ok i know you should get someone to help you launch and land.

on the odd time theres no one there whats your technique.

1) hover the kite a couple of feet up at the edge of teh window and pull the front lines followed by the top front line.
2) pull the safety
3) use a strop tied to a log?
4) something else??

presuming its a nice clean solo landable wind.

You should pull the safety. Completely eliminates any relaunching issues and is the safest way.
Otherwise if you can park on your beach like i can, i attach the kite to the tow hook on my wagon and then run to the kite and catch it.

Differs slightly between 4 and 5 line but all involve the leashed or safety line. With 4-line you sometimes have to put it on the correct side of the kite before launching. Especially if the beach is narrow or depending on the wind direction. So you have to think about landing at a site before attaching the lines to launch. I have it so that the safety or leashed line highest away from the ground when the kite is on the edge preparing to land. 5th line it doesn't matter so much.

Here's my take on it.

To land a 4liner is similar to a c-kite. Start by removing the chicken loop retainer(preparing to unhook).
Bring the kite to the edge where the safety or leashed line is the high side away from the ground.
With a hand on the leashed line leader bring the kite to the edge about 1-2m off the ground
In one fluid motion. Dive the kite to the ground, depower and release the bar, unhook the chicken loop while stepping forward.
Once the leading edge touches the ground and the bar is released, take a step back pulling on the safety line.
(If it suddenly gusts or is really windy and the kite won't stay down under it's own weight, get downwind quickly before the kite picks up and rolls downwind)

Some 5-line SLE's you can rest the leading edge on the ground with the kite on the edge of the window, unhook and let go the bar while holding on to the 5th and simply step back. Depends on the kite though. My 5 line Ozone edge lands great this way.
(Again if it suddenly gusts or is really windy and the kite won't stay down under it's own weight, get downwind quickly before the kite picks up and rolls downwind)

Most manufacturers now have vids if not on Youtube describing the metod best used for their kite..

I just lower my kite to the edge of the window and turn it into the ground. Grabbing the near front line, especially on a windy day, gives a better chance it won't "bounce" and travel downwind before coming to rest... It can be tricky on a very windy day however...

Launching is much easier, and easier the windier it is. Just rotate your kite away from your bar a bit so it catches the wind better. Tension the lines and pull the near back line (just rotating the bar is enough when windy). If you are about 15 degrees upwind or so the kite will tilt up and drag downwind a bit before launching. On non-windy days you may need to be 45 degrees or so upwind to avoid it dragging too far.

Best to watch it on youtube or in your local kiting area!

i just land it on one end and walk up the kite by holding onto the front lines. i've done this in 40 knots with a 7m waroo at EB at high tide.... so i'm confident the method works lol

bloody facebook lol..... logged me into this site as one of my old BANNED usernames haha... stupid technology. How do you delete posts? bloody FB won't let me log on as this username. Hey plummet you were at EB the other day? you da dude from da naki eh. haha

I allways used to kite solo. another method ive used for self landing etc is weigh an old board down with sand rocks etc and attach a leash to it so you can self land any kite... including C kites.

yeah that was me bro. the dude on the ozone.

interesting info.

walking up the lines in 40 knots wowa!!! gonads of steel.

i'm doing option one on my list. it light wind that is. guster good tip. i'll have the kite ready to dump on the safety if the front stall doesn't work.

95% of the time tho there's someone to help me land anyway.

not sure i trust the tie it ot a log method. i've had my kite at sitting on the edge before and had it waft back in a lull and the power up... eek.

must have been the good old days when i used to kite alone all the time hehe. i gotta admit to being a pansy lately with all these safe kites haha. back in da day we just used to put the old c kite onto the rear line safety and enjoy the show... but now the pull on the bows is so little when depowered you can actually hold the front lines with your bare hands... real easy to learn haha

anything that works and is safe, but neva b affraid 2 ask 4 help,u may get an angry look but nobody realy minds catchin kites,its funny watchin people avoid eye contact when its cold n rainy and some poor bugger needs a catch on the beach, u can try drownin the kite in the surf if theres no one around, this also works in high wind with small kites, but b ready 2 chase it , have fun b safe.

Depending on the wind speed really.

I'm often alone when kiting on my stretch of the beach, so I'm used to launching/landing solo, it's really not that big of a deal when you're good at it.

If the wind's lower, then I simply swing the kite as if in a pendulum jump, but keep it going out the side of the window and move behind it so it dips and hits the sand leading edge down.

If it's a bit windier, bring it down onto it's edge, keep the 'top' line tight and walk round behind it, it falls to the beach and stays there.

I've not tried just using the safety, as it often ends up laying on it's back and just floats away when I walk towards it, but I'll see if I can get it to sit down next time I go out.

Ground Anchors

One method I find good is use of a ground anchor
- setup kite and lines
- hook chickenloop to anchor via a carabina
- take kite to window edge until it rest on its end and stops moving about
- follow line back to kite, hook in and fly

- landing, bring to windows edge, wait till it settles, then unhook to anchor

Max wind I've used in is 25kn

Saw a guy using one, he pointed me to trademe @ $30, I got the heavy duty one
Use a short broom stick to wind it into the ground, and stick that into the ground with a ribbon so no one wacks their toe on the anchor.

www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Outdoor-ga...uction-284936771.htm

Ta .. Aub

the problem i see with the ground anchor method is with gusts/lull. i;ve had my kite sitting at the edge of the window and a lull comes through the kite floats back in the window tilts towards the zenith and if left uncheck it will rocket up towards the zenith when the following gust comes through.

i wouldn't like to be half way through this process when that happened.