Now you hear it all the time, when a person into the sport a couple months wants to start jumping with a kite and all the vets suggest 5m or larger for nice floaty jumps.

Now I have owned the 4m Crossfire and 2.4m Crossfire first gens back a couple years ago. And I always wondered this.


If a kite like the Crossfire, Twister, Blade are considered lifty kites. why make small sizes like 2m and 3m? If it is going to drop you like a rock?

Although........I have had some jumps with the 2.4 in 25+ where i was suspended about 5ft in the air for a sec before being placed gently down.

Discuss......:wee:

well, flexi doesn't make the blade below the 4m size, but the twister bottoms out at 3m. I've been lofted by my crossfire 3.2 before, I was doing jumps with itty bitty little fig eights between 11 and 1 o'clock. It was nearly too quick for me to handle and really punchy in the gusts.

for me the best jumper is the biggest one i can fly for the conditions, including the maximum gusts. the 3.2 was a bit too much for me, but I can see being better on a 4m, the size flies just slow enough so I might be OK.

I fly on soft loose sand which is amazing ground to jump on, I have to be a lot more careful on hardpack, so the ground you would be on will make a difference.

But above 15 knots the gusts get too gnarly, just way too punchy for a fixed bridle. seems like th strnger the wind the puchier the gusts get, after a certain point it gets to be too much... I had a ton of those winds this spring, then I bought an arc this summer and haven't had the winds since... but NE monsoon season is just around the corner for us HK folk...


all from my narrow-minded static jump viewpoint, of course...

apple pie

good high wind buggy engines:wee:

Seems to be that lighter winds/larger kite for for gentle and predictable landings is the advice for novice jumpers. Lower air speeds with fewer redirects another possibility. Not my forte, but that's what I would think.

Yes, what makes them lifty makes them fast !

I think another part of it is the experience of the flier.

The Twister , Blade and Crossfire are part of the PRO series of their brand.

It isn't that you can't jump with the smaller kites but that you shouldn't learn to jump on them if you are just learning to fly. IMHO

Quote:

Originally posted by furbowski well, flexi doesn't make the blade below the 4m size

didn't they make a Flexi Blade III 3m? could of sworn they did. I might be thinking of something else. :puzzled:

no they did..there is a 3m blade video on you tube....dud on a beach that gets beached....anyway the reason is as i figure it ..is this.....think of lift....it pulls you straight up at zenith...ok zenith is 90 degrees up from the ground...now imagine the zenith position at parallel to ground.....all that lift would translate to...pull....so a lifty kite...like a tiny blade or like a 2 meter ace or a 3 meter jojo...all that lift goes to pull sideways ...so you halas...and need hoojbalz....I think thats the middle eastern terminolgy........

papst

Thanks Art that makes complete sense . Never thought of that