Am getting super curious What TF is a "Launch Pad" and if I wanted one, what do they do ? are they an unnecessary gimmick ? Do they fit into the KISS theory and finally who stocks em?

Tried that but my computer wasn't powerful enough........... Give me a link

waveslave said...




Best's new trailing edge stabiliser

What you use if you have no friends

It's got merit but I would think it could be too abrassive to your kite?

With small loose bits of sand between the bag and the kite, on take off the weight of the bag would scrape the loose sand hard against your material. With loose sand it just sort of rolls off.

I only occasionally self launch my bow kites but will be sticking to loose sand, which - would be a little less abrassive i reckon.

10 points for giving it a crack tho.

if you are going to shovel sand in to a bag and then put it on the wing tip why not just put it straight on the wing tip??
are you realy saving time or energy by putting it in a bag first?? just more stuff to get lines and bridle stuck on.... i thought you liked the KISS idea waveslave??

Damo said...

if you are going to shovel sand in to a bag and then put it on the wing tip why not just put it straight on the wing tip??
are you realy saving time or energy by putting it in a bag first?? just more stuff to get lines and bridle stuck on.... i thought you liked the KISS idea waveslave??

The KISS idea would be have your mates launch you,
Not some god-dam kite tampon.

Damo said...

if you are going to shovel sand in to a bag and then put it on the wing tip why not just put it straight on the wing tip??
are you realy saving time or energy by putting it in a bag first?? just more stuff to get lines and bridle stuck on.... i thought you liked the KISS idea waveslave??

Self-launching with LaunchPad (Pat.Pend.) is nothing like launching with a pile of sand on your wingtip.
The best way that I can describe it is that it's like that party-trick ...
the trick where you whip the tablecloth out from underneath the tablesetting (without disturbing anything).
lol.
The kite is the tablecloth of course,
and the 'sausage-bag' is all the plates and glasses and cutlery and stuff.
The other bag which I call the 'anchor-bag' is clipped to the sausage-bag ...
this bag acts as resistance and prevents the sausage from getting taken along for a ride by the kite during the launch.
In theory, both bags don't move a millimetre when launching the kite.
The system was borne in Gnaraloo out of necessity due to the hazardous environment.
If you've ever self-launched at Gnaraloo, you'll know how sketchy it is.