Ground anchors for big kites
SLane33399
After having my arms almost pulled out of their sockets form holding onto
a 20 foot delta, can anyone suggest a suitable way of anchoring large
kites like this.
Up until now I've always been able to hitch the kite line to the towbar of
my car, but at Monmouth and other festivals, cars aren't allowed onto the
site.
bernhar...@dbag.ulm.daimlerbenz.com
In article <19970630215...@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
:-))
There are several other alternatives: - large sacks filled with sand (see
the "sandimals" of George Peters) - T-shaped steel profile with a length
> 40cm; available in good camping stores - on Fanoe I saw very large
v-shape profiles (one axis of the v at least 10cm large; these seemed to
be custom-made
Happy anchoring...
Bernhard
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AhClem0013
At the beach you can use dead-mans made frrom a small (18" x 9")board with
a short piece of thick rope attached.
Dig a hole a foot and a half or so deep and bury. The line then pulls at
an angle and the board holds fast. Works great. Remember to smooth your
hole out so you don't make the beach rough for buggy's!
total AoxomoxoA brought to you by. . .
. . . dean jordan
please buy * jordan air kites * every chance you get!
13
Steve Bateman
SLane33399 wrote:
>
> After having my arms almost pulled out of their sockets form holding onto
> a 20 foot delta, can anyone suggest a suitable way of anchoring large
> kites like this.
>
> Up until now I've always been able to hitch the kite line to the towbar of
> my car, but at Monmouth and other festivals, cars aren't allowed onto the
> site.
For my 2 11 foot bols I use 1" rebar, with about 2 feet pounded into the
ground. But that might be a bit much for you, don't know.
--
Steve Bateman
geokite at sprintmail dot com
Check out #kites on the IRC, Dalnet
Remove blue from address to respond
Flying along.
Zkyte
I have used a big dog stake - the kind that screws into the ground - to
hold a 252 flowform. If the pull is too strong you could use 2 (or more)
and split the load between (among) them. Having a long screw driver or
similar type bar gives you the leverage to screw it into hard ground.
Neil Baker
A dog stake is what I use with my large Stratoscoop!
Neil
David Gomberg
> After having my arms almost pulled out of their sockets form
>holding onto a 20 foot delta, can anyone suggest a suitable way of
>anchoring large kites like this.
Hard metal anchors (screws, poles, and buried discs) always
involve an element of risk. If they should pull loose, they can easily
hurt someone or damage property.
To reduce stress on body parts, we use straps, attached to the line
with caribeners, which slip under our "bums" (English for "butts').
Tieing yourself into a big kite this way also involves some risk, but
we find it provides maximum control, maneuverability, and a good
solid weight. Susan easily handles a 252 this way in strong winds
(although she once brought home some bruises on her behind that
her father saw and asked a number of questions about...).
The preferred method for static anchors is large sandbags. They
are easy to transport (empty) and if pulled, tend to slide rather than
fly. It's hard to hurt someone with a sandbag.
Hope that helps!
dg
--
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Gomberg Kite Productions, International
<http://www.orednet.org/~dgomberg/>
Peter Lynn Inflatibles at Factory-Direct Prices
Coreykite
As we continue this sharing of anchor ideas...
Please allow me to remind everyone that security is the key to safety.
Knowing what is downwind is just the first thing to consider.
Sand bags should be placed in the hole the sand was dug from to increase
the bag drag.
The bag should weigh LESS than the break strength of the line. If the
stresses get too much... a line snap is catastrophic. Everything drifts
away over ?????
If the bag is drug along the ground, the pressure is reduced and most of
us can catch up to100 pounds of sand bag.
Dog tethers and big kites make me shiver.
Not from excitment, but from dread.
I am just not confident of a dog stake and big winds.
I have seen them come unscrewed from solid earth in a big wind. At least
use 2 and connect them.
In 12 years of flying big kites every weekend on a beach just 500 feet
upwind from a freeway, I have never put a kite over the road or lost
anything.
Traffic gets real slow sometimes, but that seems a good trade.
Just wanted to sound like my dad.
aoxomoxoa core...@aol.com
Dan Weinreb
If the bag is drug along the ground, the pressure is reduced and most of
us can catch up to100 pounds of sand bag.
Dog tethers and big kites make me shiver.
Not from excitment, but from dread.
I am just not confident of a dog stake and big winds.
I have seen them come unscrewed from solid earth in a big wind.
As you point out implicitly here, when using a dog stake you must
consider what you're screwing it into. I almost lost a four-foot-high
fluted sled that was anchored to a dog stake at a beach, while we were
having a little local kite festival that was unfortunately visited
with very heavy winds. The kite waited until I walked away to do
something else, and then the stake pulled right out. Fortunately my
wife somehow grabbed it, and some gloved fliers ran over to walk it
down.
Elsewhere on the beach, a large kite (I think a double-pair of Lester
legs) was being anchored by a sandbag with the owners kid sitting on
it. That worked OK. Another person lost a big, and presumably quite
expensive, parafoil, which was last seen swimming towards Europe.
Neil Baker
I have to admit that the reason for getting a dog stake was to take some of
the strain off of my metal winch (well garden hose reel).
On one occation, the Stratoscoop ripped the winch (secured to the ground
with large tent hocks) from the ground, almost taking me out, as I was down
wind! The metal winch was quite heavy as well!
I've never flown in a decent wind since!
SLane33399
Thanks for the tips re dog stakes etc..
I have doubts about dogstakes having had one snap on me about a year ago,
due to metal fatigue, caused by trying to twist into too hard ground.
Now thinking of a combination of 'rebar' , rope and a climbing shackle,
anchored back to a dogstake as a last resort.
Andrew Beattie
Dan Weinreb <d...@odi.com> wrote:
>As you point out implicitly here, when using a dog stake you must
>consider what you're screwing it into.
You miss the point.
Things get overloaded and fail.
Generally(*), when a sandbag "fails", it just gets dragged a few feet. Things
happen fairly slowly, the problem can be rectified. No-one gets hurt.
Generally, when a groundstake fails, the immediate result is a very fast
moving, sharp and unyeilding projectile, capable of causing serious injury
to anything that happens to be in the way.
After this initial, explosive release of energy, your troubles may not be
over. Of the stake is heavy enough, it may well be able to provide
sufficient line tension to keep the kite flying for a considerable time,
while it drags across the country-side looking for expensive and fragile
things to damage, or a power-line to wrap round.
If someone accidentaly walks into a sand bag, they feel stupid.
If someone accidentaly walks into a groundstake, they feel the metal tear
their flesh.
Some noteable failures of ground stakes include:
The guy who anchored round a telegraph pole sticking out of the beach. His
parafoil wrenched it out of the sand and proceeded to drag it over the town.
(sorry - I can't remember the name of the person involved here)
Peter Lynn, who anchored to a wire fence. The kite pulled the fencepost
out of the ground. The wire in the fence held (with the post suspended).
The the next post was pulled out. Etc...
(*) Occasionaly the bag will fail - time to run after the kite...
Andrew
--
The advantage of MIME is that it lets you do dumb things much more easily.
Mark de Roussier
On 3 Jul 1997 18:27:13 +0100, gaf...@tug.com (Andrew Beattie) wrote:
>Dan Weinreb <d...@odi.com> wrote:
>>As you point out implicitly here, when using a dog stake you must
>>consider what you're screwing it into.
>
>You miss the point.
>
>Things get overloaded and fail.
>
>Generally(*), when a sandbag "fails", it just gets dragged a few feet. Things
>happen fairly slowly, the problem can be rectified. No-one gets hurt.
>
>Generally, when a groundstake fails, the immediate result is a very fast
>moving, sharp and unyeilding projectile, capable of causing serious injury
>to anything that happens to be in the way.
I'm happy to use a sandbag on a beach - infact, I doubt I'd ever use
anything else, sandbags just work better.
But unless the organisers of festivals held on fields ( where digging
holes has several problems ) are going to provide a dump truck of
sand/gravel for the participants ( not impossible, but I've never known it
done ), or some other form of attachment point, most folk ( me included )
are going to use a stake, so the practical issue becomes 'how can I use a
stake(s) with the maximum degree of safety/security?'.
1. Use a bigger one than you think you'd ever need. My standard stake
is a 65cm 'T' cross section marquee stake. As discussed elsewhere, you
really don't want this thing coming out. In fact, I'd say that from the
safety point of view, if you're using a stake you'd rather the line broke
than the stake lifted out. The alternative p.o.v. is to use as light a
stake as possible on the grounds that it'll do less damage when it flies
across the field. I disagree with this - if it's gonna go, you don't want
anything on the end of it, the line alone is bad enough. If it looked like
the stake was gonna lift and I couldn't do anything about it, I suspect
I'd prefer to cut the line. It hasn't happened yet :).
There are alternatives to stakes that I've seen but never used
personally - ground-plates for instance. The idea is that you have a metal
plate with holes in, and that you put small stakes into the holes. The
line attaches to the plate, which spreads the load.
Another multiple-stake technique is what I call a 'teepee' stake.
Basically, you put three stakes in, in a triangular arrangement, such that
the apex of the 'teepee' that they form is just above ground. You anchor
to all three stakes by attaching to a piece of line ( which could be a
sacrifice line ) that goes around the apex ( where the stakes cross over
).
2. Don't use a dogstake. Dogstakes are usually metal spirals. They
are inherently 'springy', i.e. under tension, they stretch. The tension on
your kiteline will vary. This combination will cause the stake to loosen.
Besides which, I've always had trouble getting *all* of the spiral into
the ground, and relying on just a couple of turns is just asking for
trouble.
3. Don't use a tent peg. I've seen one very experienced and
well-known flier anchor his large ( and expensive ) kite to a 15cm
tent-peg. As it happened, nothing went wrong. But I sure wouldn't want to
*rely* on it...
4. After you've hammered the stake in ( if you don't have to hammer
it in, its not big enough, or the ground's not firm enough - you might as
well hand-hold it ), attach some line to it and pull. Hard. Remember that
the wind will shift. Pull at a few different angles. If the stake moves,
either re-plant it a fair way away and try again, or give in and fly a
kite you can hand-hold.
5. Remember that the stake has lift and drag to contend with. Put it
in at a suitable angle.
6. Make sure your stake is visible. For nightflying, I have a small
strobe that I leave by the stake.
SHESKI BBS
Remember those favorite blue jeans you saved? Yeah, the pair that you're
gonna fit in again one day :P Go ahead and sew the bottoms closed and
you've got a strong sand bag.
Albert
shes...@aol.com
Zkyte
Why don't we see what happens if we drag $20.00 across a trailer park.
the *pegs* they use to hold down those mobile homes in all kinds of winds
ought to be able to hold a kite -- but maybe not in sand
Mark de Roussier
Caravan stakes ? Tried it. Doesn't work any better than the marquee stake,
its ( much ) more awkward to carry ( even taking account of the lump
hammer you need for the marquee stake ), you still have the problems of
springyness in the stake and not being able to get it all in the ground,
and they're more expensive over here - about 20ukp ( $30 ). When I found
myself using a 2ukp marquee stake as a lever to drive the caravan stake
in, I gave up on caravan stakes :). I agree that a well - seated caravan
stake will take alot of strain, they're just more difficult to use.
