A few months ago I purchased a used BeamerIII 3m. I've flown it several times and made adjustments to the main and brake lines, yet it still flies very awkwardly.

I fly inland, typically with winds around 6-12mph with gusts up to 20+ mph.

It is hard to get this kite to go to the zenith regardless of wind conditions. I have to work it in arcs to get it to go there at all. It often luffs or just falls out of the sky if I'm not keeping it moving constantly. Other times it gets caught in gusts and yanks me around like crazy. I'm able to get better turns out of it by using the brake lines, but I can't get it to stay at/near the zenith. In higher winds, it always wants to go into the power zone and is hard to keep it out!

For these reasons, I suspected my main lines had gotten streched. I added length to the brake lines, with minimal improvement in its flying. Yesterday I shortened both main lines with knotted loops. I shortened them to the point where the brakes don't even work, yet there was still only minimal improvement to its ability to hit zenith!

What gives? There don't seem to be any tears or flaws in the kite itself. Admittedly, this is my first 4-line kite and my first experience with handles, but other more experienced fliers are having the same difficulties with my kite. It just acts... heavy.

Any ideas why this might be or how I could fix it? I know the Beamer is supposed to be an excellent kite, so why does it feel like a fat sea cow when I fly it?!

Tough to say without watching you fly it. You shouldn't have to keep it moving all the time IF the winds are constant. But most kites don't want to just go to zenith and sit there. You have to keep them moving. A kite also will have trouble getting to zenith if there isn't enough wind. Check the bridles and make sure there are no snags or tangles, but it sounds to me like you might just be suffering from lousy wind conditions. The luffing definitely sounds like a result of the wind quiting on you (in which case you have to fly the heck out of it to keep it up until the wind picks up.

Correct me if i'm wrong but you should be able to fly it on two lines. If it flies correctly with just the power lines attached then you know it has something to do with the brake line length?

Nvm, my fault. didn't read that you already had them extremely loose.

check that the bridles arent caught up on something.... i have had big problems as a result of simply slightly out-of-perfect bridles....

unattach the powerlines from the kite, and make sure that there are absolutely no kinks, or catches in the bridle lines

Probably just lousy wind conditions then. Thats what I get for living in central Texas. Hopefully, fall winds will be better here.
I'm also bummed cuz I cracked or bruised a rib yesterday during my 2nd kiteboard run. Whose idea was it to put a concrete sidewalk between soccer fields?!

those soccer fields with the sidewalks have gotten me, too.... youre not at NE metro park are you?

where do you fly ?

i dont think its the winds

Spacemonkey, if you want to meet up so I can help troubleshoot your kite or just to fly let me know. I'm free tomorrow afternoon.

Ha, thats too funny, concrete sidewalk between the soccer fields. Wouldn't matter tho, I think there's concrete under the grass where I fly. I've never seen ground so hard yet the fire ants seem to love it. I lived in Abilene for a couple years, whish I had known about kites then.

My Beamer would tend to fall backwards if I let it sit still up high like that. It would want to keep moving. It would fly steady at the side of the window but liked to keep moving forward especially in those on/off winds.

Quote:

Originally posted by dylanj423 check that the bridles arent caught up on something.... i have had big problems as a result of simply slightly out-of-perfect bridles.... unattach the powerlines from the kite, and make sure that there are absolutely no kinks, or catches in the bridle lines

i think this might be your problem......even something small with the bridles would be enough to make your kite perform adversely--i doubt its the wind-i've flown my beamer 3m in some of the nastiest,choppy,crap winds and it flies really well........

If you are new to flying 4 line kites, pay particular attention to your hands. Many beginners I teach tend to have their arms in a position as if to give someone a hug. You need to keep the hands together and nearly straight so when you go to turn, you have maximum movement of your pulling arm. Also, you can add a little brake to the pulling hand and the Beamer will turn pretty quickly. Not Crossfire speed, but more than adequate. I have flown 2m Beamer III's and IV's and 4m Beamer IV's and all behave similarly.

Like said before, hard to say without seeing it fly. Someone mentioned checking the bridle to see if it may be tangled slightly. All good advice. Take BurritoBandit up on the offer and make a friend in the process.

Keep us posted on how it goes.

dylanj423 and burritobandit:

NE Metro is exactly where I last tested my beamer and took my fall!
The groundsman told me the East fields were closed that day due to "electrical problems" and the obstacles around those west fields made me nervous to begin with. That sidewalk really got me good! Maybe this will teach me not to bunny hop my board over curbs at low speeds. The back wheel just catches the corner and slams you down on the ground before you know whats happened!

My bridles do get tangled frequently. I'll try to be more observant about them. And work on how I hold my handles.

I'll sent U2Us to you guys shortly. It would be nice to meet up and exchange ideas in person to see if I'm doing something weird when I'm flying.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I'll keep you posted!

i have had some close calls with those sidewalks.... but im surprised they are not stopping you from boarding on those fields.... check with centex_buggier and see if there are any rules about boarding out there

have they done anything with that area south of the soccer fields?? thats where i used to buggy with burritobandit and centex_buggier (note avatar... that gravel is right next to the basketball court)

but i have moved on to houston, so its strictl;y beach for me anymore..... try and make it out to dbbb (thanksgiving)... if you havent had any beach flying, be warned... it will spoil you

dylanj423, the groundsman there clearly saw me boarding on the soccer fields and even came by to tell me the park was closing soon while I was packing up my kite. The grounds to the south were a bit too stubbly and uneven for good boarding action. What is dbbb? Is it an event down in Galveston? That sounds like it could be a lot of fun!

DBBB: http://www.powerkiteforum.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=14
If you power kite in Texas, you go to DBBB.

You might try flying nasa wings with gusty inland winds. They will fly better then a foil.

Susan (npw goddess)

What does the previous owner think of your observation?

Try flying it as a two line kite. No brake lines at all. If it still doesn't want to hit zenith and the wind is acceptable then the bridle has issues. Does it look like the previous owner tinkered with the actual bridle ???

6- 12 and then 20 is some pretty tough wind.

Centex Buggier,

Will you make it to SOBB this year ? :Ange09:

What? Foils suck NPWs rule!

Well guys, it looks like some of the bridles may have been stretched out from the time that I first got the kite. I'm no expert on bridle tune-ups, and I'm so frustrated with this kite that I'm thinking about selling it. I bought it used for $200. How much do you think I could sell it for if I disclose that the bridles need tuning in the ad?

Nasa wings rule in gusty winds.

Susan (npw goddess)

Hey Susan,

How much would you charge me to make a NPW to fly directly off bridles? I'm not sure what size I would need. I weigh 160 and fly in Austin in 10-20 mph winds and 5-10 mph gusts on top of that.

one thing you could do before giving up on the beast is do a bridle rebuild.

it's not as hard as it sounds, but you do need to be organized.

cats are bad.

lay out the kite somewhere peaceful, take off the lines if you haven't already done so, and have a good hard look at all the places where the lines join as they split and cascade from the flying line knots to the canopy. if any of them are spiraled around each other, or otherwise not separating cleanly from each other, you can take about half an hour and take the bridle apart down to the canopy, untwist everything, then put it back together.

if you have a digicam, take some comprehensive photos first in case things go wrong.

if you have a good hard look at the lines and nothing seems twisted or out of place in any of the joins or branches of the bridle, then likely this won't help you much.

you could also try sending it to an HQ kite dealer b4 selling it on???

did you get together with burritobandit, and have him take a look at it?

There is nothing visibly wrong w/ the bridles after close examination. burritobandit had a look and flew it too. This is what he had to say about it:


What was going on with the Beamer was that the bridles at the center of the kite (C row) seemed tighter than the ones closer to the leading edge (A row/B row) because when the kite was flying with the brake lines completely slacked, the kite's shape would begin to collapse from the center first, causing it to backstall towards the center of the window.


I will try to have it looked at by an authorized HQ dealer...

I wonder how it got stretched ? Have you contacted the previous owner ? It is sad that someone would sell a kite like that and not be honest about it.

If you can find out the bridle spec from the dealer then you may be best off to try reworking the bridle ?

Measure what you have. Usually bridles follow a somewhat logical pattern once you have drawn it out you can figure out how to do it from that ?

A and B being too long sounds exactly right.

I think selling may be tough , if you are honest about the trouble.

I flew that Beamer and it really took some coaxing to get it to zenith. The bridles weren't twisted or tangled and I couldn't see anything else wrong with it.

One thing I didn't check for was rips on the internal cross bracing of the kite.. That's another possibility... But the kite didn't look deformed to me.

Get in touch with Tim at HQ, he will probably be more than happy to get you taken care of. If you can't get with him or if it would be easier for you, feel free to give me a call and I would be happy to get your kite fixed up for you. Very rare that the bridle lines would stretch like that, usually if you do get any stretch at all it will stretch the entire bridle not just one riser. A replacement bridle shouldn't be that expensive and should get the kite back to near new pretty easily.

Thanks awind. centexbuggier and I are in contact with Tim right now, explaining the situation.

I make rough measurements of the bridle lines with a tape measure. I say rough because I didn't disconnect them from the sail, only from the main pigtails. I tried to measure accurately from the stitching on the white sail loops to the end of each bridle line. Since the lengths from left to right across the center were fairly symmetrical, I split the difference between each mirrored pair and provided a set of values for 1/2 of the kite, lengthwise. Thus, you will notice there are only 5 figures per row instead of 10 listed. The order is from left to right and leading edge to trailing edge. I rounded each value to the nearest 1/8 inch. I would have used metric but don't have a metric tape measure. I graphed out the values as a 3D surface in Excell, and it appears to be concave in the center. i.e. it looks like perhaps the A and D rows need to be shortened. But I'm not exactly sure what it is supposed to look like, so that that analysis with a grain of salt. Here are the figures:

A: [41 7/8] [45 1/2] [51 3/4] [58 0/8] [64 3/8]
B: [37 3/4] [44 5/8] [51 1/8] [56 5/8] [62 7/8]
C: [39 0/8] [45 7/8] [51 7/8] [57 1/2] [63 3/4]
D: [40 1/2] [48 1/4] [54 5/8] [60 1/8] [66 1/2]

I was able to obtain a bridle length diagram for the beamer 3 3m from an HQ rep yesterday.
Based on my measurements, my bridle lengths are all way out of whack - some too short and some too long! I will need to re-measure more carefully and in mm to verify this. If that is the case, I should be able to tweak their lengths myself by rearranging them and shortening them with new loops using fig 8 knots. The HQ rep suggested I first try to shorten just the bridle connector lines from the A,B, & D rows and see if that helps. I suppose that would be much less work, so I'll try that first before I make any major modifications to the bridles.

Well, I've given up trying to fix my beamer :dunno:

I disconnected and measured each bridle line accurately. Turns out there is nothing wrong with them. They all seem to be very close to the correct length. The kite still flies, but I'm not too keen on HQ anymore. Had a friend buy a 3m hydra brand new and the lines were all different lengths right out the bag. I would like to know what a good beamer feels like.

If anyone has one they would let me try, I would be happy to pay for shipping both ways to get a feel for it.