safety for two line foil kite

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mattrau
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2009 11:42 am

safety for two line foil kite

Post by mattrau »

Hey guys, my wife uses our slingshot b3 on the snow, and I am looking for a way to get her hooked into the bar, while at the same time allowing her to completly depower if she needs to in a emergency. Any ideas or products out there?
Eric P
Posts: 544
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2004 8:17 pm
Location: St. Louis Park, MN

Re: safety for two line foil kite

Post by Eric P »

What you need to do is hook up a third line that leads to a bridle on the back edge of the kite. Pulling that line, even just a few feet will cause the kite stall and fall out of the sky. It will land face up, ready to go again, all you have to do is let off the tension on that back line brake. Last time I was at Midwest they actually had a third line bridle set for the B series kites, you should go check it out. Use thin line if you do it yourself, as this will slow down the kite due to extra line drag and pull on the back edge of the kite, so the lighter the line the better.
Eric
Tighe
Posts: 5274
Joined: Sat Oct 26, 2002 10:06 pm
Location: Here, Now

Re: safety for two line foil kite

Post by Tighe »

I agree with Eric. I may take a bit to tweak it but you can adjust the ring that limits the amount that the 3rd line gets pulled in, so that the kite still maintains some shape, yet has the rear of the kite curved over such that there is no lift from the wing( much like flaps on an airplane wing) This will keep the depowering process clean as Eric described.

As far as hooking into the bar. You can mock up something like the B4s have with a QR chicken loop. If you get a lock and load chichen loop from Slingshot it will have a pin and a loop on top. If you then make a loop out of some strong line (preferably spectra) and larks head it onto the bar, you'll have the second loop for the QR. Feed one loop through the other and slide the pin thru and viola you have a Chicken loop with a QR. I'll try and get a photo.

couple of points:
It is not a spinnable chicken loop. You can get 2-3 spins in it and it will still function but more than that and I'd unspin the kite or unhook and rehook in.
The smaller lock and load Chicken loops work better. Keeps the bar closer to the body.
Keep the line you use to attach the CL to the bar thin, like leader line, so that you can easily feed it up through the other loop.

hope that helps

tighe
Tighe
stefen.L
Posts: 79
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2005 1:36 pm
Location: st. louis park

Re: safety for two line foil kite

Post by stefen.L »

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