There's another thread on here with some heated disscusion about tethered or drag launching.

When I had lessons the instructor was not keen on the drag method. He taught me to fold over the tip of the kite and cover it with heaps of sand. Then walk to the bar ready to grab the front lines if it looks suss. Its just a matter of hooking in, powering up the kite a little, the sand starts to fall away and the kite pops up nicely when the tip comes free of the sand. I do this in wind less than 25 knots.

The kite never scapes along the sand risking damage.

Anyone else using this method?

I'm keen to hear the opinions of the pannel of experts.

the method you describe is how I used to self launch c kites, it is effective but unnecessary with bridled kites . I fly a bridled hybrid delta shape now and use the roll over method. I self launch 95% of the time. Once you figure out how to launch this way properly there is very little dragging of the kite. It is very safe and does not damage the kite on sand. The key is to not try to launch right on the side of the wind window, rather slightly down wind. The angle should be adjusted according to wind conditions. In stronger wind you launch closer to the edge of the window. When you do it properly the kite should roll over on its axis and pop up with very little dragging. If you are inexperienced at this you should avoid using this method in strong wind.

Thanks for input.

The kite I am using is a 2011 10m Fone bandit 3.

I have had a bit a play with the roll over or drag launch (same thing?) after watching some utube vids and other people doing it.

I found the Fone is not happy sitting on its leading edge and pointing into the wind like other kites seem to do. It wants to flutter and float backwards on the sand. I thought about trying a bit of sand on it when a bloke came up to me and said he flies Fones and they don't lend themselves to that type of launch very well and are a pr!ck of a thing to self land.

Whenever I've had to self land it I've just flagged it out by unhooking it and pulled myself up to it on the front strings. Is that OK? If its not too windy I drop the leash so the bar doesn't follow and bunch up the strings.

Yeh the sand method was used ages back. My kite is pumped up nowadays so hard don't want to bend or roll over the leading edge.

To add helps before you launch to turn the kite a little so the downwind wing gets a bit of air in it. Also tho may seem a little strange bit sometimes I go up to the kite face the wind and draw a line I. The sand then another at right angles. I then follow the right angles then just slightly downwind of it as said before. When you launch then the kite rols bit falls forward a little allowing any twisted lines seaweed etc to get out of the way. Then a pull on the bottom back line to lift it. Seems to a avoid the chance of it falling back into the wind and rolling back the other way might help.