While there is no great kitable wind I was wondering if it would be sensible (or just plain stupid) to practice my self launching / landing on a large grassy field?
I want to try to practice as much as possible in prep for the new season..
Any advice would be appreciated..

I sometimes walk my kite into the water and launch from there. Safe and works everytime

when i first started kiting, i practiced self-launching/landing and kite control at the large (inland) park 200m down the road from my house. Launching in a park is bloody difficult, as there is bugger-all wind at ground level (beach is better ). Wait for a bit of luck to kick in for the kite to launch. However, once the kite was up, all it took was constant movement of the kite to keep it flying, except at 12:00 in the sky, where the wind is cleaner. Flying a kite in the park taught me the importance of maintaining line tension (a hell of a lot of running upwind ). Bugger me, man, my feet were aching afterwards . Despite the difficulties of launching in a park, i'm now pretty good at the self-launch at the beach .

ps. self-land is piss-easy in a park (no wind at ground level) . Just fly the kite slowly towards the ground, and pull on the upper front line. the kite should calmly drop down.

I reckon most parks are pretty terrible to fly a kite as the trees & buildings up (& down) wind make the wind swirl.

Make sure it is a really big park if your using anything like a normal sized kite.

Having said that...(IMHO)...
Self launching & landing is really easy with most kites (I've done it with about 4-5 different types of SLE kites & all behave nicely). I think it might have been difficult in the past with other/older kite types.
I almost prefer to self land/launch than get someone at the beach to help. Certainly better to self land/launch than get joe blogs non kiter to help.


Launching is super easy & there are a bunch of posts that show how.
Landing is a touch more difficult & there are three or four different ways.

Prefix... make sure you have heaps of room - more than you think. It is as much about their perception of safety as it is about safety. Don't get us banned at local beaches.

The worst is the "front line (gentle) crash" - kite at 45. head towards ground & pull in the front lines. This isn't real reliable

The prettiest way is drop kit to ground at edge of window & pull top front line down & upwind to get kite to settle. But this doesn't work reliably in high wind.
I use this in light wind.

The safe & reliable way to self land is to....
1. drop kite to edge of window with back lines slack.
2. let kite bounce back down the window until it is happy.
3. Grab front lines & pull in quite a bit.
4. Walk around up wind. Until the kite lies on its back with its legs (wingtips) in the air.
5. Hand over hand to the kite. This is the riskiest bit. It is safe, but I sometimes like to hook lines around my harnes hook & work my way up. I do this when the wind is stronger or the kite seems unsettled.
6. Grab the kite. So easy & very safe & reliable.
I see quite a few people struggling with this & if they use this last technique it is so easy.

good luck

Thanks all, think I will wait until the season starts up again before practicing.

Flux said...

It could be sensible or it could be stupid, common sense would hopefully prevail here.I.e what a "Large grassy field" actually means and where it's situated?

The main negative against this over lets say at the beach where you get a prevailing wind direction that is constant is the fact that you are inland, and the wind can be turbulent and change direction at anytime due to the fact that you are surrounded by obstacles weather that be buildings or large flora in the distance or whatever.
So you can't trust the wind not to get you out of shape so to speak, as in this enviroment the wind is prone to being cyclonic, mate there's power lines buildings tree's lots of stuff that can see you in trouble.

And when you are trying to get out as you are so keen when you are just learning you usually underestimate the wind conditions, and infact when you go out in really light winds i.e 10 knts or so it is infact harder to self launch and the kite is prone to lofting.

Also if your new and you really want to nail self land/ launch is obviously best to be shown how to do it properly and have someone with you to spot the kite for you.

Mate personally I wouldn't do it. I'd go to the beach to practice or somewhere that the wind doesn't have to obstacle round to reach you.But thats just my opinion.

what he said

A few of them here at Kurnell



I tried to stop him