Kite Tuning: How can I tell if my backlines are too long?

[Rascal]

Merry Band:

I recently tried a friend's 12m Vegas 06 and it was awesome. It was rigged for a beginner, so the backlines where on the slow setting, but the kite was so stable that once it was in neutral you could take your hands off the bar, and just sit in the water, and count to 25 or 30 before you needed to put either hand on the bar again. It just sat there Ö totally awesome.

Yesterday I tried a similar experiment with my 12m 2005 Naish boxer. I put it in neutral and took my hands off the bar, as soon as I released my hands the bar it slid up about 6 inches until it hit the stopper on the main line, almost immediately the back lines slackened, such that there were discernable loops in the slackened lines, the wing tips fluffed out, and by looking at the loosened fabric in the kite you could see that the kite was dramatically losing power. The kite then lurched forward and dipped to one side so that I had to put my hands back on the bar to stabilize it. I did this a few times and came to the conclusion that without a hand on the bar to pull down, the kite would not be stable.

Winds were similar etc.

The question I have is are my back lines too long? And if so, how could I tell this by looking at the kite and or/lines?

Many thanks for any assistance, this support on this forum has been excellent.

Rascal

[Scotty]

I am no expert on the 06 Vegas. From what I have seen, it is a hybrid kite between the bow and C-kite. Not to mention a different control system? Different from you Naish Boxer. The fact that your backlines slacked out seems normal to me. However, seeing that your kite dives in a certain direction tells me that your flying lines (center lines) favor one side and are out of tune. Especially since you let go of the bar and it wants to dive in a certain direction quickly. The way to tell if your back lines are longer than your flying lines is by being fully powered and seeing if your backlines cause the kite to "pinch in"at the back line attachment point. This should not happen because you will oversheet your kite and lose power. Especially when you are flying on the low-end of your kite. The easiest way to tune your bar is to lay out your lines and tie your lines to a string that is attached to a solid object (ie tree,signpost,truck rack) just as you would attach them to your kite. With your control system set to full power pull on the bar to see if there is any slack in the other lines and how perpindicular it is to your attachment point. You may find that one of your flying lines may be longer than the other and your control lines(back lines) may be too long. I am not familiar with the Naish control system and attachmnet points, but I am sure you can tie knots and make adjustments where the strings attach to your bar to even them all out. The most important part is to make sure your strap is not pulled in whatsoever and that your bar is in a fully powered position. For a bar and lines (especially true for c-kites) it is imperative that your lines are all equal in the fully powered position and that your bar is perpindicular to the attachment point. I tune my bars every fourth session, takes about 15 minutes. If you live in the city (SF), I can show you how to do it.

[Pablito]

Yeah, you really don't want to compare a Boxer and Vegas 06. It's not a fair fight. The Vegas is just an amazing kite.

If you are looking for a way to keep your kite stable in neutral while you're down in the water (I assume that's when you want it to hover), you might try hooking in to your fixed loop (or whatever system that kite has). In my experience with other kites (I have a Vegas now), unless the kite is really powered up, sheeting out all the way makes a kite a little twitchier when it's at neutral.

Also, some kites are tuned with looser back lines than others; the important thing is that the kite doesn't oversheet (front lines aren't longer than backlines)