SLAMMED - I Forgot to unhook

[conchxpress]

Leave it to you to get pictures en route to the hospital. We want hot nurses and hot EMTs next time. Although, I've taken people to the hospital in KW, and I didn't see any. You could start a new thread on kiteforum, "Sexiest Bodily Injury Picture." Or "Guess the Kiteboarder." LOL

Frank

[ricki]

Originally Posted by conchxpress

Leave it to you to get pictures en route to the hospital. We want hot nurses and hot EMTs next time. Although, I've taken people to the hospital in KW, and I didn't see any. You could start a new thread on kiteforum, "Sexiest Bodily Injury Picture." Or "Guess the Kiteboarder." LOL

Frank

Too late Frank, they've beat you to it already:

http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2346098

Actually, cell phone photos of kiting injuries have become pretty common on the net. If they carry a useful message, sounds good to me, otherwise keep them on your phone.

Since you wanted a more appealing nurse photo, I came up with this Frank:



I tried to get it to wear the nurse hat and get up but no go, it ate them, sorry.

[ricki]

Here's some more detail on what went wrong. The short version is, it was my first time out with a new kite with different performance aspects. I handled the kite in a way that I was used to but the kite was not! Outcome, Rick gets slammed, hate when that happens.

The Cabrinha Switchblade IDS has a purpose designed depowering function for solo landing and emergencies. Ignoring this function is not a great idea.

It was blowing out of the SE about 12 to 18 mph, I had just landed a 12 m SB IDS on the surface of the beach. I did this by bringing it down to near the ground, reaching forward and pulling in the trim strap assembly. I had just unhooked the chicken loop at this point and had forgotten to detach my kite leash from the harness. For some reason the kite landed more downwind than crosswind this time and very near some sea oats and dunes. (I learned later that tensioning the trim strap assembly on this IDS equipped kite will cause it to fall back in the window, whoops).

As I moved a few feet towards the kite, it started to drift downwind. I grabbed one of the back lines, pulled on it lightly to try to get the kite to stay in position. The kite started to loop, I dropped the back line but it continued to loop. I soon dropped the chicken loop thinking this would kill the power. Instead I was dragged by the kite leash about 100 ft. through the dunes. The kite never depowered despite my being pulled by the leash attached at the ring at the top of the chicken loop. By the time I thought to try to disconnect the leash attachment, which I was being dragged on, the trip of several seconds was about over. I wondered if something had snagged the lines on the ground but it seems I might have wrapped a wing tip with a bridle. I still don't know what caused the depowering function to fail but a wingtip wrap is seeming more likely as one wing tip was dragging on the ground around some sea oats.

I never thought to activate the IDS upon landing, first big mistake and once I unhooked the chicken loop with the leash still attached (REAL big mistake), I effectively disabled the IDS. The likely wing tip wrap disabled normal flat kite depowering. Wisely having left the kite leash attached (NOT) and with the QR beneath me and the dune rushing by, I was committed for the trip.

I was talked into going to the ER, was Xrayed, no breaks, just some messed up soft tissue. That was diagnosed today as two sprained ankles, a sprained neck and a displaced rib. The rib hurts more than the rest currently, ouch. Pretty light bill all things considered. I did this landing technique with no problems an hour and a half earlier. Probably because the wing tip didn't get wrapped. I did remember to detach the leash attachment that time. Not the second time when it really counted however. I had been off the water for about three months which likely contributed to what I did and didn't do.

Moral: New kite system, carefully learn and practice the New Stuff, FIRST! Don't assume old techniques will necessarily work.

I never used the IDS when I came ashore, if I had, none of this would have happened. There would have been no need to detach the kite leash either in this case. A hard won but fairly obvious lesson.

[ricki]

Some of what I was doing and SHOULDN'T HAVE, appear at 35 sec. and 1 minute 3 sec. in the video

http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=5678

I don't think this illustrated technique in the video is a good idea with IDS equipped kites. The video was shot using last years Switchblade. With this years kites, just fire off the IDS to solo land and all done, sigh.

[Clew In]

Hey Rick,

Sorry to hear about your trouble I hope you are doing better and heal fast.

I self land lots of times and setting the kite free is not an option. I have to use the leash to keep the people on the beach safe. I have always felt comfortable with attaching the leash to one of the front lines(Crossbow 2006). I have pulled the plug several times and it has always flipped on its back and dropped out of the air. On the other hand I have another kite 17m Bow and it does not have front line attachment only OS handles on the steering lines. This set up always scares me. When I have pulled the plug the kite rolls and rolls until it is directly down wind(I always wonder if a line tangles would it take off). When it is light wind it is not much trouble; however, if the wind picks up and I am overpowered with a 17m it makes you think about what you are going to do if the kite does not come down and land correctly.
Also, the 17m kite has an attachment ring below the chicken loop and it is supposed to depower the kite if you pull the QR. I have released the kite in light wind and it seemed to have lots of pull and I would not want to release on that in a bad situation.
I like the idea of IDS and I like the front line attachment point for landing. Have you heard of any mishaps with the leash attached to the front line?

Clew In

[ricki]

Thanks, parts are healing fast!

I think a big part of the problem in my case and risk in general involves using the "spin the kite" solo landing technique on bridled kites. There is a tendency, not a 100% certainty either, of tangling line on a wingtip or elsewhere potentially disabling depowering. If this happens you may well go over land at speed with no effective means of dealing with it without releasing the kite. You may have a poor chance of releasing the kite leash too. If there are people at risk downwind, a viable solution might be to simply NOT use this landing technique with flat kites. If there are no people at risk detaching your leash before landing should reduce that source of hazard to the rider.

As simple a question as where to attach your kite leash is, to a reride ring on a leading edge or trailing (O'shit) line, it is complicated. I tried to get manufacturers to commit to recommendations on this sometime back on the forums. Some responded, most did not. I don't believe the same attachment point will work equally well for all kites. I recall problems in using either leash attachment point in the first couple of years of flat kites. Today, I don't know if this has changed or not or model specific characteristics with each leash location.

A big part of the problem is inconsistent outcomes. Doing solo landing (or launching) one way or the other, won't necessarily ding you every time. It will happen only part of the time, which part? I've been doing spin the kite solo landings for a long time with flat kites and have had wing tip problems only a few times that I recall. This last one was a bad one. Solution? The most consistent one that comes to mind is to not use this landing approach with flat kites. This leaves using a hold fast, also with some problems particularly in strong winds with some kites, bystander interactions, etc. or assisted landings.


anyway ...

Some things that led to the painful, still, outcome weren't as obvious as they might seem. One thing was more obvious than others though, which appears first below:


1. Be practiced and prepared to use the IDS for solo and emergency landings.


2. IDS equipped kites drift BACKWARDS or downwind when held by the front lines or trim strap alone. I have never encountered this in another kite before, four line LEI or flat kite. All other kites have stayed at the side of the wind window. Don't do this with IDS kites, simple.


3. If the IDS equipped kite drifts far enough downwind with the IDS NOT being activated because it is supported by the front lines alone, you may have problems. I did and not far downwind at all. It will not apparently respond to being steered forward by back lines in this situation, again unlike other kites I have done this with.


As said already, I was NOT using Jon Modica's complete technique for landing. I have never had much luck with it as my past kites bounced too much. Bouncing problems are mentioned a lot in posts about this technique along with lots of cautions. I have had good luck, until now bringing the kite down and holding it at the side of the wind window by holding the trim strap (about 50 times). Again, Do NOT do this with IDS kites or for all I care with any other kite either. I am not certain they will reverse launch either off the water by pulling in on the trim strap. Anyone had luck with this on IDS kites?