A couple of times I have had my kite (Rhino 14m) at the end of the 5th line and it justs hovers on its back, leading edge forward, a few feet above the water. The tension seemed to be on the rear lines, not the 5th line. Has anyone else struck this, and any techniques for clearing it as with no tension on the front lines it inverts and wraps real easy! Cheers.

You just need to lengthen the fifth line a bit, if there is tension on the back lines when released. If it's quite windy, hovering above the water upside down is the normal result, but tension on the back lines is a no-no for sure. Having slack in the fifth line whilst kiting is not a problem. Within reason, the fifth line can be as slack as you want to make it, which will ensure that when released, only the fifth line will be under tension.

I've got a 14m and a 9m Rhino 07 and these suckers are a bit different from your standard fifth line kite. The factory default has the stopper ball well up the fifth line so that there is plenty of back line slack but in strong winds the 9m hovers way way up in the air. I've moved the stopper ball down so there is just a touch of tension so that it hovers just above the ground; like yours does now. You can position the red stopper ball wherever you like; if you're worried about it, shift it further up.

As you've discovered, these kites are really prone to inversions and line wraps if they end up on their back. The new Rebels have a bungee to stop these, I've been tempted to reverse-engineer something similar but worried that it would affect the performance. Instead, I use a suicide leash and only use the fifth line for unassisted landing. Still not perfect though if you let go of the bar while heading downwind at high speed, so no unhooked tricks in strong outgoing currents for me.

Having said that they are awesome kites, especially the smaller sizes, as long as the strut bladders don't fail, but that is another story :roll:

Simon

I forgot to say, don't lengthen the fifth line because it helps support the leading edge. Rhinos and Rebels are really sensitive to correct line lengths in the front and fifth lines.

Simon[/b]

yeah,it has been a common sight for the last couple of years - North kites getting ditched to the 5th then inverting endlessly (or self-destructing) in the current or in the impact zone.

Use the suicide leash to C/L , better option - don't chuck a kite to 5th line in strong current or waves - keep the tension on the lines as even as possible .... Unhook to ride - unhook to relaunch - just unhook, less mess.

Better still, dont stick with a company that makes kites with built in auto-invert .

in my opinion - North kites are absolutely shit for this reason - imagine a car manufacturer selling cars that continually jump out of gear and if you dont watch out the transmission will explode when it decides to jump into reverse :roll:

Thanks for the advice Shaun. Still a bit reluctant to ditch what is great kite for this one issue. Gotta be a fix I can engineer ...?

All kites are at risk of inverting or rolling if they have no line tension & they're upside-down on the water & downwind..... (North just seems to have designed kites with a predispositon to invert)

The suicide leash is a good way to stop your 5th line from deploying unnecesarily.

Best advice I can give you is always ride with line-tension in mind.

To truely understand the dynamics of the board vs line tension - unhook - control kite power with your board-speed not the chicken-rope.

Line tension hints: Kites fly better with 'apparent wind' - keep your speed up, stay smooth, avoid turning towards or under your kite if its flying slowly.... Remember, you follow the kite - the kite wont follow you, redirect the kite before you alter your speed or your course.

P.S. ( -this whinge directed at no-one inparticular )

All this Hybrid/Bow/Sle blabla, is just going further & further away from the simple need for a kite that flies sweet unhooked, & look how many people around now riding poo-stance :shock:

i always figured on the rhino 5th line system you need to have the 5th line setup so that when the bar has been released and everything has moved to the "on the leash" position there is still tension on the front lines. this stops the kite just flying upside down on the 5th..

it's been a while since i messed with my one but the tiny loops of line that keep the 5th held against the main need to be the right distance from the kite to catch the 5th stopper ball

craig

If you do invert a Rhino, it will fly off to the side that you are pulling, it will quickly crash and revert to normal. What usually happens though is the rear line you didn't pull will flip around the back of the kite so it is crossed around the other four.

e.g. Rhino 07 9m on fifth line
Rhino inverting

There are three possible solutions:
drift back to the beach,
fly back.... but the kite will tend to pull towards the crossed line,
carefully pull the the tangled line over the bar, which will require disconnecting the safety leash and the chicken loop (it works but I'm not sure I should recommend it, the potential for disaster if the kite powered up while you are doing it is huge)

If the fifth line is wrapped around the kite it's best to get back to shore while making sure there is not too much tension on the fifth line as it could wreck the kite.

In practise, I only ever end up in this situation when I'm learning new tricks and it is pretty rare.

There are two possible solutions that I am aware of stopping a five line flat kite from inverting or lines wrapping. One is the the bungees that the Rebel 08 has that prevents the rear line from flipping over the back of the kite. The other is the Ozone solution, a slack line connecting the fifth and front lines to prevent the kite from inverting and rolling around the fifth line.

Simon[/url]