Kitesled sessions 2007

[Icebird]

Hi everyone,

We will be taking our kitesleds to the Main Range above Thredbo for some sessions this winter. If you are interested in having a go then email or call us and I will let you know when we are heading down that way...Phone numbers and contact page here.

Cheers: Pat

[Icebird]

Starting this weekend 23-24 June. (And yes, I know the wind forecast doesn't look too hot on that one!)

Pat

[goshen]

cool idea. i hope it goes well for you there in that mountainous terrain; be great to read how it goes, and see any pics. checked out the link you provided, love the 'porta-tent' - where you can just tow along a shelter behind the sled; what a great idea!

[kitefettish]

Quote from the web site "The IceBird kitesled removes the human body from this link in the chain,

moving it to the sled itself, where the combined weight of sled and person allows several times more power to be harnessed and radically improved

upwind performance to be achieved."

I take it that the kite is harnessed directly to the kite, do you have any detailed photos of this please.

Great web site too.

[Icebird]

Hi there,

See kitesled picture here:

We found that when towing a very heavily laden gear sled (pulk) a kiter needs a powerful kite, except the problem is that when a kiter on skis flies a very powered up kite they tend to get dragged downwind, and the pulk just follows them down. The kitesled weighs a few kilograms itself, and by having the pilot and gear centred over the kitesleds' skis it allows for impressive bite which, combined with the fact that there is no more friction when turning than when straight running mean that it can really go hard upwind (in almost any snow or ice conditions) and goes blisteringly fast when on a broader reach.

Regarding kite attachment: Through the use of a really snug, deep buggy-like seat and steering foot bar arrangement we are able to connect the kite to the pilot as per usual (ie: harness), but still allow a very clean transmission of the kites power through to the kitesleds' runners without yanking the pilot out when he didn't want to be. It was important to keep it this way for the sake of launching (and avoiding the need to re-launch in fickle winds) as well as to provide a sort of "punch out" option for the pilot in the event of a crash (see a kitesled crash in this video)

This "clean transmission of power" allows some really amazing performance, On a recent trip to Norway I had it cruising in the 50-60km/h speed range all the time, even through drifts, slush and low sastrugi.

(following text is an excerpt from an email I sent to the kitesleds' designer recently)

I powered it with a Venom 10 which has a huge wind range on snow, starting underpowered, the sled

would accelerate rapidly and hit a powerband when the kite got more apparent wind…faster and faster, then I would carve a low fast carving turn (sometimes on one ski) which barely bleed any speed before hurling me into an even faster run on the new tack. If you downlooped the kite and steered downwind you just about left your head behind….

On a good surface it also went reallyreallyreally close to the wind with out losing much speed. I let a bunch of other Norweigians try it, but many of them were flying beringer skiseils which limited the kitesled's abilities (Skiseils have very short lines and a narrow wind range…as soon as the sled sped up the skiseil would be overpowered and pull the sled off downwind)

I pushed the thing so hard up some hills that when it came time to ride down, the gravity-induced speed gave me so much apparent wind that I would have to veer straight downwind, or send the kite and "eject" (This was a useful feature…one time I hit a leaning pressure ridge on a frozen lake, got into a rolling jump and sent the kite to get out of the looming messy crash, as I climbed into the stratosphere I glimpsed the sled cartwheeling like a tomahawk in space below me)…and talk about tough…I pranged that thing all the time and it still looks new(ish)

I'm looking at being on The Main range above Thredbo 21-22 July, come and try it for yourself if you want. Pat

[Icebird]

Oh dear, silly me, the picture I linked to shows the 05 prototype, which had a silly little seat, subsequent models have the bigger body-hugging seat set-up I mentioned.

Pat

[gohard]

How hard is it to direct and steer ? Great design.

[Icebird]

G'day next kitesled testing session happening on the main range behind Thredbo this weekend 22-23 sept. Come along if you feel like a backcountry snowkite session. It's just me, a sled, and a stack of kites at this stage...I might camp out, I might not...will see. Anyone into heading down and want to combine cars? The forecast looks pretty good, should be a good one.

give us a bell...

Pat

0438842343