HQ Eliminator Harness FAQ's
PS
- All Joe's opinions are his own.
KitesOnline is not responsible for any advice,
opinions, or comments Joe makes.
He is simply trying to help his fellow kite fanatics,
and receives no compensation from us for his efforts.
Warning: Safe Use
is YOUR Responsibility Question: July 17, 2001:
How does the Eliminator Harness Work?
This depends on what you're going to use
it for. I do kite jumping and kite lifting. In the case
of the former I use the harness as if it were the seat on
a playground swing. In the case of the latter;I use the
harness as a means of attaching the kite to an anchor (my
jeep), which means all I have to do is steer the kite. I
should also tell you that my harness came without
instructions so I learned by trial and error. You'll have
to guess which harness will fit you best. I have a
35" waist and the XL fits me perfectly.
 Figure 1 |
First, consider figure 1
This is the harness lying flat on the floor with
the inside facing up.
Think of this as a seat in which you're going to
be sitting.
Your butt is going right in the middle of that.
See those two thin straps going from the harness
to the bottom
of the figure? Those are going to go under your
groin,
come up between your legs and go over your thighs
in front of you.
One of the straps is going to go around your
waist.
The two thick straps are going to hold the
attaching bar to the harness. |
 Figure 2 |
Okay. Now let's look at the
harness from the back figure 2.
If you look at this picture you'll see two
pencils inserted into the harness.
I'm showing this because this is a non-standard
method, as you'll see
in later pictures. I thread a plastic-covered
steel cable through there
and attach the cable to the two hooks on my jeep.
I've been pulled and lifted in some pretty good
winds and the harness
has never suffered by my threading the cable
through there.
For all I know, it may have been designed with
that in mind.
**FOOTNOTE from KitesOnline - Apparently it
wasn't designed with
that in mind.? Shortly after doing this review,
Joe's harness split at the
seam. Not really sure whether the kite or the
jeep won...
Needless to say, this was NOT a warranty
replacement......
However, the supportive Susan saved him again -
this time with her
sewing abilities.... |
 Figure 3 |
Now let's put the harness on and see what it
looks like. Our model for these next few shots is
going to be Harold, my boxing dummy, who can be
seen in figures 3 and 4.
If you imagine Harold sitting in the harness as
it was laying on the ground in figure 1 above,
you see the thin belt labeled "This goes
around your waist" going around Harold's
waist. The two belts labeled "These come up
in front of you" going under Harold's
groin, between his legs, and up over his
thighs. This leaves the attachment bar to be
shown, and that's in figure 4. |
 Figure 4 |
| The thick straps which hold the
attachment bar in place thread through it and the
buckles just like a backpack. You can see in
figure 4 that the attachment bar has its
"hook" up. You can strap the attachment
bar in place with the hook up or the hook down. I
use the hook facing down when I'm lifting and
plowing (okay, I'm kidding, but these kites have
lots of pull) and face up when I'm doing jumping.
What's the difference? I do lifting when I'm also
attached to my jeep as the anchor. I can off the
ground as much as I'm willing to run my anchor
line. I don't want to be fifteen feet up and
suddenly have the kite lines come unhooked from
the harness. I do jumping when I'm not anchored
to my jeep and having the attachment hook facing
up means I can quickly detach myself from the
kite when things get too exciting for me. I fully
realize this is a matter of personal preference
and it probably requires more explaining, so
here's a brief digression... |
When you do kite jumping and
you get airborne, you've essentially become one
end of a two part pendulum. One part of the
pendulum is the kite which is going to be working
itself into the wind the best it can. The other
part of the pendulum is you. As you get lifted,
you'll swing under the kite (the kite has to be
flying close enough to the zenith of the envelope
to lift you to begin with so swing you will).
Once you start to swing the rules change and how
much they change is based on your weight, the
wind, the size of the kite, the length of your
lines, your body strength, ... Swing enough and
the kite falls out of the wind, you come down
real quick and nothing can save you. Swing just
the right amount, work the lines just right, use
your strength to continue to fly the kite, ...
and you'll go for a nice ride with a nice
landing. But the key to much of this is the work
you're going to be putting in to getting and
staying airborne, landing safely, laughing,
rolling, and preparing to get airborne again.
When you do kite lifting and you
get airborne, you're just there for the lift and
to steer the kite so you come back down safe,
soft and sweet. No kite commercially made is
going to lift a jeep (at least I'm counting on
that). Also, the kite doesn't need to be close to
the zenith to lift you off the ground when you're
anchored for a lift. As long as the kite lines
can form a straight line to your harness and the
kite itself is higher off the ground than the
harness is on you and the wind is there, you'll
go up. Winds from 15-20+mph will lift me with the
NPW 6.9. There's no way I can tell you how
careful you have to be when you do this, but I
will tell you; BE CAREFUL. I don't have any pictures of being
lifted to show you because the wind hasn't been
strong enough here since I got back from Canada
to do serious lifting, but we took some pictures
anyway and I hope they help.
|
 Figure 5 |
| Here is our intrepid hero
modeling the Eliminator Harness with the plastic
covered cable running through the back (where the
pencils were in figure 2). Notice that the straps
are coming up over the thigh and do remember that
proper placement will save both you and your
potential progeny many hours of painful distress
(figure 5). The folks at HQ told KitesOnline that
the XL-size harness (which is the one I have)
would be too small for me. As you can see, it
does fit me quite well and with some room where I
need it. There was more than enough length left
in the straps for me to cinch it up tighter but
there was no need. |
 Figure 6 |
| In the figure 6 you can see the
harness from the front. I'm using the attachment
bar with the hook up even though I'm strapped to
my jeep purely for demonstration purposes. Again,
notice how everything is strapped together. The
attachment bar itself is about waist height but
it actually is just a shade lower than the waist
strap which comes with the harness. An important
thing to know here is that any sharp pulls by the
kite are transmitted to your lower spine and
pelvis. This is not good if you have back
problems or have concerns about upper body
strength. Regardless of whether your lifting or
jumping, you always want any shock or sudden
movement by the kite to be transmitted to your
arms, shoulders and upper back. |
 Figure 7 |
| This probably brings us to
another safety concern. I've told people before
that if things get too hairy, just let go of the
kite. What I do myself is let go of one side of
lines. Naturally, when there's no tension in the
lines in the direction of the wind, the kite will
stop pulling and drop. If you notice the setup
I'm using in these pictures (and this is also
true for the Harness
Fix), you'll realize that letting go of one
side of the lines ain't gonna do much because
there's a cable which attaches the handle to the
harness. Sure, you could let go of one side of
the lines but then the Harness Fix or
what-have-you would catch and you'd be in the
same fix as when you started. |
 Figure 8 |
| I'm a strong proponent of SAFETY FIRST, so always make sure you have an out
before you go in. In this case, I suggest you go
out in a lighter wind and get use to the feel of
attaching and detaching the Harness Fix or
what-have-you under load, say 5-7mph winds for
the NPW 6.9, before you try lifting or jumping
and need to detach under stress (say 12-15mph
winds for the NPW 6.9). |
 Figure 9 |
The cable I made for my style of
flying is shown in these pictures and in
figure 9.
The only difference between the cable in the
upper pictures and the cable shown here to the
left is that I removed the center cramp to
make it look more like the Harness Fix. Why did I
choose this over the Harness Fix? I like to
experiment, pure and simple, with length of
cable, where the cable attaches to the handles,
things like that. The advantage to the Harness
Fix and the design above is that you have more
maneuverability of the control lines and their
angle to your body. This is great for jumping but
not good for lifting. Thus, when I'm doing
lifting I'll have the center cramp to help create
that straight line from kite to anchor which I
was writing about earlier. When I'm doing jumping
I'll remove that center cramp so that I can
maintain more control of the kite by allowing
more swing of my body in relation to the lines
and the kite itself (remember, when I'm jumping
I'm part of a pendulum and swing is everything). |
 Figure 10 |
I think the only
thing left to discuss is a tool I use for all my
lifting and jumping kites, which is shown here in
figure harness-10.jpg. This is my
"sizer". I believe HQ and other
companies sell a control
bar of some kind and this isn't meant to be a
replacement for such items (by the way, please
don't start manufacturing these and selling them
because this isn't an endorsement of such items.
Or if you do, remember to send me my cut). The
purpose of this sizer is to give me an idea of
how the lines for a given kite want to be placed
and used in different wind conditions. You'll
notice that I have a cord in the center bar which
attaches to the harness's attachment bar hook.
There are kite-line attachment cords on the top
bar and the side bars (anybody here familiar with
kenchukus? Now you know where I got the idea). So
long as I attach my kite-lines to my sizer so
that everything is equally placed, I can learn
quickly if the kite is going to pull more on top,
how maneuverable, where in the envelope it wants
to fly best, ..., more than you could imagine.
The sizer can be used with the center bar on the
bottom or the top, with kite-lines attached only
to the sides, whatever. It's a handy tool for
learning the flight characteristics of a big kite
in most wind conditions without risking yourself
or the kite. Remember I wrote earlier that you
could always let go of one side of the kite if
things got too exciting? The sizer will let me
drop one set of lines, detach from the harness
and still guide the kite to a detangled landing,
which is a real plus.
So there you go. I hope this is
helpful to you. If you'd like to know more or
there's something else I can do, let me know.
Safe flying, friends.
|
 E-Mail The Aviator
|
"Nocturnal Aviator" - HQ Harness FAQ
