SLAMMED - I Forgot to unhook

[ricki]

... unhook your kite leash before solo landing.

I first learned this after a horrific accident, it involved a guy solo landing using the "spin the kite" technique. The kite relaunched instead dragged him by the leash and slammed him into an 8 ft. high concrete seawall, up and across the street, slamming into the hood of a car and then getting thrown into a tree, the kiter, not the kite. Since that time a few years back, I've remembered to do this. I even remembered to do it today once but not the second time.

There is a lot more to solo landing and many different techniques. I really don't want to get into all the variations here. Competent assisted landing should be used if available.

The solo kite technique I used worked flawlessly over an hour earlier, with lots of control and some room for error. I've been doing the spin the kite technique since 2000 with reasonable success that improved substantially with flat kites. I also remembered to unhook the leash, which didn't effect the outcome of things that time. The wind was 13 to 18 mph side shore and I had a 12 m flat kite up.

I was coming in to get something and so wanted to land the kite. It didn't work out as planned. As I was working to secure it, the kite relaunched looping dragging me along at speed inland through an empty grass covered dune about a hundred feet in a few seconds. The chicken loop was unhooked and I was being dragged by the leash on my stomach. Once I tried to grab the leash attachment, unsuccessfully due to the ground rushing underneath, the dragging was almost done. I was dragged along head first, not looking ahead but downward hoping my helmet would help with any bad impacts along the way. Fortunately, I didn't hit anything too hard head first. Even though the bar was all the way out the kite stayed powered up perhaps because of a fouled line from something picked up off the ground, too many wraps from the looping, I don't know why.

I laid on the ground for a minute feeling for damage and not sensing any. I stood up looked over where a heroic tree had grabbed my kite, thanks tree! I looked down and wondered why my right ankle looked like a tennis ball and was bleeding. What did I hit? Never will know. I was very grateful not to have hit anything hard headfirst, helmet or no it could have been lights out in a coma or just lights out period. Still very grateful for that. Always wear a helmet and impact vest, always will too. Some helpful bystanders got the kite out of the tree, I pulled the lines back to me. The lady was in medicine and suggested calling the EMTs to avoid stomping around on the ankle which she thought was broken. Lucked out on that too, I hope, just some unknown soft tissue damage and a messed up shoulder. Photos tomorrow once I can get them off my phone.

Dodged another big one and "operator error" one more time. Try to use competent assisted landings and if you opt for solo, make sure you are well practiced (over ten years in my case apparently wasn't enough with the addition of some dumb mistakes) AND UNHOOK YOUR LEASH FIRST BEFORE LANDING!!!