Kite mooring

When the kite lines of a flying kite are moored to a non-moving object, the kite is considered to be statically moored. The kite operator is responsible for kites moored to static objects under the regulations of the governing body. Mooring kites to static objects occurs for various reasons. The tension in a kite line may be so strong that the kite line pulls off its mooring or breaks the mooring. Injury to property and people may result when a kite or kite system is improperly moored. A kite may drag its mooring inadvertently so that unintended consequences occur.

To safely moor kites to the soil, various kinds of anchors can be used. Some kite stores sell stakes for kite anchoring (mooring). The literature has noted that dog-parking helical metal stakes make suitable soil anchors for some kites. The wind strength and kite line tension would be estimated with some safety margin to ensure safe operation.

A person holding a kite line by hand may move their hands to control the kite in kite fighting or stunt-kite flying. Also, the person may walk with or against the wind for various reasons. All of these are examples of mobile kite mooring. Other mobile kite moorings include a towing scooter, a towing bicycle, a skateboard, a wave-moved surfboard or kiteboard, a cargo-ship, a boat, a horse, a dog, a raft, and many other moving vehicles or machines. Some kiters moor a kite to a floating object and let the kite tow the object across ponds, lakes, or bays. Some persons moor themselves to kites and let the kite tow them across water bodies, sand expanses, and grass fields. Others moor themselves to kite lines where the kite is a very large wing while they jump off hills and mountains to fly their kites in the special kiting mode that is then called hang gliding. Since the pilot is mobile, then the mooring is a dynamic mooring. U.S. FAR 101 covers the dynamically moored manned hang gliders without using the word "mooring" in the regulation. Some hang gliders are not kites; some hang gliders are kites.

When flying a world-record-sized recreation kite, a famous professional kite flier lost his life as he became an accidental mooring of the large kite. When extreme-sport kitesurfers are themselves the dynamic mooring gone astray, they sometimes slam into rocks, buildings, people, thorns, trees and end up with minor to fatal injuries. The kite system called paraglider has the human pilot as the dynamic mooring; when collapse of the kite's wing occurs too near the ground and there is not time to use a parachute, damage occurs to people and property. When a statically moored kite-type hang glider is moored improperly, gusts sometimes lift the kite and the kite hang glider gets into a lockout condition and slams into the ground, breaking itself and sometimes causing injury to persons and other property. Mooring kites so the kite can reach high voltage electric power lines can cause outages in electrical service and sometimes injury or death to people. Most every recreational kite sold has a tag that refers to where to fly the kite; this is implicitly telling the operator to keep the kite moored in a safe manner. Humans are responsible for the kites they anchor or set into free-flight. One of the downsides to the war-time use of barrage balloon (kytoons) involved cut tether^[2] cables that dragged into power lines causing loss of production of other needed goods. See the safety list at National Kite Month.^[3]