Speed Kite length

[Ambrose21]

I have an HQ Ninja speed kite on 100 feet of line. today the beach reported wind speeds of 14 mph online. It must have been much more. The kites pull was so powerful it was incredibly hard to control. should I shorten my line, because it wasn't fun to fly.  100 feet seemed like a lot. I also splintered my carbon tube spine so am replacing it with a carbon rod instead. flying today was ridiculous.

[Paul LaMasters]

Speed brakes are your easiest solution, a little "rectangle of venting material", held/attached between your kite's bridle and the flying lines.  Bigger wind? add more of these devices in-line!

A famous long lasting dual line kite team is End of the line Austin, TX together for literally decades.  In big wind they use a vented kite, hugely thick flying lines (300# test) and several of these speed brake devices together to tame that savage beast enough to create controlled team flying of figures and ballet movements.  When you are a hired-gun you need to shoot to kill and be ready when that time comes!  They have a whole trailer filled with equipment, crew and comfort requirements to make something happen, even in a dead calm or when the porta-potties are blowing over.

if you want it slower, there are some solutions to consider.  Shorter lines make things happen quicker, that's not going to help you out.

[Breezin]

Speed kites are best on longer lines. Use 100' x 150# on my HQ Delta Hawk but really need a 140' x 200# set. 120' to 150' would make your kite easier to deal with. Sounds like the winds were a heck of a lot more than 14. Delta Hawk has a similar pull to the Ninja according to the HQ chart. My 10 year old grandson has flown it in 25/26 although not for long. Kite is wicked fun.A lot of videos show folks flying speed kites on their butts. That's cheating . Approach the kite like hand to hand combat. Not sure how the different spine will affect flight other than being more flexible.I'd stay with the stock one. Kite is designed to be stiff with a flat sail to go as FAST as it can. After the adrenaline fueled fear/rush of flying a kite like that in 30 mph winds it's very relaxing.Either that or you are just freaking TIRED!!

[mebeatee]

It's not going to make the kite go faster, but with shorter lines you're going to greatly diminish your reaction time as things will happen way faster and a hard crash will certainly occur. Longer and heavier lines will increase your reaction time and add some more drag to slow it down a bit but really you'll need "brakes" as suggested.

bt

 

[makatakam]

Your kite will fly faster on shorter lines because of reduced drag. The kite pulls less line along with itself. Any time you decrease drag you increase speed -- not always noticeably, depending on how long the lines were originally and by what percentage the length was shortened. If you want to give yourself more time to give the kite control inputs, lengthen the line to 1.5 times the original length. This will reduce its speed by 20 to 25 percent, depending on a few other factors that also influence performance.