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New to ram-air kites

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DaytonaJoe
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New to ram-air kites

Postby DaytonaJoe » Sun Aug 08, 2010 11:10 pm

I learned to kiteboard in Florida on a Monkey Griffin bow kite. Knowing that I'd be living in Oklahoma for a while I picked up an 8 meter Pulse II with the intention of ground boarding. I didn't get out as much as I'd have liked but I had some fun anyway, and I got a great deal on the kite. Now I've moved back to the ocean and took the kite out on the water for the first time.

The wind was 17-24 knots on average with light gusts. I felt both underpowered and overpowered at times and I have a feeling it is due to my technique and unfamiliarity with this style of kite. My previous bow was very simple to fly... I pushed out the bar all the way and the power dropped what felt like 95%. It was a 15 meter and I was able to fly in wind up to 20 with gusts to 25 comfortably. A possible issue is that it looks like someone may have tampered with the center line of my Pulse, adjusted the length or something (I bought it used).

So today... getting up and planing was comfortable enough. Just cruising around, the range of depower didn't feel right to me. It actually felt like the reverse of my old kite. If I had the bar out all the way it was fully powered, and if I pulled in at all I would lose significant power...stall. So I would build speed up until I was moving uncomfortably fast and try to push the bar out like I normally would have but it was either all the way out already or if it wasn't, this would actually increase the pull. Now when it came time to jump... I would allow my speed to build up, load the lines like normal, send the kite and pop. The launch felt normal I guess, except that I didn't have to pull in the bar at all. But I just wasn't getting much height or hang time... which is why I said I felt both underpowered and overpowered.

The intent of this post is NOT to bash this style of kite. I just want to learn what I might be doing wrong and try to correct it. What do you think?

OzBungy
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Re: New to ram-air kites

Postby OzBungy » Mon Aug 09, 2010 12:35 am

Your front lines have stretched and the kite is half stalled. Shorten the front lines and things should improve.

If your kite is old and had a bit of a battering it might be porous and that will make it more stall prone. Again, shortening the front lines will help to make the kite fly faster. In that case the adjustment will help make your kite more usable but if it really is porous then the only solution is a new kite.

You can test for porosity by putting the kite fabric flat against your mouth and sucking on it. If air comes through it's porous (very).

DaytonaJoe
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Re: New to ram-air kites

Postby DaytonaJoe » Mon Aug 09, 2010 12:53 am

Thanks for the reply Oz. I'll test the kite to see if air comes through, but I know that at the very least it can hold water. I know because I ended up swimming, dragging it a half mile full of water. When I got back to the beach it took considerable effort to get the water out of the cells.

The kite is not old at all. When I purchased it, it had been flown only a couple of times and it looked basically brand new except for the tampering of the center line. I doubt that the front lines could have been stretched from use... but what you say makes sense. How will I know how far to shorten the lines? Is there a correct ratio for the length of front lines to the length of the rear lines where they meet the bridal?

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Re: New to ram-air kites

Postby d0uglass » Mon Aug 09, 2010 2:01 am

I think OzBungy is right; your front lines have stretched, so your kite is back-stalled (over-sheeted). Above the depower strap, under the neoprene, there should be a section of line that you can re-tie to shorten the front lines. Of course, you know that adjusting the depower strap itself also has the affect of changing the front line length, so a quick fix may just be to pull the red depower strap until you can sheet the bar in fully without stalling the kite.

If your kite is still having problems, there could be other line adjustments that you need to make, in the section of the bridle that Flysurfer calls the "mixer". For more information on that you should consult the instructions and experts on the "foilzone" kite forum.

http://www.foilzone.com

I had some problems with my 12 m Flysurfer kite until I did the mixer adjustments and shortened the front lines. Now it flies great and I really like it. Not the easiest thing to water relaunch

OzBungy
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Re: New to ram-air kites

Postby OzBungy » Mon Aug 09, 2010 3:33 am

The simplest way is to push the bar out and/or pull in the trimmer and see how it is flying best. Once you work that out you can shorten the front lines or lengthen the back lines by changing the knots on the pig tails.

You could go to the manufacturer's web site and dowload the line plan and measure everything. That's probably a bit of overkill.

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Re: New to ram-air kites

Postby frankm1960 » Mon Aug 09, 2010 2:46 pm

DaytonaJoe wrote:How will I know how far to shorten the lines? Is there a correct ratio for the length of front lines to the length of the rear lines where they meet the bridal?
Here's a pulse II manual...
http://www.flysurfer.com/gallery2_code/ ... ng_web.pdf

A lot of bars can easily be checked/tuned by attaching all the lines to a fixed object, setting the trim strap to full power and pulling on the bar to tension the lines. At this setting all the lines should rise and fall together, ie they should have equal length and tension. If they don't then you adjust them, usually at that bar leader lines somewhere, until they do. For example if your front lines appear slack (drooping) compared to the back lines when you pull on the bar, then you would shorten the front lines by attaching them to a knot (closer to bar of course) on the leader line, or maybe there are ways to shorten the leader lines, depends on the system you have.

Once the bar is checked/tuned you should be good to go and can then attach your lines to the kite at certain attachment points to obtain desired flying characteristics. Those attachment points I think are detailed in the manual.

I did not find this bar checking/tuning technique in the pulse manual so it may or may not work for your kite bar system. I know it works for the kites I've use so far, c's and SLE's.


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