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Walk down device

In article <CB8HHI.FpC@tug.com> andrew@tug.com (Andrew Beattie) writes:

>Don't foget that if it comes to risking like and limb, you can always
>cut the line.  If flying in heavy conditions, you may care to consider
>anchoring with a short length of sacrificial line that you wouldn't mind
>cutting, to get the thing down.  Remember that with the line cut, a soft kite
>collapses and doesn't drift as far as you might expect.  

Oh doesn't it ?  I thought this when first flying my statoscope on a long 
line at a kite meet. But when the line was cut by another kite very low down 
there was enough drag on the remaining line (750ft of about 5mm dia) to keep 
the kite from collapsing and it flew to the far end of the flying field, 
over a small wood and out of site.  I feared the worst that it had landed 
out of site on top of some tree in the wood.  Luckily it had flown even 
further and went about 3/4 mile before landing luckily in a field corn.  I 
even found a helpful farmer combining his field who thought it no trouble 
to 'mow' a path across his field to my kite! I offered my thanks and 
something to buy himself a couple of pints with.

I now use your next suggestion (and it only needs to be a light line)
whenever I think the winds are up or I am flying (with permission) on a 
long line.

>Alternatively, it is easy to rig a control line that destroys the shape, 
>causing the thing to fall out of the sky.



Andy......

_____________________________________________________________________________

          /\        Dr Andrew H.J. Tate
          \/        Dept Chem & Proc Eng,      Email: ces1at@surrey.ac.uk
        /           University of Surrey,      Tel:   +44 483 509259
 Q    /             Guildford, Surrey GU2 5XH  Fax:   +44 483 303807
 |-+/
/ \                 It's a kite believe it or not !!
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