Power Kite Forum - Herc reverse launches a Zephyr

uh - you posted the more boring video ;-) took me a while to launch the kite, because little to no wind and not pulling hard enough on the backlines..

my other video is a bit better imho:

here, a short mini review:

to sum it up: the zephyr can stay up in the air in 3 knots, if actively flown. it stays stable at the zenit at 5 knots. it can also be backward-relaunched at 5 knots. and it was able to pull me on my mountainboard in a knee-high meadow (lots of friction!) at around 7 knots. and it starts to be really fun at greater 9 knots. at 10 knots, if kite is statically in the zenit and i fully power up the kite, it can lift my 63kg.

but in really difficult lightwind situations, with deep lulls down to 2 knots or so, the zephyr still has some tendency to frontstall / hindenburg / nosedive. had that 3 times yesterday. including one full invert of the kite. but thats due to the extremely low winds. when lines go slack, you better run backwards.. or just let it nosedive - relaunch is relatively easy (at least on the meadow )

Kites:
Tubes: Ozone Zephyr 17 * Naish Helix 2009 10.5 qm * Cabrinha Access 2003 9qm * Wipika Hydro 2001 9qm *
Arcs: PL Scorpion 13, 16 qm; PL Synergy 10 qm
open cell: PL Twister I 7.7 * PKD Buster II 3qm
Paragliders: Gradient Bright Classic (with check) * Swing Mistral 1 (groundhandling) *Advance Alpha 3 (groundhandling)