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| Don't try this at home kids. |
by AndyA |
2004-07-14 21:43:02 |
Well unless you enjoy full body whiplash, sore arms, squished insides, a couple of seconds of panic and then finding yourself hitting the ground sideways.
The basic plan: Take my larger power kite and a harness and attach the harness to something suitably solid. Fly the kite and see if I can get myself to hover in the air.
Since I don't trust the cheap kiteing harness that I have I used my climbing one, something which I trust to take some serious loads. The kite was attached to the harness in such a way as to put the power directly to the harness but still giving me stearing and break line control. The back of the harness was tied via some climbing gear to a bench (the nearest solid object), the tie down was around 7-8 feet (~2.5 meters) long. The lines were cunningly set so that the weak point was the tie from the power lines to the harness, the first thing to break would result in the kite de-powering in a controlled way. All very sensible so far. Normally this kite can't lift me off the ground but then normally I'm getting dragged forward, the pull increases the harder you pull back on the lines so if I'm stationary the kite will pull harder than normal.
Two minor problems. 1) the "weak point" was some old kite line, a loop of string of around 1mm diameter. Breaking strain of 220lb. So a loop per line with two lines assuming an even distribution gives a breaking point of 880lb or around 400kg. 2) the wind was over 20mph.
So I hook everything up. Pull the lines to launch the kite and it lits up into the wind. Instantly the handles get pulled forward untill the loop to the harness is tight and I get yanked forward untill the tie down is tight. Within less than half a second I am a foot off the ground in an almost straight line between the bench and the kite (I so wish I had a picture). This force running through the harness has caused it to push into my sides rather a lot. Also the force on the lines means that I (in my semi stunned state by this point) just can't get any significant control of the kite, the friction is just too much, and it is now starting to drift off to one side taking me with it.
Fortunatly I managed to gain some control via the break lines and continue the drift to the side while reducing power and landed on my side fairly gentely around 6 feet (2 meters) to the side of where I started. At that point I managed to totally de-power the kite and bring it to the ground.
Total distance: 2 meters.
Total time: ~2.5 seconds.
Average speed: <1 m/s (~2 mph).
Adrenalin rush: Excessive
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[ Reply ] |
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Total stupidity levels..... | by MrTrick | 2004-07-14 21:56:58 |
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Jealous? Of what? | by AndyA | 2004-07-14 22:08:18 |
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heh... | by MrTrick | 2004-07-14 22:17:26 |
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The control lines went rhough a loop on my harness | by AndyA | 2004-07-14 22:43:18 |
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s/rhough/through/ (n/t) | by AndyA | 2004-07-14 22:49:37 |
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My turn, my turn!! | by lab rat | 2004-07-14 22:25:37 |
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I have a video somewhere... | by AndyA | 2006-11-19 12:55:59 |
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I've usually shared the adrenaline around... | by MrTrick | 2004-07-14 22:32:41 |
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Very much not fun ... | by monika_krug | 2004-07-15 09:10:20 |
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That sounds fun haha! (n/t) | by corsicagt | 2004-07-14 23:41:42 |
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