Hello Gang,

I hope I don't need a flame proof suit after asking this question...

I'm a relatively new kite owner. I have a 3m Beamer and a 1.8m Symphony. I'm pretty comfortable with both kites.
Make no mistake, I'm still learning with the 3m and have no plans to fly the 5m at any time soon. I simply have a few questions about bigger kites. Specifically the 5m Crossfire II.

I have good sense enough to know when to leave the 3m in the bag. I'm not looking to get hurt, so I apply that same logic with any kite I buy. The 5m is no exception. It will stay in it's big blue bag for some time..

Read this and trust my words: I've read enough horror stories, inexperienced bull headed pilots get hurt. I know my limits and I will not be flying the 5m anytime soon.

With all that out of the way:

Besides size, what sort of differences should a person expect between the 3m Beamer and the Crossfire II?

When it does come out for the first time (in calm (read:low), steady winds), I just want to know what to expect.

Thanks,
Ted

The Crossfire is a high-aspect kite. It is going to be much faster, and generate a lot more power than you are getting from the beamer in the same winds. This is also going to be a kite that will have some lift in it as well (where the beamer does not). The Crossfire will NOT like gusty and/or shifty winds. Steady breezes will not be an issue. But any shift/gust in the wind, and you will feel it...

Good luck.

Night and Day.

The Beamer you can fly in a Stevie Wonder kind of way. All relaxed with a smile on your face.

The Crossfire has alot of power. More like a Mr. T crunched up constipated kind of face.

I have no idea why I chose these characters for an analogy.

from my experience, The crossfire wants/needs Brakes especially on the turning inputs to keep from turning into a bow tie.

Once you master that, its a very nice kite.

Keep the winds definitely below 10 for the first flights.

Enjoy and tell us how it went.

Yes, in addition to adding 2 meters of kite, the CF II is faster and much more powerful. It is also a high performance kite that doesn't have the stability you have come to appreciate with the Beamer. Since it isn't a beginners kite, it wasn't designed to offer beginner kite flight characteristics. And yes it has a high level of lift designed in. If you are in higher gusty winds with the kite hovering overhead, chances are high that it will lift you off the ground. You zig zagging it around up at zenith will magnify the likelihood of you getting picked up. In time you can toy around with this and enjoy this with the kite and then graduate to fully sending the kite for the purpose of picking you up. The trick is to always be underpowered with the kite when you are stepping outside your comfort zone. Putting in hours flying this and other kites will expand your skill set so that you can mess around with jumping and have minimal risk. I think you understand what can happen if you add high winds and fly outside your comfort zone at the same time.

With you expressing your understanding and respect of the CF II no flames should come your way. Keep us posted on how you progress and with any questions you have.

It doesn't show in my signature any more, but I owned both the original CF and the CFII in 5m.

be careful if you plan to jump with it. The crossfire 2 needs a perfect re-direct or the kite will bowtie. So make sure you practice your re-directs while your feet are still on the ground to get them perfect.
Screwyfits and I played around with the aoa knot settings and got the kite to perform much better, but we could never get all the bowtie-ness out of it. We were still tweaking it when the blade IV came out. After first flight on the blade we scraped the crossfire project.
so maybe if you put time and patience into it you can help smooth it out even more.

I won't repeat what all these guys said above - all good - but only add that if you try to turn down the lift with the AoA adjuster, it becomes what seems to be more unstable but what is going on is that it is even faster and you need to ride the brakes just right to keep it from overlying the window and snapping shut like a mousetrap.

Don't be discouraged. Good kite, but more modern designs are more stable. It will sharpen your skills and be a good teaching platform.

Thanks for being such a sport and heeding good warnings. You make the sport better. Never even had to light the pilot light on the 'thrower :singing:.

Good luck, fly safe and have fun.

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the great advice. I appreciate it.

I'll keep this tid bits in mind when the time is right.

Ted

Just wanted to report back to let you all know that I've flown the Crossfire a few times now. The first day went really well. Nice steady winds 7mph tops.

I found it pretty easy to control. Only "bow tied" it a few times. I was really amazed at the speed of the kite. More than once while flying an upline to the top of zenith it accelerated so fast that it would scare the crap out of me. All I could imagine was myself being yanked into the air. I hit the brakes and got it back under control. I left the field having flown it for a good 2 hours and I felt like I really understood the kite and how to make it perform. No worries.

The second day flying it was a different location. The winds weren't as clean and the area was kind of restricted. I was flying in a high school football field with tall bleachers on both sides. They formed kind of a choppy wind tunnel. I wound up turning it into a bag of laundry more than a few times. Other times it would get into the power zone and really pull like hell. I really had to be on guard. After the end of this day I was really scared of this kite. I don't know how trust it yet.

I ended the day flying the Beamer III. It's funny how flying the Beamer seems like I'm riding a tri-cycle now. Ha!