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Kite Trains

uspehmev@ibmmail.COM writes:
>And definitely don't try a six pack of
>Hawaiian Team kites like Anthony Crisafulli (I believe I saw a
>picture of him flying 17) unless you have a good body anchor or have
>tied them to a four by four. (Same goes for 8 foot or larger flexis)

Sorry Mark, I won't let that pass.  This is a common missunderstanding
about power flying.

Do *NOT* anchor powerful stunt kites or stunt-kite-stacks to the ground.
It is ABSOLUTELY NOT safe.  People get killed an maimed trying. Eg:

UK: One flexifoil.  Strong wind.  Line anchored through belt/harness to position
behind flier.  Flier does power-dive followed by ground pass.  Compressive
load on fliers leg means thet he cannot move to follow path of kite. Leg snaps.

Germany: Power kiter flying with anchor.  Anchor fails.  Flier catapulted into
tree.  Flier killed.

USA: (Detail sketchy) flier airbourne on the line tension with stack of
flexies.  Loss of control.  Flexies smash into ground.  Flier likewise.

On the other hand, I have not yet found the upper limit for the amount of
kite that you can fly without an anchor.  I've flown a dozen or so 10'
Flexifoils, a 15m^2 Peel and a 20m^2 parachute.

Andrew
-- 
echo 'andrew@tug.com' | dd bs=20k seek=50000 of=end_of_tape
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