Also added a few Seagulls/Birds (taken from the classic F.W Schmitz).
When you are about to go out kitesurfing, and someone passes along you on the beach, the STANDARD question is: "Are you not afraid of not being able to get down again ?"
The easy answer is always: "No, it can't happen !".
For some reason, most don't know the very first thing about flying - that EVERY flying object without motor or power, will ALWAYS fall down again (quite fast in fact), when flying freely.
Many seem to forget this simple basic principle of flight.
This goes very much for kitesurfing too.
Regardless how much wind - the sink speed is exactly the same, when you are airborne and after the apex !
So we will always fall(glide) down - but sometimes we try to hang on as long as possible.
If one jumped 10 meter, and had a full sized performance paraglider - you would soar down for (10meter)/(1.0m/sec) = 10 seconds, added to the time to get up in 10 meter height.
Because we can control the kite and its relative windspeed somewhat - we can also change sink speed for brief moments.
But I don't think there is any purpose in chasing the "Perfect Paraglider" for a kite - as it is now, it works extremely well !
When the wind picks up, and we take a smaller kite - we will also fall down faster.
But because we can boost higher when taking off, the total hangtime might still be better.
IMO it is the dynamics of a kite is what is really important - how it turns and works in gusts, and the practical issues of course.
This list might be interesting for many of you tech. heads, and simply those who wondered how well "things" perform.
Now the interesting issue is:
How would a kitesurfer kite, LEI and Foil, fit into this table ?
I have an idea of what we will see - but others can try to fill in the pieces too.
I could remember most of the data, to make above table, but have checked up on those - just in case anything had changed.
And one thing had changed - I thought the best PG's had a glide ratio of 8, but they are up at 10 to 1 now.
The best full sized gliders can reach a glide ratio of 50 to 1, at very high speeds (wind head-on does not matter much then).
Amazing !
