The guys setting the kiting speed records in the ditch like Rob Douglas use fairly high aspect kites. The ditch is set up to be a broad reach slightly off the wind, but not anywhere near dead down wind.
http://www.luderitz-speed.com/
Ed
rob went to the mistral with caizergues look up "Salt and Speed". Never had the wind they wanted, but Rob got a 53.4 knot run anyway.coleman wrote:just looking at the luderitz link. why was rob douglas not there? or any american kiter for that matter?
Yes.JS wrote:All other things being equal, a higher L/D ratio kite results in a greater forward force component, and therefore higher speed than a lower one... on any point of sail.
And an optimized higher aspect ratio aerofoil (kite) has a higher L/D ratio than a lower aspect kite.
The concept of a kite flying 'deeper in the window' simply refers to a kite that is relatively inefficient... its propulsive force acting in a less than ideal direction. Respectfully, any notion to the contrary doesn't respect basic aerodynamic and force-vector principles.
Cheers,
James
That is strange. I had to click around on the site to find this where he is listed. I was surprised to see that some of the record setting kites were described as delta's, which are generally low to mid aspect.coleman wrote:just looking at the luderitz link. why was rob douglas not there? or any american kiter for that matter?