I had a nice session at Anastasia SP yesterday. The winds were a very smooth 7-9 MPH the whole time. My 16m Scorpion was a bit hard to launch, but I got it on the 3rd try. It stayed up happily for the next 3 1/2 hours a like a good little kite.

The people I met at Anastasia were so pleasant. I got nothing but positive comments and good conversation. I met a guy from Crystal River who helped me set up. A father and young son asked a lot of questions. Two girls from Oregon wanted to know where to learn. Clearly, I need to start carrying a trainer with me to do more outreach.

The wind direction was a little southerly so the runs south were calm, but the runs north were smokin' fast. Some day I need to mount the GPS on the bug get a more objective measure of "smokin'", but let me just say the slides at the end of the northerly tacks were very long.

A new part of my regular gear is equipment to anchor the kite at zenith when I want to take a break. I have a sand anchor, a small folding Gerber shovel and a caribiner. So when I got hungry yesterday I dug a hole, dropped in the sand anchor, filled it with dirt, clipped the caribiner to the four corners of the anchor, and then to the bar's load loop. Much as I like and trust the auto zenith, it's harder to eat when a kite is drifting randomly back and forth in front of your face.

I suppose if I had to land the kite I might have switched to the 10m Scorp to see how it behaved in the conditions I had to work with. I'm pretty sure I could have buggied with it but I doubt it would have been as fun. I've found the the 10m has the same high end speed, but it is rather slow off the blocks in the lighter wind. With the 16m I can aim it toward the power zone, pull the bar as it enters the sweet spot and the acceleration is just fantastic. The 10m will turn faster and that does appeal but the 10m has a nice balance of turning rate and low end power in the lower wind.

A wise man, a very experienced buggier, once said of my 16m, "It's too big. You can't buggy with that."

Oh yes I can!

Philip

Very cool that so many people are supportive and interested in that area as well. I often get lots of watchers and many questions. And I agree you should bring a small trainer with you so they can try. I carry the Skydog SDT2.8 for that reason.

Anastasia is one of my favorite places I've ever buggied. Nice hard sand for the most part along with supportive park rangers and that sweet desolation where you can go north and escape the crowds.

I'm not sure how wise the "wise old buggier" was that said a 16 scorp couldn't be buggied with. I can attest that 18m Phantoms, 19m Chargers and certainly 15m Phantoms and Synergies are fantastic buggy engines if matched to the conditions.

That is a great kite. Its my go to kite, and has treated me very well over the last year and a half. One of my favorite thngs to do with that kite is park it low in the window and lean hard. It is a speed machine.

Yes we were tasting the same winds with the kites that Bobby mentioned. Bliss,, I say!

Quote:

Originally posted by BeamerBob ... I'm not sure how wise the "wise old buggier" was that said a 16 scorp couldn't be buggied with. I can attest that 18m Phantoms, 19m Chargers and certainly 15m Phantoms and Synergies are fantastic buggy engines if matched to the conditions.

At 165-ish pounds I don't know if any larger would be useful for me. At 7 MPH I'm awfully close to the bottom end of the useful wind range. I'm willing to try though if I can just get a successful launch. :-)

I'm going to try the 10m the next time I get these winds. I want to see what I can achieve just for comparison. I have a friend who wants to get into the sport and I suspect the overlap in the wind ranges of the 10m and the 16m would allow us to to fly together in the typical winds we get here.

I just need to get a second bar. ;-)

Philip