I really haven't done much kiting over the last 12 months but on a recent trip to Kingston and Beachport in South Australia, I finally managed to get
the little green 3.5m Longstar 2 into the air for the first time.
First day out we had 12 - 15 knots or so cross onshore and I had to remind myself not to pull too much bar in or I'd choke the kite - particularly
flying down wind. With a little working of the kite going downwind, the speed built and the little LS2 kicked into gear getting to 58kph.
Considering the wind speed I was kiting in, this little kite will be capable of some fast times. Upwind was a bit of a slog but manageable -
impressive for a 3.5m depower.
Next trip was around 10 - 15 knots but more directly on shore. When the wind dropped to the lower end of the scale, sure, I was underpowered - as you
would expect, but the kite pulled me around nicely when the wind picked up a little. An interesting note - at the same time, Trevor had his 7m
longstar 2 in the air - at times a bit overpowered but the fact that we could both ride the same conditions with kites on either side of the ideal
size speaks a bit about the versatility of these kites. And there were times when Trevor and myself were neck and neck doing 40kph along the sand.
Next trip started around 15 - 16 knots and ended up right in the big grin zone of 25 knots. The 3.5m really shone here. What I loved about it is the
fact I could take off from the car park, within a hundred meters or so, I was doing 50kph and if I wanted to cut the power - just let the bar out. No
fuss, no flapping, just very little pull whether the kite was directly overhead or low to the side. It was very confidence inspiring. Pull the bar
in again and off you go - in my case, grinning like an idiot.
Trevor was also flying his 3.5m LS2 with the same results. I found the Longstar easy to manage - providing I was careful - in 25 knots. Sidelaunch
was fine too as was backstall landing or side landing with assistance. It may have ghost landed but there was an awful lot of dried seaweed around -
some of it with little evil 'hooks' spaced every couple of inches. I managed to keep most of it out of my bridles but Trevor did have a run in with
it that took him a little time to pick out of the bridles - which is possibly the only downside to this kite - lots of bridles and lots of seaweed do
not make for good companions.
The Longstar 2 3.5m really combines the best bits of all the small depowers I own or have owned - it has the forgiving top end of my Access XT 4m but
with the bottom end grunt of the Peak 2 4m. There's no flapping like the P2 and it also has the steady stability of the 5m Frenzy that I had for a
while. It's actually pretty hard to find anything to criticize about the kite it just does everything so well for a small depower. The fact you can
actually buggy in 10 - 12 knots and still be going in 25 knots speaks volumes.
I flew this on the bar that came with the 4m Peak 2 which worked beautifully, although I did pull in almost all the trim. I found that being a small
depower, I had to be a little subtle with my bar movements - probably 6 - 8 inches between full gas and power off.
Over the 3 days I did around 90km with the kite and the only time I can remember it misbehaving was starting to stall if I had too much bar pulled
in on a handful of occasions which were instantly fixed by letting the bar out a little. No tangles or bow ties apart from picking a little seaweed
out of the bridles.
Probably the most fun I've ever had with a small kite in decent wind.
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