Does anyone know?

I guess if a kite at zenith can loft someone who weighs a couple of hundred pounds, then that's about how much power they generate at that point in the wind window, but how much would they generate in the power zone?

Obviously it's going to vary massively between kites and wind speeds, the speed of the kite through the window, and where it is in the window. But some sort of table would be good, like this kite generates X kg when moving between 11 and 1 o'clock at 30 kph in 20 knots of wind at z degrees of elevation blah blah etc.

Must be nearly impossible to measure in the field, but can't they work this stuff out from computer models?

Probably asking a little much I suppose...

I must be a stats freak

a lot!

Put a spring balance on your chicken loop and find out!

Just to nitpick, I think you mean force, not power.

I would've thought they use computer models to design the kites, which surely would calculate the forces at play anyway as part of the process.

Maybe they just draw them, and go 'yeah, that looks cool - do a yellow one' and then hope it flies better than last year's.

Try this simulator: www.flysim.com/kitesim/kitesim_features.html

It has a nice force gauge feature

think about it like this: a couple of days ago I went wakeboarding behind a mates 3.5m tinny... I edged out to the one side, not to hard, but nearly flipped the boat because it got pulled sideways at speed. When kiting in desend wind, the kite pulls you fine, with out struggle, depending on size. MUST have heaps of power!!

less than the breaking strain of your front lines combined and more than you weigh. so about y do you want to know its not like it changes anything.

Static Kite in 20Kn of wind with:
Lift co-efficient of 1.5 (angle of attack at 5 deg)
Air density of 1.3 kg/m3
Surface area 12m2
Lift force = 278 pound force

Just an example. Depends on wing profile, air density, CL etc.
Defiitely enough power to defy gravity. I'm sure I've been lifted off the water at some stage.

Enough to power a small lituanian city I'd say

quote:

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Originally posted by kkiter

Static Kite in 20Kn of wind with:
Lift co-efficient of 1.5 (angle of attack at 5 deg)
Air density of 1.3 kg/m3
Surface area 12m2
Lift force = 278 pound force

Just an example. Depends on wing profile, air density, CL etc.
Defiitely enough power to defy gravity. I'm sure I've been lifted off the water at some stage.

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how can you get a force in pounds when your units are all kg an metres. doesn't make dimensional sense.

They used to use just two horses to rip people apart.

...enough to destroy careers, break up relationships, make you broke, and give an incredible rush of adrenaline and freedom

well here goes an example:
say a kiter of 90kg does a jump which carries him 10metres into the air and say this occurs in 2.5 seconds from point of liftoff to 10 metre height then we can work outt he average power generated by the kite over this jump.
firstly --> Potential Energy = mgh
= 90 x 9.81 x 10
= 8829 J
=8.829kJ

and --> Power = Energy/time
= 8.829/2.5
= 3.53kW

So 3.53 kW during this jump. that is quite alot of power and i'd say this sort of jump is achievable.

an initial indication anyway.....

(also for the old school people 3.53kW = 4.73hp)

5

quote:

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Originally posted by elliot
Ok, thanks. So, how much would one generate in the power zone?

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Not to be a nazi, but you need to be a little careful with your terms.

At a guess what you really want to ask is how much FORCE is provided by the kite at a given instant when it is in the "power zone".

(ie how much "pull" will the kite have)

At another guess, it is probably not much different from the magnitude of force that lifts a kiter during a jump, so you could (roughly) use hosko's example to calculate this too, hosko can do the math :).

Of course the numbers you will end up with are not particularly useful to compare with anything :)

shrug... the dynamics are not trivial

i feel about as much pull upwards in a well timed jump as i feel pull laterally when i loop the kite hard.

when im overpowered i tend to DIVE my kite into the power zone and drive it to the edge of the window rather than raise it upwards and be pulled off my edge.

ive only ever seen people blowing lines in jumps rather than throwing the kite through power zone (*that ive seen*)