Authors: Peter Lynn
Date Submitted: February 28, 2007
Article Type: Journal

It might be better for me if I didn’t talk about this. It was a bad mistake, but on the other hand, maybe I can slip a bit of positive spin with this version.

Anyway, the basics are that a train of kites I was flying at Andalo in the Italian Alps made a five kilometer run for it through the forest canopy over to the next valley before being recaptured. An eight-meter Pilot, a Maxi Ray, a Maxi Trilobite, and a Maxi Penguin made up the train. No one was injured, there was not much damage to things or kites, but it definitely ranked in the top five most dramatic kite accidents I’ve been a part of in 30 years of event flying.

The wind was strong—-up to 60 kilometers an hour in gusts (couldn’t hold onto the Pilot by myself at times), but surprisingly steady for an inland alpine location. I’d tied the train off to the foundation of an office servicing an adjacent climbing wall by lashing around the 80mm by 80mm foundation timbers that crossed at each corner, and, for security, had rigged a 2,000kgm Dyneema loop around a substantial fence post by the upwind corner.

PDF Link: Journal Issue