Overflying

From KiteWiki

Overflying refers to the point at which a kite travels outside the bounds of its normal wind window to a point where there is insufficient wind to allow it to remain stable. This might be either at the left, right or top of the window and can happen for one of two reasons:

• A kite is traveling fast towards the edge and it carries on because of its momentum. Fast kites like race kites are more likely to suffer in this way.
• A gust temporarily enlarges the wind window so the kite dashes forwards. When the gust subsides, the kite will be outside of its normal wind window and will become unstable.

To control overflying, you need to:

• Become aware of where the edges of the wind window are.
• Remember that the wind window will be wider when the wind is strong, and narrower when it is light, for any given kite.
• Try to prevent the kite from getting to close to the edges.

To prevent overflying, you can try the following:

• Apply brake line pressure as the kite approaches the edge for fixed bridle kites.
• Shorten the brake lines a little by attaching them to a knot that is closer to the handles. Try 5-10cm shorter and see what difference it makes.
• Pull in on the bar a little, for depower kites.
• Turn the kite before the edge of the wind window is reached and fly it back on itself. This even works overhead as you can fly small figure of eight patterns above yourself to keep the kite constantly moving.

--Badger 21:52, 25 January 2010 (UTC)