The Wind
If you are just starting out with power kites, or are just interested in recreational flying, a basic understanding of the wind and wind speeds may be enough to get by. However, if you're interested in Buggying then a little more knowledge is required.
Wind strength changes depending on weather conditions, location, direction and time of year. An unfortunate fact of Buggying is that a single kite will not be appropriate for all conditions.
The majority of people when starting out think that bigger is better. Quite the opposite is true. I have a set of traction kites which range from 2m to 9m. The fastest I have ever been in my buggy is while using my 2m kite. The kite I use the most is probably my 4m. The 9m kite hardly gets used at all.
The size of kite you use on any particular day is determined by your weight and the wind conditions; smaller kites for windy days, larger kites for light winds on lazy summer days. When you're learning, stick with small kites and light winds.
An important concept that will aid your learning curve is the wind window. The wind window can be imagined to be a virtual region of air space directly in front of the buggy pilot when they have their back to the wind. It extends in front of and to the sides of the flyer and its radius is given by the length of the kite lines.
The kite will develop maximum lift at the center of the wind window and minimum lift around its edges. This size of the arrow indicates the power generated by the kite in the diagram below.
If you try and take your kite outside of the wind window, either too far to the side or too far overhead, it will tend to fold and drop out of the sky.
The direction in which you can travel in a buggy is directly dependant upon wind direction. Wind direction is measured where the wind is coming from, therefore a northerly describes wind which is coming from the north blow to the south.
When in a buggy, the possible directions you can travel can be seen in the diagram below.
It's not really that important to know the names of the directions at this point, but the directions themselves and the fact that you cannot travel directly into the wind.
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