Well jumped off the bench about 3 weeks earlier then I expected.
Some might have read the post I put up about "Ribs or not".
Finished the yard work and decided to get back on the beach.
Took my brand spanking new Beamer IV 1.4 and 3.0 down to the south jetty to fill them with sand. :P

Winds were 18 to 26 knots NNW. I was thinking it was a bit windy at first. Broke out the 1.4m first.

First: The line were dead on. Sewn loops. Like the colored upper lines. Handles were comfortable enough (have a set of HQ's ultras--really like those) Tag lines off the handles very nice, heavy duty cord.

The build quality on the 1.4 is what I've come to expect from HQ. Excellent! sturdy stitching, and reinforced in all the needed places.

Can't say I like the Velcro bridal keeper at the top of the kite. It seems to me that the keeper would interfere with airflow in to that cell. Would have liked to have seen it at the bottom on the trailing edge.

Launched the kite 45 degrees off wind. Brake lines attached to the second knot on the bridal lines. Kite jumped right off the beach with very little input from the main lines.

With the winds this afternoon the kite did not like the second knot to well. Seemed a little sluggish with the braking inputs from the handles. Landed, adjusted to the third knot, and relaunched.

Sweet spot!!! The kite loved this setting in these winds. Kite turned crisply with my inputs. This kite is fast across the window. The kite accelerated well with a smooth power up. The thing is even though the winds were getting heavy the kite wasn't dragging me around. However, it does generate plenty of grunt for buggying.

Had the kite zipping around the window. Have to say this kite is almost as fast as my shock wave. Was having so much fun with the 1.4 I forgot about the 3.0. Will have to wait to fly it and the 5.0 some other time.

Hats off to HQ. They hit another home run with the 1.4.

This kite is gonna be so much fun in the higher winds.

Note for Tim at HQ. If you guys keep producing kites like this
I'm gonna have to keep buying these little buggers on blind faith.

Never owned or flew a beamer before. Got my smile back after a 5 week vacation. Thanks HQ.

Hey csa_deadon,

Thanks for the kind words. I will pass this on to the kite designers in Germany.

Enjoy powerkiting and fly safe.
Tim

Nice review. Thanks for posting

Another fan of the Beamer IV 1.4! This was the first kite bought for my son with his new buggy that he got for Christmas. Real good power for him and a load of fun for me in the high winds Great review, dead on!

Here is a video of the 1.4 in action and can be seen around the 1:58 mark.

Video here

Enjoy the other video clips if you wish!

Nice vid Todd! Way to work that kite, Cory! Bob

Have to repeat what bobalooie57 says. Nice vid, great kite work. I have to say that this kite keeps amazing me. Have had it out two more times since the 27th. Low wind and med winds, so now I guess you can say I have covered the wind range of this kite. Have to work it in the lower winds, but that's pretty much true of all kites in low winds.
Been flying two lines since 1984, and have just converted over to the quad line arena in the past year and a half. Have see the best and worst of the two line area. Have to put this little bugger right at the top of the best of what I have flown over the years. Sorry T.O.L. I have replaced you!! :wee:

Quote:

Originally posted by csa_deadon Have to repeat what bobalooie57 says. Nice vid, great kite work.

Quote:

Originally posted by bobalooie57 Nice vid Todd! Way to work that kite, Cory! Bob

My Son thanks you both! Me too ;-)

Im working on a 2m that took a beating from beginners (numerous slams on the ground) which tore out 2 ribs.

My first quirk is the dirtouts. The way the velcro was sewn in leaves a small passage for sand and dirt to fill the pocket up.
I attached a pic of this. The passage is at the top of the pic.
The space between the sewing and the black edging. Sand goes through this little passage and fills the pocket over the e velcro up. The kite im fixing the one side was completely packed with sand and the other side was half full. On this kite i will sew this passage closed.

The second is the hole in the ribs does not look like it was cut correctly. What i mean by this is ripstop needs to be cut with a hot knife. this way the edge is sealed. The kite im fixing, the ribs look like they tore out from the hole. And the edge is fraying some.

Just an area to keep an eye on. This can be fixed by using a soldering iron to carefully run around the edge of the hole so seal it and lessen the chance of it ripping here.

That was nice, I wana grow up to be just like him, laid back and cruising in a bug.

Gotta give the 1.4M Beamer III a received mine from bigben91682 yesterday, and flew in 7-12mph winds, side by side with the 2M Beamer IV. I must say, both are great kites in both quality and fly-ability. Both are in the electric green color, which is great because I've used the same green pool noodle for padding, and painted my wheel hubs on the bug the same green too! Had to use the fairground site - airfield was busy, so no screamin' reaches, but fun doodlin' around.(didn't use the 1.4 for traction, only static, fast and fun!) bobalooie57

Hey guys,
Someone knows where I can buy a nasa kite?

carlitos081, I would check with kitemaker4 on this forum. She can custom make a fine kite for you, I have 3 of them! Work can be seen in this thread. http://www.powerkiteforum.com/viewthread.php?tid=7011

Hi bobalooie57,
I saw in that tread but I can see just and icon and when I click on it I see the main page of webshots but nothing else...
Thanks a million!

What a trip this thread is. Look at the date. I have pictures of Tim Baxmeyer of HQ flying the Beamer 1.4 way back at one of the first JIBEs. He is long since back in Germany. And "snobdr" was banned from this forum after he had a meltdown here. How did NASA wings even come up here? Maybe I'm just tripping....

I bugged out too Angus. Just seeing some of the names of the old timers on this thread. Wayback machine for sure....

Me too! Then I thought maybe carlito saw the NPW's in my sig from the post in June 2009, so I tried to direct him to km4. If you notice carlitos081 just signed up, and maybe doesn't know about the U2U. If you click on the U2U at the bottom of any of kitemaker4's posts, you can send her a private message with your request. BTW Angus, are there anymore NPW's commercially available?(old HQ's found in a warehouse, or something?)