Good morning!

as a moderatly experienced kite flier, I have the opportunity to purchase a flexifoil 10 kite, age unknown. My current kite lineup include a hq symphony 2.1 meter and a beemer 5.0 meter. I have also flown a hq hydra 350 (and I have purchased a 3.5 meter kite that is on its way to fill the void between the 2 meter and 5 meter).

Anyways, I have seen these flexifoils fly and they look like they are a lotta fun. Anybody know what the power would be in relationship to the kites I am familiar with? concerns? Your opinion on what would be a fair price for a kite, line, and padded wrist straps in really good condition (wrist straps will need replacement shortly but that is about ten bucks).

I appreciate your opinions and look forward to your replies.

Regards,
Cranky

Never flew the 10 but had Stackers in the 6 foot size. They are a blast to fly- SUPER FAST. A #@%$#! to land though, Since there are no brakes you have to stake it on one handle then run like hell to catch it while its flappin all over the place!
Great for skudding but with wrist straps and really no safety I would be cautious on getting air. Power wise best guess would be 5-6m in good wind since they pull hard.

If its the one on fleabay it looks to be in great condition. I would say around $100-$125 is a fair price for these.

. i got a few 8's and a 6, came as a package w/ a landboard i was after...... flew 2 of them once individually.... it was fast and fun... but not like my other kites and have not flown since... i felt the power but it seemed like it was all about stacking them and i just didn't want to spend the time

This is a great, old school foil. It's fast and generates quite a bit of pull. Remember, this is a two line kite. This makes it far from ideal for traction sports considering what else is available.

Regarding value, I might pay $100 for it, just to have a really fun static flying toy.

I have several of these also. 4'/6'/8'/10' and even a monster Hyper 16. They are fun when you're in the mood for an old school power kite. Stacking can be tedious depending on sizes, but a big stack is neat to look at/fly and can really drag you around. That Hyper 16 turns so slowly you really need 200' lines.

I flew an 8 stack of Hotshots (4') a few months back -- super fun but that size needs lots of wind and they're somewhat finicky to get the stack tuned just right. Much easier to stack the larger sizes. I have 5x 6 footers I need to put together into a stack.

Prices really vary, also depending on the sizes/condition/RTF or not, etc. I've seen the Super 10 go from $50 to $200 depending on condition, style, etc. I picked up a hot pink one on eBay for I think $80 several months ago. I don't think anyone was into the pink but I didn't care. I have 3 Hotshots I've been trying to sell on GWTW for a few weeks with not many inquiries. Even though that size is no longer made they're sometimes difficult to sell.

Sail area on the 10 is 1.75 sq. m so I would say it's comparable to a 2m foil, it's when you start stacking them when the power really picks up. I tried 3 Super 10's stacked once and it was dragging me all over the place. :wee:

Not much lift with these either, more pull.

Lots of great info on these can be found here: http://www.cobrakite.com/flextune.html

Hope it's OK to post that link here.

-Mike

any hotshots still for sale?
my 6 year old is desperate to play with my stacker 6 & 10 but they are way too powerful for him and thought a 4foot would be ok

I love the stackers. I owned a few over the years. Yeah some good memories. Very much faster compared to your kites and any kite I guess. I know that the 6" still holds the world speed record at 110mph.

Not content with the standard line set, I decided to purchase a new line set every payday until I had them flying on an estimated 780ft. That was the sweet spot.

I had them dive-bombing to the ground from that height. They would scream on the way down. Dog walkers could not tell where the noise was coming from, only that it was earth bound and getting louder. One old guy even ducked for cover with both hands over his head. Probably in response to a childhood memory of the dreaded Doodlebug that Hitler so enjoyed launching to London. The old guy seemed to love it though. I saw him run towards his car between dives. Probably to fetch his wife so she could watch too.

I flew them once on almost 1000ft of line but the control response had a big delay. You had to think far ahead, pulling out of a dive a few seconds early to compensate for the delay. The size of the wind window was ridiculous. It had you skiing along on the climb alone and if the kites should flip while launching which it did many times, then it was a 0.6 kilometer round trip to correct it.

The Super 10 was my first kite which I decided to buy for myself ....for my brothers birthday
I bought it from a clothing store which had a TV promoting them. I remember watching the TV and seeing a guy ski across the soft sun baked sand on a tropical beach as this kite pulled him and it looked fantastic.
I'd never seen anything like it.

There was only one left on display in the 10 size and the packaging looked like it had been opened and taped up again but I bought it anyway.

My brother and I took it out on a very cold and windy November day high up on a hill. Seeing as it was a birthday gift to my brother, naturally I decided that I would be at the controls, my brother was the 'go fetch and re-launch guy', but as hard as we tried we couldn't make it fly.

I was shouting at him and he was shouting at me and after an hour he could no longer feel his fingers so we got back in the car and drove home. Some years later I realized why it never flew, the spars were missing.