hey all,

im fairly new to depower and have question about trim adjustment.

i was at the coast last weekend and flying ozone access xt 10m which i believe is 2011 model,wind was around 16-18mph mark.i had trim line pulled in which if im right gives it less power?

is it right to fly it with trim line pulled in as i had a guy tell me you shouldnt as kite will not fly right.

to me kite was flying fine and behaved lovely,kite pulled really well and i managed over 30mph on gps and felt very controlled doing so.

i did try with trim off but beach was very busy and i felt more comfortable with less power.

Yep, sounds right to me. My first launch with the Longstar 9.5m, I pulled a fair bit of trim - I would rather have too much trim and think, 'yeah, I can let that out a bit for some more power' than have too little trim pulled and think 'whooaaaaaaaa.....pull the trim, pull the trim!!!' I think 'the guy' might have been referring to the fact that the more trim you have pulled, the less effective the steering will be. You'll soon get the feel for this. I usually pull the bar in while I'm turning to 'liven' up the steering then let the bar out straight away to give the kite some speed. Pulling trim in is doing exactly the same job as letting the bar out. ie: shortening the power line is the same as lengthening the brake lines. I usually set my trim so that the bar is in a comfortable position with the right amount of power for me at cruising speed.

Trim adjusts the angle of attack. Similar to sheeting the bar in and out but doing so in a mechanically fixed position. This allows you to either set the power of the kite to a comfortable power level or allows you to accentuate the power range of your sheeting action. As John said, the guy who spoke to you was probably referring to the steering lag many kites exhibit when trimmed out. Some are terrible, others are less affected.

I've found that the range of trim adjustment is different for different kites with some of them seemingly doing just fine with all of the trim line pulled in, but others got a little harder to control. The Peak-2 series gets a little tough to control with the entire trim line pulled in for example. I too like to have the size kite in the air that allows me to be sort of mid-range in the trim setting. Like the venerable Mr. Holgate, I use the trim setting (particularly on the Ivanpah playa) to set the range of the DP bar so it is a comfortable distance from my body for holding on a long straight run.

The person giving you advice could well have experience with a kite that didn't behave well with all the trim line pulled in. If your Access felt good in your hands on the day you are describing then just take the win. Letting the trim line out that day may have left you over powered. Not a bad thing from a Power Kite Ambassador perspective that you didn't go screaming through a busy area under full, glorious power. We all thank you for that.

Quote:

Not a bad thing from a Power Kite Ambassador perspective that you didn't go screaming through a busy area under full, glorious power. We all thank you for that.

That gave me a good chuckle!!

thanks guys that makes sense and i will play with how the steering feel differs with trim lengths,that also makes sense with setting trim so that bar is comfortable distance.

the other week the beach was mainly busy with water kitesurfers either setting up on the beach or having left stuff on the beach,hopefully now that water will be getting cold now there will be less of them and more beach to play on so i look forward to next time so i can unleash more power!!

Ive been weaving in and out of beach traffic for days mostly on my 7.2 frenzy and for the most part bar up to slow down for people and trucks and tree stumps and other assorted beach trash
i like trim pulled down