Excellent video Steve!!!!!
That a great buggy spot bud!
So each Peak has its own bar length?
I must say I'm pretty impressed that one can fly a 6m and a 12m in the same wind. Amazing depower it looks like!!

Jason - you asked if I got my 6m kite-only or RTF.

RTF. Glad for that too because now I see that the bars are quite different in size. I wouldn't have wanted to try controlling the 6m from the 12m bar; way too much pilot input.

Cool Steve. Glad to see Flysurfer proportioning the bars to the kites!!!

Not sure how many different bars they offer for the P2s. Maybe just large and small? I'd take a wider bar if I could get one for the 12m for turning purposes. Compared to the 6m it turns like a Mississippi River Barge. Of course too wide a bar would have its own issues. Not a biggie, but I have to be concious of the bar length when turning on the buggy and bringing the bar across my body. If I've got my GoPro mounted on the up tube for glorified selfie shots I have to be careful not to hit it coming across.

Nice one, Steve. How are you finding the upwind ability of the Peaks v NS3's ?

John, I haven't really gone head to head yet with, say, 4.0m NS3 vs 6.0 P2 but my gist so far is that the Peaks have better upwind capability. Someday when the wind is right I'll purposefully do a head to head NS3 vs P2.

I've got a 10.0 NS3 on order from Steffen. On a light wind day I'd like to try this kite vs my 12m P2.

Yesterday with strong winds for the 12m P2 I was able to get some serious upwind tacks. Not going fast of course but I wasn't rushed; rather just trying to eat up some vertical to get back up to the upper corner of the field. I'd say I was about 20 deg short of dead upwind.

The day before I worked my way upwind with my 8.5m NS3 but it took me about 15 tacks to eat up the length of a soccer field (short tacks the width of a soccer field).

I have high hopes that the LongStar will improve on this, not to mention the fabled UltraStar.

A little more Peak 2 fun on a nice afternoon. The 6m really shines once the wind picks up! What can I say, I was bored!

Another great vid Steve! With that nippy 6m in those winds it would be nice to see some powered downturn transitions!!!

Hey, speaking of powered downturns, I think we've spoken about the NS2/3 not really making any more or less power when either upturned or downturned. What about the Peak?

Peak 2s offers tons of extra power in downturns! I know I didn't do any downturns in this latest video, but that was much more a factor that I'm still hit or miss with them with my 6m (got it down with the 12). This particular field when run from end to end which I was has no-fail turn zones for the kite, hanging it way over some nasty sage-brush and other plant life and rocks I really didn't want the kite going down in. Even if I pulled off the downturn (which is by no means guaranteed with this pilot) I would have been swooping the kite too close for comfort to that stuff as it rocketed out at the bottom!

With the 6m being very responsive to turn input (compared to the 12m which I refer to as a barge for turning) I generate a ton of power with it by letting the bar out a tad to allow it to ascend high into the air, then pull the bar in for a power dive to the ground before swooping it forward. I believe I do that quite a bit in this latest video. I'm trying to smooth out that motion as it is still too erratic for my liking, but you get a big power boost doing this, similar to a downturn. For some reason I find it hard muscle-memory-wise to cross back and forth with the 6 and 12; I do too much with the bar with the 6.

And thank you both gentleman for your ongoing video compliments. My videos are amateur hour compared to yours John!

Peak Porn alert!!

Got back off my holiday (vacation ) to find this little (big ) beauty waiting for me!



It's in great shape, can't wait for to get it in the air, should be up over the next few days and I'll post a mini review

Nice 12 !!

Another nice video Steve.

12m FEVER! That is one beautiful kite Paul. I truly love the green on black; favorite color scheme in my quiver! Beware the bridles! There are a lot of long lines, no doubt the product of it being such a large DP Single Skin. Also be prepared for it to turn m-u-c-h slower than probably any other kite in your quiver. That being said, if your winds are anything like mine in the summer this beast will also be a "session saver" more than a couple of time. Time to get that beautiful buggy out under that gorgeous kite and let it rip!

Thanks Jason! These are fun to make. My wife and son think I'm off the reservation making videos like these.

Wives just don't appear to get it full stop. My wife thinks I'm a nutcase. My new Peak is safely in the boot of my car, she doesn't need to know I have a new green one

Had my first flight with the 12m Peak today. I'm a bit disappointed. Probably marginal winds to blame (4-10mph) but I experienced a LOT of the dreaded tip tuck that folk on here have been discussing. I don't know if it was mostly because of the poor wind. But it seemed to happen more on 1 tip than the other. And sometimes they would both fold. When folded even a few sharp tugs on the bar didn't pop it/them back out.

I think it's just a case of not being able to power the kite up enough in the light wind. Or maybe it needs some bridle tuning (gulp).

I was mostly flying static, desperate to get it in the air! I did have my landboard in the car though which I haven't had much success with to date. I gave that a go and had a couple of decent runs! Seems to be easier to get first runs on a board with a big kite in light winds rather than vice versa!

I'll try the kite again over the next few days.

Steve I know yours is tuned by the legend himself. Have you experienced much of this tip collapse in light wind?

Paul,

Sorry to hear about the dreaded tip-tuck. A couple of things; first, be patient as it will get better. There is something about just getting time with the kite to learn to keep tension on the lines in more conditions and more of the time that seems to help. Second, things should improve a lot once you get moving in that beautiful buggy of yours. I have not been a fan of flying my P2s static and they don't start to shine until you get moving. I theorize that the Peaks respond well to apparent wind and by moving it is easier to keep the kite from the extreme edge of the wind window which when flying static tends to slacken the lines in my experience. Downturns, sining, and dive bombing with P2s generate a lot of power which tells me I believe quite a lot about apparent wind with these kites. Third, since your kite is new it may in fact need some tuning. I wouldn't touch a thing until you get some decent wind up around 8-15 mph and you get moving on your buggy. I have a feeling you will have a completely different kite on your hands once that happens. Fourth, the P2s have a clem-cleat adjuster. I've fiddled with that a fair amount in recent months and seem to settle on the best position being with about four inches of line pulled through (so pretty far let out) through much of the wind range when I should be flying this kite and not something smaller for safety reasons. Fifth, you were in some pretty light winds and static. The thing I've found about single versus double skinned kites is that while the SS clearly launch in lighter winds, wind is wind, and kites don't really firm up and provide meaningful traction until they get into the meat of their wind range. Just because an SS launches doesn't mean it's going to be pretty, and I think that is certainly the case with the P2s. Finally, there is an adjustment under the foam tubes up by the bar. I found things got better once I shortened those outer lines one knot position.

Check out this thread: http://www.powerkiteforum.com/viewthread.php?tid=30194

Great discussion about this problem. Folks in that thread worked some things out with pigtails, but Chris (aka, The Legend) piped in with the reminder I stated here about the under-the-foam adjusters.

Chin up! It's a great kite. You'll be singing its praises in no time! :P

Yeah thanks Steve I suspect I was just trying to fly it in too light a wind. Like you say...just because it will launch doesn't mean it's going to respond and fly nice. Plus static as you pointed out.

When it was flying it was very nice, and I could tell it had heaps of grunt to dish out!

Great bar on the II, I much prefer it to the MK I as it has the clam cleat, stopper ball and spinning chicken loop.

I'm not going to mess with the 12m, I'm sure I just need a touch more wind!

Will keep you posted, thanks again!

Light wind doesn't help but my peak 1 flies in a whisper and flies well as you probably know with yours Paul. And it doesn't exhibit any bad habits. I'm not sure if it's something with the p2's in general or just the large sizes that seem to have trouble once in awhile.

Here I was flying my p1 shortly after getting it in almost no wind.

Combo Born-Porn and Peak-Porn all in one. A threesome!!!!! :evil:

That was hilarious Sean. Nice action out of that P1 BTW. The black and pink is such a great color scheme.

Thanks Steve! only video that I'm aware of with both kites. You and 3shot could also make a combo video.

I can try! It was great. I don't remember right now who said it, but I too like the vertical color scheme better from the NS2s versus the NS3s. Oh well.

So, second time out with the 12m today, but this time with buggy in hand! And yeah Steve, you were spot on, totally different animal once it's got some apparent!!! I still had a bit of tucking during initial launch or if I botched a transition (still getting used to the barge turning ) but once powered up and moving it was sublime. Winds were low, probably average around 8mph, lulls to barely a puff, but it still kept flying, gave me some nice power and even pulled me sideways a few times, great fun! I was looping the heck out of it during the lulls, and to be fair it doesn't move too bad for a big girl :evil:

Great to hear that the Fat Lady sang for you my friend!!!! I knew you'd love her once you got her heated up. That's what all the guys say. :evil:

Any tip tucking in the Peak 2 6 meter that you have experienced?

Cheddar - only tip tuck with 6m P2 for me is an event I would attribute to Pilot Error. I only fly it in brisk winds that don't have many lulls. Any tip tuck (and it's been rare) has been line-slackening situations on my part, either due to poor turning technique or wind lulls.

Must just be something inherent to the larger sizes. I REALLY REALLY want a 6m but don't want the same hassle I had with the 12.

I've said this before and I'm going to say it again . A vast amount of what people find to be problematics with the Peak (or any kite for that matter) can often be contributed to pilot inexperience.

Cheddar's 12m would be a good example. It was a kite purchased used. We don't know what the original owner of the kite did or did not do to tune it. They may have attempted to tune it themselves and made the kite more unstable than it may or may not have been originally. Then Cheddar gets ahold of it takes it out and hates it. So this puts him in a suck position because he has a kite, that may or may not have needed a tune, that may or may not be flhiing right but he can't tell due to lack of expirience. So he goes out when he can and tries to get it figured out but in frustration sends it to the NW to get it tuned. It comes back better, likely because whatever the first owner did was reversed by someone that knew how to adjust the kite properly, but still has some inherent "excessive" tip tuck or flutter.

There are very few Pk2 kites out there that have any issues. We've sent back 1 kite out of all the Peaks we've sold and it was a 4m. Some of the early releases required some level of tune but almost every other kite that we've had complaints about was a simple issue of the pilot not learning to fly the kite properly. They are different kites. They take different skills and practice to get the most performance out of them with the least amount of negative flight characteristics.

Time in the saddle will fix a lot of Peak2 "problems". Even just static flying (which I STRONGLY recommend with any kite to really get a good feel for it) will benefit you with the PK2. After a while you just adapt t the new type of kite and learn to avoid or offset the things that make it fly poorly. Especially in the bigger sizes.

In terms of Cheddars hassle. If he wasn't a lone wolf in the wilds of Green Bay and had someone like myself who is highly familiar with the kite to help him I suspect we would have resolved the issue in a few minutes. Diagnosis and feedback of a kite over the interwebs is not the best scenario for this type of thing. If I have the kite in my hands, things become evident very quickly.

By a 6m Cheddar and take some time off to come visit and we will get you dialed.