gokid said..
How come when I kite under a helicopter or a helicopter flys over me whist Im kiting there is no turbulance from it

Maybe because the chopper is too high up to have an effect. ^^^

The chopper might be flying at say 500 ft...

and your kite is only 20m above the surface.

waveslave said..

gokid said..
How come when I kite under a helicopter or a helicopter flys over me whist Im kiting there is no turbulance from it

Maybe because the chopper is too high up to have an effect. ^^^

The chopper might be flying at say 500 ft...

and your kite is only 20m above the surface.

Yes I think most of the time the chopper is too high to have an affect

but there have been a few times when the chopper is very low

and I have kited under it expecting at least a light downdraft from it

But nothing , so disappionted

One time I ducked my head it was so low

How close was it? I've definitely had choppers mess up my kite before from turbulence. Those big Army ones don't even need to be too close to do it.

I think when a chopper is stationary hoovering,there is a lot of downforce from the blades

But when it is moving quickly thought the sky its blades and the angle of the chopper down force is more like 45 degrees

a lot of the force is more horizontal

Well (obviously) the chopper has to be at the right angle to affect you, that really goes without being said. I've still had quite small choppers mess up my kite when they are at the right angle to the kite/ wind.

One of those pilots that flies those big army helicopters up the northern NSW QLD coast must surf. He does low slow close passes of all the breaks. I thought at first he hated kites, but I've seen him wave. Maybe they're just on the perve. I've had both happen to my kite, where I'm surprised there hasn't been turbulence, and another time nearly forced my kite down. I've seen those f18 so low they look like they'd definetly take out a kite if you were in line, travelling faster than the speed of sound. We have a bombing range a little to the south where all water craft are banned. (Near Evans Head). There is an infamous story of an F-111 doing a low pass over the bombing range bunker breaking every window and lifting the desk off the ground. They don't even need arms if they're low enough and breaking the sound barrier, they could shred buildings.