Runaway kites

[D]

There's an interesting article from another forum that reminded me of the time I was almost run over by a leashless recon kite last year.

I was going to make a new post about my little incident the other day. but saw this thread.
This happened to me during water relaunching of an 11m bow kite. The bridal wraped around my kite and it went into crazy mode - constant kiteloops. I tried a few things, nothing seemed to work to fix it. After about 15 violent loops , i pulled my QR, but the leash was attached to the chicken loop so the kiteloops continued.. ended up pulling the QR on the leash and letting go of the kite completely. good thing we had a boat nearby and caught the kite right before it hit the shore. When I thought about it, i realized that i had an O-Shit handle on the bar (Ocean Rodeo bar - kite was not Ocean Rodeo) that i could have used to hold the kite - not a perfect solution since the kite still does loops (manageble though) when holding just a steering line, but better then letting go.
I hope these incidents are considered in the second generation bows, however, this kite is still my favorite kite of all times and im not going to stop using it.

A good idea might be to have an oshit handle on each steering line. Instead of ejecting the kite, grab one of these handles, and reel in the mess.

[windhorny]

Amen brother! I was working on just that for my TD. All you need is an extra oshit handle from a c kite and strap it to your flaggin ring. At least you can get 2 fingers in there and let the safety go, the problem is that the flagging ring is so damn high up you cant come close to reaching it. So basically this means if the kite were on the water you would be fine, but if the kite were in mayhem mode, you would need to take a leap of faith grabbing that handle. Not sure what the best solution is. Kite safely I guess and stay out of other peoples way, thats the tried and true way.

[scatmandu]

Not proud of it, but yesterday I had to let go of my kite while on the beach and let my 5th line engage. It depowered the kite as it was designed to do. The kite turned over on its back, but it kept flying with just the one (5th line attaching me to the kite. Eventually, I walked the kite into the water and brought it down into the waves. Has anyone ever had this happen? What should I have done in this situation? I was alone and their are really no other kiters who kite near this beach. I'd appreciate any advice. Please avoid scolding as I've already beat the hell out of myself because of this incident...I just want to know what to do to avoid it in the future.
Scat

[Don Bogardus]

Why did you walk into water?, I self land my fith line kites all the time
by putting kite at 12:00, then blowing safety, then carefully walk up to
kite by going hand over hand on 5th line and front lines, keeping equal
tension, (which helps keep kite close to ground while flying on its back).
Another way is to secure fith line to something that won't be pulled,
and walk up to kite to flip over and sand down.

[scatmandu]

Don,
I'm sorry, but I don't know what you meant by 'blowing safety'. Do you mean letting go of the bar and allowing the 5th line to engage? What I was doing as I was walking into the water was walking up the 5th line. Essentially, the only thing I had connecting me to the kite with the 5th line. At that point, I did not have anything to attach the fifth line to, since I was on the open beach. That's a good recommendation though. What do you typically attach to line to? Thanks for your input. I appreciate it.
Scat

[jjm]

It sounds like you need to check the length of your fifth line, it is probably either too short, or too long. If you search around on kite forum you should find some threads and can identify which it is.

(Guessing it is too long?)

[Greg]

Josh is right, when the 5ht is fully ingaged the other lines need to have slight pressure on them. So the idea is that 95% of the pull is on the 5th 5% on the others, kite stays down- depowered.
At least that the way I like it,
L.M.G.

[charlie]

josh got a nice kite.

[Don Bogardus]

What I do is activate chicken loop safety with BOTH hands, let the kite go to leash (5th line).Don't touch bar when you activate safety, (keeps you from getting confused and trying to hold on to bar with one hand, take my word for it!).
after kite is on, or near ground If wind is VERY light you can tie 5th line to your board and sand it down. Otherwise, carefully do the hand over hand thing till you can reach kite.If it is very windy, PAY ATTENTION to keeping the 2 front lines at the same tension as the 5th line, which prevents kite from rocking back and forth violently, also it can keep kite from flying too high while you approach it!.Different brand/model kites behave differently
so use caution till you get your kite(s) wired.
One word about self launching: Carry your bar up to kite when you go to flip it over and sand down folded wing tip, keep one knee on wing tip, reach for bar, attach leash to 5th line, THEN walk to the proper angle, and
hook into chicken loop!.Again take my word for it, as there is nothing worse than haveing kite break free and you don't have leash attached!!!!