4 line? - Relaunch and keep riding

5 line? - I would love to know cause it's a PITA when it happens.

Right's left, Left's Right, so don't worry about the lines if the kite is flying turn the bar around and ride back somewhere safe or back to the beach and get it sorted, flagging to the safety can work, but can also tie things up in knots. So heading to the beach is normally the best option.

All kites behave differently inverted. In my experience most are difficult at best to fix easily. I'll have to admit that most times it happened to me, I ended up flying it inverted back to shore and sorted out there.

By flying it I mean I had it somewhat powered up and heading/dragging me back to shore. control was a tenous thing.

By far the easiest thing is to learn what inverts the bloody things and just don't do it. My biggest problem was stalling and rolling the kite on the water when adjusting my harness or something out the back. If I let it sit fully depowered on the water and hands off the bar, it invarably stalled and rolled, especially if gusty. Now I ensure I pull on the stopper and have plenty of power pulled on if I need to sit it on the water for a bit. It never stalls in that situation, and I haven't inverted a kite for years now.

Its when the canopy of the kite turns inside out, the rebel you have is prone to it without the little extra line that runs up to your pump leash connection, with the rebel they seem to invert if you accidentally send it through the window and suddenly let go of the bar. It can be exciting to watch when someone is getting smashed around by there kite for a few seconds.

He does seem to know a fair bit about the rebels definitely worth sending him a pm to check if the model you have is one that is affected. Most people don't have issues with them. there not as bad as some of the old bows. Not sure, but i think he goes under AKSonline now. But get in contact with who you got the kite from first to see if they know. Dont be to concerned, i have only seen it happen half a dozen times last year with the rebels, 90% of people dont have the issue.

if your kite isnt pumped up enough, it tends to increase the chances of your kite inverting.... if it dose invert just keep kiting, when we do down winders and if it happens we just keep kiting.

watkins said...

Hmm. Doesn't sound exciting if the person hanging onto the kite is me! I checked out my Rebel the other day to see if it had that extra line you were talking about and it doesn't. Do you think the shop where I bought would know about that setup, or do you reckon I should message Kitehard (was that the name you said?).

I haven't had a chance to fly the rebel yet. When there has been a bit of a breeze I've been working and when I've had the time to fly it, there's been no wind! Soon.

Hi Watkins,

Yep, I'm here under both AKSonline and also Kitehard (my alter ego [}:)])

Let me know what model and size you have and I'll see if I have a line in stock to fit. If not, It's really easy to fix. All you need to do is connect a length of flying line from the start of the "Y" and run it up to the pump lanyard connection loop.

You need to fly the kite a few times to adjust the length so that it is just slightly under tension when flying. It's pretty easy to do and I have jury rigged the same thing for guys whilst on holidays away from my stock parts with an old snapped line.

You are also welcome to call me if you're not sure on what to do 0433 982 696

The other thing is that the problem didn't happen to all riders. It was most prevelent with heavier riders in really powered conditions when they would biff the kite through the wind window whilst sheeting the bar all the way out.

With the omission of the centre strut and lack of support for the centre part of the Leading Edge, the centre of the LE would fold up over the top of the canopy and cause the canopy to fold back on itself. Throwing kite loops caused this repeatedly IF the conditions were windy, the rider heavy, and leading edge not hard enough.

Another contributing factor was the pink 5th line above the bar would often end up under tension once front lines had stretched, dislodging the ball at the "Y" from its seat and allowing the front "Y" line to be under more load than it should be in relation to the front flying lines when the bar sheeted out. This is easily fixed by lengthening the 5th line at the three adjustment knots about 6 or so metres up from the bar.

Like I said, we sold plenty of Rebels and only had a few issues with the heavier riders. Once we did the bridle mods, the issue was sorted.

Cheers,

DM
Send me the info and I'll see what I can do for you.

Dew this

BTW that hurt like hell but it worked lol... Noobler Mistakes are fun.

^^^^ Ouch!

I certainly don't reccommend flying your kite inverted. It puts a lot of extra strain on the leading edge which can lead to a blowout. You don't want a blowout, especially when you are far out! The best thing to do is to try and get your kite flying in the right position, even if your lines are crossed. It's still just about as easy to fly your kite with crossed lines..