robmueck

Forecast is for strong (dangerous) gusty winds. I am keen but don't want to go by myself. I'll be in Woolongong for the first half of the day but wouldn't mind doing the afternoon on the lake. I haven't been before. Anyone?

Good question. I would like to know also. I guess too long is better than too short, and there is likely to be some variation. I guess the quality tolerance on the black plastic bosses was average.

Very informative. How I understand it now is that all kites have lift. The pull on the strings of different kites is experienced differently at different wind speeds because of the the other forces in the complex. So, thank you.

Thanks for the ABC site. It does include wind strengths. I understand what you are saying about seabreeze versus prevailing winds. How bizarre. The ABC forecast for Canberra on Sunday starts with 6km/h wind yet here is the coastal waters forecast from the bom. Illawarra Coastal Waters, Port Hacking to Ulladulla and 60nm seawards: Strong Wind Warning. Friday until midnight: Wind:W/NW 5/10 knots, tending N/NW 10/15 knots in the afternoon and freshening to 15/20 knots chiefly offshore later ahead of an overnight SW 20/30 knots change. Sea:about 1 to 1.5 metres rising to 2 to 3 metres overnight. Swell:SE 1 metre. Saturday: Wind:S/SW 25/33 knots. Sea:to 3 metres. Swell:S 2 to 3 metres increasing. Sunday Outlook: Wind: S/SW 20/30 knots easing to 10/20 knots. Monday Outlook: Wind: NW/NE 10/15 knots. South Coastal Waters,Ulladulla to Gabo Island and 60nm seawards: Strong Wind Warning. Friday until midnight: Wind: W/NW 10/15 knots freshening to N/NW 15/20 knots, ahead of S/SW change 25/33 knots extending from the south later in the afternoon and evening. Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres rising to 2 to 3 metres later. Swell: SE 1 metre increasing later. Saturday: Wind: S/SW 25/33 knots. Sea: to 3 metres. Swell: S 3 metres increasing. Sunday Outlook: Wind: S/SW 20/30 easing to 15/20 knots. The wind on Saturday and Sunday will be a prevailing wind, why so different from Canberra to the coast?

I would like to learn more about the science of buggying, kiting. In other threads either here or on other forums a distinction been made between lift and pull. Some kites are suppossed to have more lift than others. I seem to have experienced this. I predominatly use cquads but have also used foils. I seem to be able to keep my bum in the seat a lot better with a cquad. I don't understand the physics of it though. I understand the aerodynamics of lift as air passes over an aerofoil. How can I have the same vector but one is lift and another pull?

I have a long and sad story about my 6.3m cquad. When it came out of the bag it was great. One very happy buggier. Then after a while the leading edge started to buckle in under load. Made some enquiries and came across the Peter Lynn article on cquad bridling. This is where it goes pear shaped. In my arrogance, and armed with only the article, I thought that I would make a new adjustable bridle, bought some dyneema and proceeded to make a new bridle using individual bits of string, all with a series of knots in the end all joined to the next layer of the bridle with those (larks head?) slip loop thing a ma jingys. Anyway I spent the next two years in vain trying to get the thing to fly. Until God took pity on me and I met someone who had an identical kite, in original condition. Unbelievably generous, Peter offered to measure all the components of the bridle and send me the plan. So, now I at least have the bridle back to a flying state. You would think I would be satisfied. I do not know if I had a slightly different bridle to start with or I have been spoilt by the 4m cquad I subsequently got, but I am still hoping for more out of the 6.3. My memory of the kite, was that it used to luff nicely without any braking, have loads of grunt and heaps of control with a little braking and would back up completely when the brakes where applied fully. This is my current experience of the 4m cquad. The 6.3 doesn?t luff at all, even with heaps of slack in the brake lines. I thought I might use the measurements from the bridle to plot the profile of the kite in MS Excel or Visio. The idea of this was that I could experiment with different bridle lengths on the computer to see what effect it had on the profile. Trying to do this out on the field is difficult because you can?t actually see what it is doing to the profile when you are flying the kite and it is time consuming and confusing making incremental and infinite adjustments. The problem is I don?t have the trigonometric skill I had 25 years ago. Can anyone help? Is there a kite design program out there that will assist in bridling design. Does anyone have the skill to write a formula/s that will plot a spar profile from the bridle lengths?

What page at the BOM? Its a big site and the ACT forecast doesn't seem to show the wind predictions any more than a day in advance.

Whats the best site to get a wind forecast for lake george. Looks like a strong southerly over the weekend. Busy on Saturday but thinking of doing Sunday

Tani and I are planning of coming doown tomorrow afternoon and staying overnight. What's the forecast?

Well done Gav. Very easy to use.

Why don't you visit anyway and try a buggy. I am sure between us you will get a go in one. I am taking two and would be happy for you to have a go.

Glad to hear someone else from Sydney is going down. We are going down for both days. Weather is looking a little unsettled. What say you sparky.

I think that requires a certain amount of confidence in your own skill. I've read reports that some snow skiers/boarders are using their kites to take themselves up the slope where they then leave the side of the mountain and use the kite to paraglide back to the bottom. Have you ever turned your back to your kite and tried flying it facing the way you would if you using it as a paraglider. It is so counter intuitive for me that I can't keep the kite in the air.

See you there. I am bringing my son. I'll probably spend most of my time coaching him. I am looking forward to meeting you all. We'll be down on Saturday and need somewhere cheap to camp overnight.

Take the cancelled off the thread heading. Lets see if we can organise a meet.

I am lucky enough to live close by. I discovered how much fun the golf course was by using one twilight after the tide forced me off the beach. As it happened it was a few days before the full moon and I just kept playing long after twilight. That first time the greenkeepers were doing some night work. After I finished I approached them and we talked. If they had to give an official response the answer would be no. They asked me to keep the slides, spins etc to the rough and not on the fairways. I've been there every full moon since. After each full moon session I go for a dawn jog and I have not seen any impact on the course. I can't see any evidence I've been there and I know where to look. I appreciate the work that goes into maintaining the golf course, I know to stay off the greens and out of the bunkers. The golf course is used every dawn and twilight by many dog owners. Just as there is an implicit agreement between these users and the golf club I believe that we can expect the same. The wind is quite locally variable around the course. I had trouble on Monday night but because the wind was too strong. I usually launch my CQuad by leaning it against a suitable bush. In the end I had to go down to the beach, launch it there and then bound/bounce over the dune to my buggy that I left on the fairway. Next time I am going to take some ballast sand bags to place on the trailing edge so that I can launch it from the GC. I had a ball on Monday night. It was very bright and the wind was smooth and strong. Car parks are a worry. I have seen a car broken into at the long reef car park. What can you do? Hopefully see you there next month.

After being cloudy all day its looking good for tonight. Will be there at 8pm.

Guesssing you are new to the area or this site. Have you checked the locations button/facility on this site? Long Reef is probably 3/4 hours drive away from the eastern suburbs. If the sky is clear enough I'll be flying on the full moon.

It's looking unlikely for me. If I can make it it will only be for the one session. Too much work. Not enough play. How dull.

No takers. I am still going to Newcastle but its become a family friendly weekend. Friday is off. I'll go to Stockton (park) Saturday hoping for a breeze. If there isn't one then I try again Sunday. Some time during the weekend I'll take the family on a non kite excursion to Stroud. The rest of the time I'll be behaving like a sad case around Stockton.

Have fun.

I'll be there Saturday. Possability I'll be there Saturday & Sunday. Staying with family locally.

I am going to go buggying regardless on Sept 9-11. I had suggested this gathering based around the Stockton bight area, i.e. anywhere from Port Stephens to the central coast, inland or beach. Low tide is either early morning or late afternoon so the dates aren?t ideal for beach buggying. There is an invite for the following weekend at Anna Bay when low tide will be the middle of the day. I don?t know if to cancel the Stockton gathering for the 9-11 and go to Jervis Bay for those dates. If there was enough interest I would prefer to keep the date at Stockton. I plan to use either the parks at Stockton during the middle of the day or go and find another inland venue, I think there is likely to be one. If no one is interested within the next week then I'll abandon Stockton and head south. Anyone?

Mic pointed out to me last night that the tides are all wrong for these dates. See the data below for Newcastle. Fri 9 Time Ht 0504 0.44 1138 1.54 1759 0.54 2350 1.26 Sat 10 Time Ht 0542 0.51 1225 1.53 1902 0.57 Sun 11 Time Ht 0050 1.15 0630 0.59 1323 1.52 2020 0.57 That means short, late afternoon sessions on the beach and the rest of the time inland. I am wondering what people's preferences are. Mine is to keep the dates the same and try and make do with what ever open areas we can find. If however everybody says hell no make it the following weekend when low tide is in the middle of the day I won't argue. There are some flat harder areas behind the first row of dunes that could be suitable during high tide. A 4wd back up vehicle, of which I don't have, would be handy.

Mic turned up. The breeze that had been blowing all day dropped off late afternoon. I tried some downhill mountainboarding, something I have never done before. The breeze teased us enough to open a 9m frenzy which was ok for downhill runs but not enough for the uphill runs. We are looking forward to the next full moon.