Bob, I would like to say, yes, no one would try this. Reality is, some people imitate what they see regardless of common sense. This happens a fair amount in lesser degrees still with lethal potential. I doubt someone would jump off a 20 plus story tower in a dense urban setting anytime soon with a kite. Smaller buildings, maybe still with wind shadow problems, more likely. Look at all the folks out in squalls, doing tow ups and dying to try dune soaring with our tissue paper gear. Bad ideas but people like what they see, ignore common sense and just do it.
Again, someone already tried this from what I recall, years before this video. They killed themselves in a pretty nasty way, likely falling from a mid rise tower in a severe stall into another roof top. Or maybe when they put their kite up they were ripped off the roof and then dropped in an out of control stall or kite loop. Or maybe, he was flying until his kite fell into the wind shadow/dead air zone of a building upwind. I tried that once on a tandem condo soaring hang gliding flight with an instructor, we dropped like a rock and almost slammed into the roof of the building causing the dead air upwind.** The instructors idea, not mine. No one saw the guy go off the roof with the kite, he was found later on. Still trying to find the original post. Art copies life then?
Intriguing video comp nicely edited, but I would fess up, before someone not thinking very clearly tries some variant of this.
** We were trying to figure 8 down into the lift band from the tall condo to the right, in lighter cross winds. Trouble was, there was no lift band in those marginal conditions. We figured 8'd below the roof level and down several floors, then the lift turned off. That small six story building to the right cast a pretty nasty wind shadow down wind. We went into a power dive, barely cleared the roof of the lowrise building and did and skimmed in for an immediate landing on the water. The glider was setup with pontoons for water landings routinely. This was a very simple setting, nothing like one with a bunch of buildings. We were on a hang glider, still subject to stalls but able to come out of them light years better than a "kite" and a great deal more appropriate for flying.
