water re-launch advice

nedrager · Since 10 Jul 2007 19 Posts Hood River

Just asking this 'cause I wasn't able to find a direct answer on the search but....is there a time limit to getting your kite back in the air? I fly a Turbo Diesel and when the thing hits the water it wants to immediately begin flopping around like a dead fish and get the lines all tangled up. It gets twisted pretty quick and a re-launch is almost impossible at that point...or so it seems. I'm a noob (of course) so maybe it's something I'm not doing right? Naw, surely it wouldn't be that......

villin · Since 17 Nov 2007 17 Posts

sle's are pretty easy actually, dependant on condition and knowledge. once the kite goes down, presumably LE downwind, release the bar and swim toward the kite real fast so that it falls onto the water, once it gets upside down on top of the water, pull on the hand opposite the direction you want to launch. it will begin to work its way across the wind window and once it is at the edge keep pulling and it should come up.
my 2 cents: practice on flat shallow water, its a good skill to have in this sport. And if its under 10 mph i've had little ability to water relaunch. So if its under 10 start packing up and self rescue.

pauls · Since 20 Jun 2005 564 Posts Northern Portugal Addicted

are you pumping it up hard enough???

pdxmonkeyboy · Sun Aug 03, 08 8:37 am

Yeah, if its pumped up it should be wiggeling and getting tangled. You should have around 7-8 lbs in there.

nedrager · Since 10 Jul 2007 19 Posts Hood River

Yes, I'm actually pumping it to around 9psi. Is that to much?

pauls · Since 20 Jun 2005 564 Posts Northern Portugal Addicted

9psi is good if the gauge is accurate but better to ping the leading edge should sound like a drum - ask someone else at the beach what they think

DROCK999 · Since 31 May 2007 852 Posts Left Coast Opinionated

pdxmonkeyboy · Sun Aug 03, 08 9:32 am

maybe try to describe what is happening? What kind of dead fish maneuver?

nedrager · Since 10 Jul 2007 19 Posts Hood River

Well, it's almost like I have only a few seconds to get my s**t together before it wants to flop over on its backside. After it starts to flop over it keeps doing it over and over again. Kinda like an alligator doing a death roll. Just rolls over and over and over until the lines are all tangled up. I remember a time a few weeks ago when it did that and the lines pulled right down the middle of the kite and taco'd it! It looked just like a damn taco! I thought the leading edge bladder was going to burst! Another reason I'm writing about this is b/c I found myself out in the channel at the sandbar the other day (deep water) with the kite doing this. I couldn't relaunch and the kite kept pulling me down wind. That didn't feel good, actually it kinda scared me. The feeling of being stuck out in the channel and not having a way back in freaked me the hell out. Anyway, it sounds like the best thing I should do is to just get my ass out there and practice re-launching from the shallows before heading out to deeper water.

jsj · Since 11 Sep 2006 83 Posts Hood River

nedarger-

Stuck in the channel? do you know how to self rescue?

Your description of what's going still makes it a bit hard to sort things out. Think about how the kite is ending up in the water in the first place:

TD2 is easy to backstall - that is if you choke it to death by pulling too hard on the bar, it will back right out of the sky and land downwind on it's back (leading edge up - this is hard to recover from for a noob). It that's what you are doing, push the bar out as soon as you realize kite is stalling. You won't have to relaunch at all Smile

If on the other hand you let the thing overfly (back lines too loose - haven't seen TD's do this btw) it can hindenburg on you - that is to say it flies directly overhead, stops and drops out of sky upside down. Usually when this happens your lines are going to end up slack and the kite is going to roll a few times and then u r hosed. Solution - fly the kite. Don't let the back lines sit there slack with the kite overhead.

In your description of the problem, tell us whether you tend to put the kite down on it's leading edge, it's back, or to one side.

nedrager · Since 10 Jul 2007 19 Posts Hood River

[ TD2 is easy to backstall - that is if you choke it to death by pulling too hard on the bar, it will back right out of the sky and land downwind on it's back (leading edge up - this is hard to recover from for a noob)]

That's it! I pull the hell out of the bar sometimes and it falls on it's back. I've never been able to recover from it. Since I'm pretty new I've never put the two together but it makes sense now. Thanks js. -Lance

Spike · Since 13 May 2007 1414 Posts Alameda Spelling Expert

I fly Turbo Diesel II's.

try this in the shallows some day:
Keep the kite at 12 'o clock, pull the bar all way in and wait for it to fall back, When its clearly on its way to the water, let the bar all the way out, and watch the kite come right back up to 12 'o clock.

Like jsj said, if you sheet out when it stalls, you wont even have to bother relaunching.

It is still a good idea to learn how to relaunch the kite when it sitting in the water with the LE facing upwind as it would be on the beach.

For the TD II, pull on one steering line until that wingtip is pointing towards you (this usually requires pulling in about 4-6 feet of steering line). Then QUICKLY let it go and pull hard on the other steering line to pull the kite around (thank god for red and white colors). This should spin the kite around into normal relaunch position. Once it is let everything go after making sure no lines are wrapped around your fingers, legs or board.

Every once in a while, after spinning it around, the bridle will be wrapped around the kite, and you have re-do this spinning to try to get the bridle off the kite.

pdxmonkeyboy · Sun Aug 03, 08 7:38 pm

Hey lance, it does this more when it is underpowered but not always. Classic new mistake thinking the bad is like some kind of throttle pull it in = more power

In really light winds, you may find that the t2 actually likes to have some speed to it, so sheet out and let the kite get moving, then slowly sheet back in and get some of the power from the kite, if it starts to slow down, then sheet out again.

If you can't stop yourself from sheeting in all the time then adjust your pigtails so you can't sheet the kite in and backstall.

On the relaunch , look here
http://www.nwkite.com/forums/t-9847.html

holly · Since 09 Jul 2006 440 Posts Hood River Obsessed

when in doubt sheet out..... problem would be solved if you just got a C-kite!! haha j/k!!

nedrager · Since 10 Jul 2007 19 Posts Hood River

haha, this is classic man. In my mind pulling in does = more power and I've been doing that since day one. In light winds I'll throw the kite to the other side of the window and start cruising. When I start to sink down, I grab the bar and pull the crap out of it thinking that will power the kite up and grab more wind! So the next time this happens...sheet out instead of choking the bar eh?

pdxmonkeyboy · Sun Aug 03, 08 9:55 pm

yep, in light winds you have to finess it. It comes with practice and time on the water. IN super light winds, don't just crank the hell out of the kite either. It turns fast sure, but it is essentially spinning on one tip and doesn't give you the nice even power that long slow turns does.

Thats why kiting in light winds sucks ass, cause its more work than fun but if you just have to get some..well, sometimes you just have to get some

oh yeah, PRACTICE A SELF RESCUE before you actually have to do one and are all panicky and end up underneath a barge. or not.

homerun · Since 12 Jul 2008 22 Posts

I had the same problem demoing a T3 my 3rd day in the Gorge since 2001, after 9 years of using C kites in the midwest. The wind was very light near the east end of the sand bar off the Spit. The kite stalled and floated to the water after a jibe. (I sheeted in as I would with a C kite as it fell - wrong thing to do). It then hot launched several times, but because I pulled the bar toward me to presumably give it more power, it floated back down each time. I was very confounded at the time, as I expected to get jerked downwind. It also flipped over one or two times as you described. I figured I was screwed but directed it back into the channel into stronger winds. Out there, in stronger wind, my sheeting-in didn't stop it from relaunching plus the stonger wind allowed the kite to get closer to the edge of the window where I preferred it to be. Interestingly, it relaunched totally untangled and untwisted.

Later I was advised not to sheet in with the SLE kites as they stall (same advice you are now getting). Since then, I automatically sheet out avoiding this problem.