So the winter will soon be here and more often than not, it will be too windy to fly my 6m kite.

So im happy to fly the rad 3.2 when it gets a lil crazy, for being pulled along the floor on my bottom but im looking for something with a bit of lift for those days when the 6 will be a daunting prospect.

Knowing how windy it gets here in the winter, im looking for something around 3m like the radsail 3.2, but something with lift instead of traction, i was thinking a FF Rage 3.5 after doing some trawling on the interweb.

What do reckon?

Thanks

peter lynn twister II 3m or 4.1m or FF blade V 4m

Rage has very little lift

Heavy lift?

go for the blade 4m... maybe the pl twister, but the rage does not have lift until it is out of its windrange

Im not made of money :D My budget is 200pounds.

the conversion I get is 200 pounds = about $325.

That gets you into a twister. Not as much lift as a blade, but more user friendly and stable.

Quote:

Originally posted by Jack1988 Im not made of money My budget is 200pounds.

FWIW: There is currently a Blade IV 4.9 in the manly Midnight color scheme for £200 on KiteCrowd (formerly the Flexifoil Community Forum).

Blades (III & IV) are showing up more and more on KC and RaceKites.com with the release of the Blade V.

It's also on your side of the Pond, so you don't take quite as much of a beating on the postage.

ATB,
Sam

200 quid? you can get an awesome kite for that money (used). You'll get a Blade3/4 4.9 or a PL Twister 4.1 very easily for that mullah.

200 quid? you can get an awesome kite for that money (used). You'll get a Blade3/4 4.9 or a PL Twister 4.1 very easily for that mullah.

Quote:

Originally posted by DAKITEZ peter lynn twister II 3m or 4.1m

Twister For The Win!!

get a blade

now im confused! :S

what about a pansh? i hear that they are good and not that expensive?

lol just search for that topic here on the forums.... lots of discussion!

What i got out of it is that the pansh kites are ok, but if you can swing a brand name kite, do it... you'll have less problems, and enjoy it for longer... plus a better re-sale if you want to upgrade... most pansh owners like 'em... but they all move on to name brands eventually... just skip that step and get a blade or a twister.... much better kites

I had a look around and it seems that the pansh kites are decent and reliable at a low price

i only need something inbetween the 6m and the 3m to bounce around with when its too windy for the 6

Would a pansh do the trick?

It would, but flying lifty kites in strong winds is scary stuff.

big kite + gentle wind = kite moves slow, jumps happen slow, less risk actually with common sense.

small kite + big wind = kite moves fast, jumps happen really quickly, lots of risk even if you are very careful.

have a look at this thread:

http://www.powerkiteforum.com/viewthread.php?tid=6467&pa...

also beware: if you get a blade or a twister you will then be spoiled for pansh. they might also spoil you for the cirrus.

personally speaking given your ambitions / skill level I'd go for quality.

ok i had a look, i would defo prefer controlled jumps on a bigger kite, just not 6m lol, i mean the other day the 6m wasnt trying to kill me but it was hard work on the arms, jumps were controlled and slow but it wasnt as windy as yesterday on the 3m rad where it was dragmania, its in those kind of winds that i want something around the same size but with lift instead of traction, im going halves with my bro so he wont want to buy used. We cant afford a twister or blade and it seems that the pansh, keeps popping up with nothing but good rep, how about an Ace 4m??

Quote:

Originally posted by Jack1988 im going halves with my bro so he wont want to buy used. We cant afford a twister or blade and it seems that the pansh, keeps popping up with nothing but good rep, how about an Ace 4m??

an observation (hope you don't mind...) is that you don't have any top quality kites yet. once you get one, you'll be spoiled, but if you stick to the cheaper stuff you can still get skills and you have most of the performance you can get from the top kites.

options:

a) convince your bro to buy used, the best option, many of us buy used, just use a little common sense. buying off a known guy on a forum is very safe. find a good one and you'll be spoiled.

b) a 4.1 twister fits in your budget and has better resale value. But it will spoil you by stepping you up a level in quality.

c) an ace 4 is half your budget but you will need to take your time in setting it up, unless you can find a reseller with a good reputation who will sell the kite to you. not many of those left... dakitez is one who has decided not to expose himself to the risk of selling badly set-up kites, but he has left an invaluable guide to setting them up on his website (www.dakitez.com), look for the instruction heading on the left side, near the bottom. There's a small risk involved, every once in a while folks get kites that are unflyable even after tweaking.

hope that helps your thinking....

That thread you linked me, matey said he prefers his ace to his blade :o thats good to hear, theres no shortage of kite stores near me so tweaking etc shouldnt be a problem, ive had much help from those guys, i have various sets of 23 25 m lines that i can put on the pansh.

Im defo a bit hesitant to sp ash out on a pl or ff just yet and like you said, it might spoil it, i want to experience a couple more other kites before i shell out mega bucks.

The 5 will be way to big for the winter winds where i am, sh*t, even the 4m will be too big i reckon, do pansh do a 3.5 ace?

In all honesty though, pansh ace is ticking all the right boxes.

aha they do a 3.5, splendid

pansh used to do one, yes.

have a good look through panshforumdotcom.

I may be wrong but some of the aces didn't scale (work out) so well. also they tend to make a bunch of kites and sell them until they are gone then make some more, so supply is sometimes a bit weird.

the radsail will take over when the ace is too much.

my 5 was good for me up to about 15-18 mph, I've flown it in 20+, but the gusts get too punchy for me at those winds speeds and the ace lifts HARD in gusts. I was able to pick my feet up at about 10 mph, lift didn't really kick until 12-13.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfxW0a9KGRI

I found this on youtube, seriously in winter every otherday we are getting 25 plus winds.

The radsails 3 is a freaking awesome kite for pull, it just has no lift whatsoever so i want a kite that will be exactly the same power in those winds but instead of traction, im looking for lift.

Im saving the rad for when i do eventually get on somewheels, thats quite a way off though.

once you get your redirects down, you'll be in better shape than that guy. The first jump was kind of OK, but the other two he flew the kite to the edge of the wind window and so of course it collapses when his feet get back on the ground.

aside from the lack of redirect, his kicking legs on every jump indicate he's way out of his comfort zone. It's an involuntary reaction, and still happens to me when I get too high up for my skills.

Aces are really bad at that -- edge stability. You need super clean winds b4 you get stability at the edge with aces. If you don't have good winds, your redirects need to be solid.

BeamerBob once said you could thread a needle with a blade on low lift setting on the edge, and he's not far off. A world of difference.

Yeah im defo getting the hang of redirects, its strange though because it seems to happen instinctivly, like an involuntery impulse lol, its cool.

I we get really clean air here, on the sand banks and beach, its unforgivingly constant lol, there is a very high field also just a few miles from the coast.

I dont have the urge to jump like that guy was doing anyway, it seemed wreckless.

you're in good shape, common-sense wise.

yeah, that's one the cool things about kiting, all these skills you practice and think about HARD in the beginning will sooner or later become instinctive and almost unconscious, well, most of the time.

also different kites need to be flown differently because the behave quite differently. you've already mentioned that tho. they'll require different redirects. the instincts you develop on one kite might not always transfer easily to another kite.

after I started jumping I also started learning how to fly by feel. blind, in other words. I don't fly completely blind, but it is very nice to be in the middle of a jump, hear an odd noise, and look at it to see if it is something I need to worry about, maybe a dog is running at me or something, without getting nervous about where the kite is and what it's doing. Also allows me to focus on where I'm landing. Same thing there tho, practice consciously first, then you find yourself able to use the skill more and more without having to think consciously about it.

sorry to natter on so much.

have fun talking to your bro about kites...

I like to fly blind in a low wind to get the feel more and more for the cirrus, obviously not blind folded lol, just looking straight ahead and going in a figure of eight, i also visualise in my mind that im jumping with it, but im static.

We are pretty much certain on a Pansh though, 4m probably.

So chaps i really need a second opinion on what kite to get, im being held back by when the wind is too much for the 6 and the radsails wants to just drag and sometimes we havent got enough space.

This is an example of the kind of winds we get here in the winter on a regular basis and its still summer! :o
Tbh maybe these winds are too much to fly anything but if thats the case then we wont get any flying time at all in the winter!

Anyway here it is



Now obviously they are not that strong all the time but most of the time its just a bit less than that.

Please give me some solid suggestions on what kite to fly and jump- with when the 6 is suicide?

Will a 4m ace still try and kill me??? Maybe the 3.5 will be better???

the 4 would have most of the lift of the cirrus 6, imho...

3.5 better in that case.

I love my 3,2 crossfire, from 18-28 mph it is a joy to jump with.

If you have something of a budget, the 4m blade would be amazing: with the adjustable AoA it can cover a wider wind range than most FB kites in its size range.

I've not gone depower yet, but for controlling the power from strong gusty winds there is no replacement, or so i hear. (my first depower is on its way... I''ve been fully fixed bridle up til now)

Cheers Furbowski, isnt no body else around lol. You are probably the most helpful person on this site.

I keep hearing Blade Blade Blade ya know and its what i would love to get but the 200pound budget is out the window now.

So when you say that the 4m ace would have the same lift as the 6. how do you mean? Do you mean that it would be a beast to takeoff and land, would it pull on the arms as much? etc etc. I could go with the 3.5 i suppose but i dont want to go too small then end up dissapointed.

most of the lift, not the same.

it's possible to change the AoA on an ace, have a look at panshforum(dot)com or U2U me for details if you get one and need to know.

It's just that from watching your videos it seems to me that the cirrus is more of a traction kite than a lifty one. You get jumps out of it yes but no kite is pure lift or pure traction, wish I could tell you why but I don't understand it well enough to explain quickly. basically (and very loosely) the faster the kite flies through the air (as a result of the profile chosen for its airfoil shape) the more lift it will produce, but the harder that lift will be to control. The ace is more lift than traction, and so will have a different overall dynamic that could produce far more lift than you would expect from a cirrus the same size.

the higher the wind, the more the risks. with a fast kite, that ramps up faster than with a slower kite. The ace is a fast kite. the more wind you give it, the faster it will go, and the more unpredictable (esp. at first, not nearly so much after a few hours flying) its power will be.

so it's hard to say how a slower stable traction kite will compare with a fast unpredictable lifty one. ( I know I'm making a bit of an assumption about that cirrus, but I stand behind it)

take off will be easy, the aces are early starters in low winds.

TBH, you want something more stable than an ace when you go with smaller kites in bigger winds. the 3.5 is doable but that's small as you want to go. Flexiblade calls his 2m ace "the little killer" and I believe him, I'd be scared to fly that thing static for lift when powered up, just plain too fast for my reflexes.

A peter lynn viper would do you very well, and new it would come in less than 200 pounds. Their twister is liftier and less stable, but that's a better mix to get in the larger sizes.

EDIT: not too sure about the lift on the viper, and the 3.9 is out of your price range 200 pounds, and you had to throw out that budget? the twister 4.1 would also be nice, but it would have most of the power of your 6m cirrus, same as the ace 4.

long - term you're probably best off with peter lynn arcs, tho, for the conditions you describe.

for now, you could go with the ace, but give yourself one last trawl through rackeites and kitecrowd and ebay for last minute deals.

also could try starting a new thread explaining your wind situation and deisre for a kite with reliable lift in those conditions.