Inbound Aircraft ... DUCK!
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2003 9:06 pm
Aircraft inbound such as:
or
you had better drop your kite down near the water until the aircraft passes...
Why?
- The pilot may not see your kite. At 150 mph he is traveling 2.5 miles per minute. That isn't a lot of reaction time in some cases.
- If he hits your kite you will go from near zero to 100 to 150 mph or more. You may not survive the impact and whiplash even if your lines break shortly after impact.
- If he hits your kite, be it an airplane or helicopter, even if you escape unharmed the kite may well cause an out of control crash. Toy kites have come close to doing this in the past. There have even been reports that rafts of toy kites were flown over villages in Vietnam to discourage close helicopter manuvers during that conflict. A helicopter sucked a kite into its engine intake in Brazil a while back. This could have resulted in the destruction of the helicopter I have been told. The original thread about this incident appears at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kitesurf/message/41273
A big thanks to fabinhoj for digging this out of the kitesurf list archives including the photos. He has reproduced some of the text below. I have uploaded the two photos of the chopper below.
Note kite embedded into base of rotor
A closer view
For guys that think this is BS, for NEW KITERS, etc. think about something else for a moment. What do think would happen if you dropped your kite down near the ground, in front of a sports car going 50 mph to where it wraps over the front of the speeding car? Remember you are HOOKED IN. What do you think would happen? Also, who would ACTUALLY go out and do something like this?
GUESS you are doing when you leave your kite up and in the path of a moving aircraft? There is a difference. though. There is a good chance that the aircraft will be going two to three times FASTER. Sounds bad, IT IS. So now that we have thought about this obvious hazard lets take steps to avoid it.
- If you hear an aircraft, normally you can 1 to 3 miles away or further, immediately drop your kite down near the water. If this means falling of your board into the water, JUST DO IT. That is good old ANTI-LOFTING technique and if you are lofted in this way it could be a terminal record breaker. DO NOT assume that the pilot has seen you OR will avoid your kite, as happens most of the time. The time that it doesn't would be grim at best.
We need to avoid kite-aircraft involvement at ALL COSTS!
A recent incident involving a kiteboarder and a careless helicopter pilot appeared on the FKA list. The kiteboarder would have been hard pressed to avoid this incident but still it is possible to do so. The consequences of failure are too severe to contemplate. Details of the incident appear at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FKSA/message/1228
or
you had better drop your kite down near the water until the aircraft passes...
Why?
- The pilot may not see your kite. At 150 mph he is traveling 2.5 miles per minute. That isn't a lot of reaction time in some cases.
- If he hits your kite you will go from near zero to 100 to 150 mph or more. You may not survive the impact and whiplash even if your lines break shortly after impact.
- If he hits your kite, be it an airplane or helicopter, even if you escape unharmed the kite may well cause an out of control crash. Toy kites have come close to doing this in the past. There have even been reports that rafts of toy kites were flown over villages in Vietnam to discourage close helicopter manuvers during that conflict. A helicopter sucked a kite into its engine intake in Brazil a while back. This could have resulted in the destruction of the helicopter I have been told. The original thread about this incident appears at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kitesurf/message/41273
A big thanks to fabinhoj for digging this out of the kitesurf list archives including the photos. He has reproduced some of the text below. I have uploaded the two photos of the chopper below.
Note kite embedded into base of rotor
A closer view
For guys that think this is BS, for NEW KITERS, etc. think about something else for a moment. What do think would happen if you dropped your kite down near the ground, in front of a sports car going 50 mph to where it wraps over the front of the speeding car? Remember you are HOOKED IN. What do you think would happen? Also, who would ACTUALLY go out and do something like this?
GUESS you are doing when you leave your kite up and in the path of a moving aircraft? There is a difference. though. There is a good chance that the aircraft will be going two to three times FASTER. Sounds bad, IT IS. So now that we have thought about this obvious hazard lets take steps to avoid it.
- If you hear an aircraft, normally you can 1 to 3 miles away or further, immediately drop your kite down near the water. If this means falling of your board into the water, JUST DO IT. That is good old ANTI-LOFTING technique and if you are lofted in this way it could be a terminal record breaker. DO NOT assume that the pilot has seen you OR will avoid your kite, as happens most of the time. The time that it doesn't would be grim at best.
We need to avoid kite-aircraft involvement at ALL COSTS!
A recent incident involving a kiteboarder and a careless helicopter pilot appeared on the FKA list. The kiteboarder would have been hard pressed to avoid this incident but still it is possible to do so. The consequences of failure are too severe to contemplate. Details of the incident appear at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FKSA/message/1228