, what is the true windspeed in front of the LE.
Put a GPS on the kiter and see, what is the apparent windspeed on the kite at the waterstart, when riding, up and downwind, etc.
Throw a load cell on the CL if you care...
Most of the questions can be answered easily with technology used for RC planes and gliders.
No need for silliness.
Wifi gadgets are everywhere these days....
I could say this is a job for spork, but really it's a job for an undergraduate.
Somebody figure it out!
I would myself if I were a geek!

"Pump Me Up" is correct. I'm privy to a lot of new kite testing. No kite will stay upwind under about 8 knots, regardless of the board. There is no kite in the world that will even fly in 2-4 knots. People sometimes get confused about kites because of the phenomenon of "gradient". The wind speed at 40ft can be completely different to the speed at ground level.

+1 what Kook said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_v_ubcY ... re=related

Once again, this link is appropriate. There will always be someone who wants to piss on the creative efforts of others.

Toby wrote:In Egypt the kite center had a wind station with max and average winds meassured.
Maybe 4-5m off the ground. There I saw the average 8 knots and just beore I stayed upwind.

BS if you think, I talk experience with the info I had.

Fair enough...and i talk also from experience too...living in a LW world..Florida
I rode the Dyno 18M during the 'warm air" summer of 2011...with 2.5m extensions=27.5m lines
The LW TT board i used to test low end to stay upwind (avg.8kn) was a North Spike 153x47.5

Now you are on a board only "39cm" wide and only "128cm" short + you weigh 18 more kilos

To me a true average 8kn wind means that it never reaches 10kn
Avg.8kn is......7-8-9kn...or....6.5-7.5-8.5-9.5kn......and it should remain that way the whole time riding

Wind stations serve there purpose....but logic tells me that you would need 10.5kn on such board

Just my opinion of what wind power you would need in the kite...stations give their general idea
Avg.10.5kn is..9.5-10.5-11.5.....or 9.0-10.0-11.0-12.0kn of wind the whole time you are out

.........Once again my comments are entirely with all due respect ..... ............

Testing the INFINITY V3 prototypes in 20 to 40 knots.



By the way check how low the INFINITY v3 kite is. Plus that day the wind meter of the Kitty Hawk Kites shop was showing around 2.7 to 4.8 mph which it is located on top of the roof which is 40 feet above the ground.

Dimitri M wrote:Testing the INFINITY V3 prototypes in 20 to 40 knots.
By the way check how low the INFINITY v3 kite is. Plus that day the wind meter of the Kitty Hawk Kites shop was showing around 2.7 to 4.8 mph which it is located on top of the roof which is 40 feet above the ground.

Dimitri, you know that no matter how much evidence you throw, they will still whine and bitch about it being impossible. It's a losing battle, especially when you post video evidence. We all know how people like to claim conspiracy and special conditions on video evidence!

"Back, and to the left. Back, and to the left!"

hi Dimitri i think your V3 fly very well in those 40 knots!!!
even if at kite level are maybe 60 knots...

kookfest wrote:"Pump Me Up" is correct. I'm privy to a lot of new kite testing. No kite will stay upwind under about 8 knots, regardless of the board. There is no kite in the world that will even fly in 2-4 knots. People sometimes get confused about kites because of the phenomenon of "gradient". The wind speed at 40ft can be completely different to the speed at ground level.

Nonsense. There are kites that fly indoors, in no wind at all.

As for the lair of the magic wind unicorns... Wiki has this to say about wind gradient.

Wikipedia wrote:According to one source, the wind gradient is not significant for sailboats when the wind is over 6 knots (because a wind speed of 10 knots at the surface corresponds to 15 knots at 300 meters, so the change in speed is negligible over the height of a sailboat's mast). According to the same source, the wind increases steadily with height up to about 10 meters in 5 knot winds but less if there is less wind. That source states that in winds with average speeds of six knots or more, the change of speed with height is confined almost entirely to the one or two meters closest to the surface. This is consistent with another source, which shows that the change in wind speed is very small for heights over 2 meters and with a statement by the Australian Government Bureau of Meterology according to which differences can be as little as 5% in unstable air.

A couple of knots. Using what little wind gradient there is for half-assed dynamic soaring by working the kite is probably a whole lot more useful.