rectifier - 3-11-2013 at 08:03 PM
Took a bit of figuring, but I finally got my NPW21 sorted. Big thanks go out to BigE123 for all his help and work on development of the NPW21!
Now this kite is a little different from previous NPW designs... I found it has tremendous resistance to nose collapse. I could fly with the power
lines between my fingers rather than having to maintain a significant brake bias - this without any Z bridle or excessive shortening of the brake
lines. I could ram it right into the edge of the window and it would stall and slide down instead of folding the nose! So that is really cool and
should make it a lot easier to fly for someone new to NPW kites.
I took it out this morning on 20m lines with my blades, in winds of 30 gusting 60kph and swinging through 120 degrees. So I had some issues with wind
shifts and cross gusts blowing the wings through the bridle, causing bowties and crashing after winding up my lines badly. Considering the wind, the
kite was very stable, and delivered great power and good window, but I had a hard time staying upwind as upwind kept changing on me 
Got my wife to come out with me later in the day to snap some pics. I put the kite on handles to keep the wind from winding it up - unfortunately
above 0 temperatures had turned the snow to glue. Combine that with the power loss on handles and I was just standing there holding the kite for the
photo 
Materials are Tyvek sail and Tuff Line XP Dyneema braid (100#) for all bridles. Noticed the Tuff Line has an amazing ability to knot itself when
lashing around loose - issues with turning to the left resulted in the discovery that the brake Q point extension had tied itself to the power line,
and had to be cut off!
Now all it needs is some graphics, and of course some bigger brothers! :wee:
bigE123 - 4-11-2013 at 05:30 AM
Nice first build!
I had my breath held when you said what material you were going to use, but hats off, that's gonna be one hard wearing kite that will stand up to
plenty of abuse, a commando of the kite world, it'll just keep getting back up for more :D .