door toby van www.kiteforum.com
On Saturday I was eyewitness of an accident which luckily ended without injuries. But we didn't know what the problem was, but then we figured out, what could have been the only solution.
When he launched the kite (10 sqm flat in about 17-21 knts) with a standard Naish Aero2 bar (not UDS like on the picture). The kite went up and he tried to depower it and couldn't push the bar up to depwer it. I only saw that he had power and was going after the kite. I saw the bar was close to his body, so he only needed to depower it. I sreamed "depower it" and then a 2nd guy grabbed his harness handle to hold him, and somehow they got a lot of power and flew behind the kite, not far, since he managed to release the quick release. That worked fine and he had a leash. So no-one got hurt.
I went up to him and asked why he didn't depower, and he said he couldn't. So we tried to find out the problem, and we are pretty sure that a part on the Naish bar caused the failure. On top and on under the bar are plastic/rubber parts, which help that the depower rope doesn't get worn out too fast. The top part was loose, so we figured that when he tried to push the bar away from him this part got stock in the hole so he couldn't push it all the way up to depower it.
Conclusion: precheck your gear and bar, if there is any loose part which could lock the depower, don't use it or get rid of that part.
Here a picture of the part which I mean:
I will let Naish know about this, maybe they have a better way so this won't happen again.
Greets
Toby
On Saturday I was eyewitness of an accident which luckily ended without injuries. But we didn't know what the problem was, but then we figured out, what could have been the only solution.
When he launched the kite (10 sqm flat in about 17-21 knts) with a standard Naish Aero2 bar (not UDS like on the picture). The kite went up and he tried to depower it and couldn't push the bar up to depwer it. I only saw that he had power and was going after the kite. I saw the bar was close to his body, so he only needed to depower it. I sreamed "depower it" and then a 2nd guy grabbed his harness handle to hold him, and somehow they got a lot of power and flew behind the kite, not far, since he managed to release the quick release. That worked fine and he had a leash. So no-one got hurt.
I went up to him and asked why he didn't depower, and he said he couldn't. So we tried to find out the problem, and we are pretty sure that a part on the Naish bar caused the failure. On top and on under the bar are plastic/rubber parts, which help that the depower rope doesn't get worn out too fast. The top part was loose, so we figured that when he tried to push the bar away from him this part got stock in the hole so he couldn't push it all the way up to depower it.
Conclusion: precheck your gear and bar, if there is any loose part which could lock the depower, don't use it or get rid of that part.
Here a picture of the part which I mean:
I will let Naish know about this, maybe they have a better way so this won't happen again.
Greets
Toby
