Yes it's finally here my new baby!!!!! Got a chance to blow it up in the house today, all of the pics really only show half the kite.

Pic of me inside a cell, head out of the deflation zipper, this is a huge kite. (Please don't yell at me dman!!)

http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/ff86/Powerkitetime/?actio...

Inflated with a leaf blower, side view.

http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/ff86/Powerkitetime/?actio...

Also inflated, view from top, about half of the kite. :D

http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/ff86/Powerkitetime/?actio...

Showing the whole kite, about 30 feet long.

http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/ff86/Powerkitetime/?actio...

I will try to post some pics of it in the field tomorrow, wind permitting.


Happy flying,
NPW
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k

I'm glad it made it to you in time! Wow, I didn't know it could double as an blow up home.

Does the video make sense?

:P take out the kite, get as far as you can, climb inside sleep for the night, and continue the next morning.

Ha Ha,
You should label each cell. Living room , dining room etc. !

:P yeah only issue is getting past the profiles.....not cutting any holes.

Did you have a chance to fly her yet? If so/when you do,,let us know what you think!

Hoping today!!!! And if it goes well then maybe I'll be able to hit the snowboard/skis with it. Anyone else on here have/had one?

How did you come across this? Hit the big time at Christmas?

Yeah I got a bit of cash at Christmas:
$100=Uncle#1
$100=Uncle#2
$100=Aunt
$100=Parents
$100=Returns
And barnes told be about it, got it form dman

Quote:

Originally posted by NPWfever Yeah I got a bit of cash at Christmas: $100=Uncle#1 $100=Uncle#2 $100=Aunt $100=Parents $100=Returns And barnes told be about it, got it form dman

\

Wish I got that much, my Speeds pretty much all on me.

I'll still be paying it off to my parents next x-mas.

I'm hoping your flying it as I type this!! :tumble:

Quote:

Anyone else on here have/had one?

I had a Bomba 17 when they first came out. It's actually a pretty nice kite considering the vintage. Fairly quick turning for its size, very stable and decent depower. The Phantom 18 came out about the same time and over shadowed it because the P's had more bottom end and more range. I've only used them on water and with the B you have a much greater likelyhood of relaunching it if you drop it while the P is nearly impossible to water relaunch. The Venoms that came later mixed the best attributes of the B's, P's and GII's, but of the three I'd say the B's and P's were the better kites.

Now if you think the Bomba 17 is a monster kite, you should have seen the Guerilla II 22m. I had one of those and it was a monster. Unfortunately it was also a huge disappointment (a dog to turn, not much depower and virtually the same bottom end as a Phantom 18).

Another bit before I forget: When trimming a Bomba (or any PL for that matter) the trick is to adjust the lines so that you can completely release tension from the rear lines when the strap is all the way in and the bar all the way out. Then when the strap is all the way out and the bar is all the way in, you should be able to stall the kite backwards. Other PL riders might do it a bit differently, but I've found this to work best for me.

Sorry barnes couldn't get it up this weekend. Wasn't trimmed right and the wind was too gusty to figure it out. Just went out on the Ace. Was funny tho cuz that damned ace flies in so little wind that all the guys out there with their super fancy PL LEI's were sitting waiting around, some 16 year old kid with a pansh on handles and a strop line starts buzzing around them. :P Good times, then some guys came with foils and ruined my fun. Hoping for some wind tomorow, think its just a matter of figuring it out. The brakes were on the 3rd knot down, thinking the front set of knots is the next adjustment. It was stalling at about 15 feet even with me constantly choking the chicken. If that doesn't work I'll tie some knots into the LE pigtails.

Hey Nick, I got your message early this morning. Sorry I didn't answer, I was up all night with a kid with the flu. you need to set the back lines as far out as possible and pull the depower all the way in, if it still stalls you will need to put a few sets of knots in the front pigtails on the kit at about every 2 inches. move up one knot at a time until it comes of the ground. Don't pump the bar as this only causes it to stall, instead pull on the depower strap a couple of slow smooth tugs so that the lines come down towards you. this should get the kite up in the window. Gusty winds will only complicate the process until you become good at it. You'll later look back and laugh at how you struggled to launch when it only takes you a few minutes to set up and launch.


Big Kahuna's description of tuning is probably the simplest and best described way I've heard it put. Try that out and you should become a twin skin guru in no time.


Remember that wind gradient will be your enemy when launching in gusty winds, you must get it up higher quickly to help it avoid stalling.

Thanks dman, yeah winds look crapy today and I don't think I will get a flight but I will prob switch the brake lines and put in some knots. The only thing that concerns me is that doesnt a knot decrease the breaking strength by like 50% so if I have knots taking tension between the kite and the flying line aren't I in danger of breaking that pigtail? Same goes for the bar between the bar and the flying lines? AHHHH!H!!!??? confused!

No that shouldn't concern you, the pig tails are made of a different material with the concept of having knots in them for adjustment. Every kite I have owned has had either adjustments on the bar leaders or the kite connection points. Check the Kite fantastic peter lynn set up thread, I believe it talks about the pigtail length and setup for each model of kite.

Your knot at the kite should only be working as a stop for your Larks head knot ? If you need to create length, Larks head to the original knot and put a knot at the other end of the new pig tail to larks head the lines as usual. You are right about knots in your fly lines reducing strength.
Arcs are a true pain at 1st. Once you get it tuned and learn the launch technique you will be off ! Kind of sounds to me like you need extensions on your back lines.

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Arcs are a true pain at 1st.

Huh? :puzzled: I've flown LEI's, Flysurfers and PL's and I couldn't disagree more. Sorry, trimming a PL and getting it to fly in a bug farts of wind is about the easiest it can be. The problem with PL's is that although they will fly in almost no wind, they turn like crud and have no power in that kind of wind. They need a bit more wind for them to perform to their fullest.

If any other 17 meter kite can fly in that wind, the Bomba should also. If it only lifts a couple feet off the ground and then stalls you have -way- too much tension in the back lines. I'm talking several inches too much, maybe even a foot too much. PL's like to be flown by their front lines. When I've fully depowered my kite, the back lines are very slack. So slack that they have big arcs downwind.

Hence the arc! Yeah I just need to put the rear lines on the forward knots and shorten the powers a bit

Hey BigK,
I wasn't knocking arcs. I like them ! I'm just looking back at the the fun I had with my F-arc back when I had very little experience with kites.
I had intructions but still had some trouble getting my lines set up. The book said front 1cm shorter than back. It needed more than that but flew well with extensions. My Flysurfers and blimps have NEVER needed extensions or ANY special trimming needs. They have also all had clear choices for attachment alternatives. My old F-arc.... not so much. :duh:
The F-arc was extremely high aspect and I never really did get the self launch / relaunch ( at side of window ) down. Bowtiing it all too often. The lower aspect of the Bomba should greatly reduce this issue for Nick.

I put some adjustments into the LE pigtails, the knots are 2.5" apart. Let me know if anyone sees anything wrong with this.

Thanks,
NPC
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c
k

K another stumper! Where is the adjustable TE strap? I see something inside the cells but it doesn't look adjustable, just a piece of webbing running through the cell.

Quote:

Originally posted by NPWfever K another stumper! Where is the adjustable TE strap? I see something inside the cells but it doesn't look adjustable, just a piece of webbing running through the cell.

Bombas didn't have an adjustable TE strap, either did the Guerilla II. That started with the Phantom. To be honest, I rarely touch the strap on my Venom anyways.

Your pigtails look fine. Just have someone help you and just keep shortening the fronts until the rears are real slack, then she should go up super easy.

I remember the first session I had on my B17. It was the first PL I ever flew that actually went up faster during a sine than it did going down. Fun kite.

Snowbird - You had an F-Arc? Ok, now your comments make sense. I never flew one but have talked to folks who have and from what they told me that was a real tricky kite to fly. The Phantom replaced it and was much more user friendly. I started with the first Guerillas. Super easy kite to fly as were the Bomba, Guerilla II, Phantom and Venoms that I had after it.

Yea, the F-arc was a ribbon in the air and would bow-tie just looking at it funny. The Bomba is nearly impossible to bowtie and launching is simple, nothing like the F-arc.

The PL's have always been a little more technical to set up than other brands, mostly because of the lack of information on the kites. I am very pleased that this has changed with the new Synergy. It comes with a fully detailed setup sheet that explains what all the adjustments do and how to adjust them.

The main thing you will want for your Bomba is to have a long adjustment strap. LEI straps are all way too short. You will want to have at least 10" of throw (or more) and another 10" of adjustment on your strap. Launch your kite in mild winds that are strong enough that the kite launches without a lot of effort. Fly the kite slow across the window and when you power the kite up completely (slide the bar closest to you) the kite should just barely slow down and stall. If the kite stalls quickly and/or flies backwards then you will need to lengthen your brake lines (or shorten your main top lines- either will give the same result).

Once you get it set up so that it barely stalls you should be done. You can add in small adjustments when you fly in stronger winds to finish your fine tuning.

Hope that helps.

Hmmkay so I got it up but I know it doesn't produce as much power as a fixed bridle as it has an arc shape so you lose alot of workable surface area, but it seems to be underpowered. I launched it in 20mph wind and felt little power even fully powered and not much differnce in power between powered up and depowered. Is the kite tuned wrong or is this normal? At any rate it is a great kite and very fast for its size, its actually as fast/faster than the 8 meter. It is also great untill you use the safety system and go to hook the QR back up and then it launches with no depower capabilities.

The Bomba is a lower aspect ratio kite, so power will be a little less than one may expect, especially after flying fixed bridled kites.

One thing that many people don't realize about the Twin Skin kites is that their power is generated from the kite moving, unlike an LEI which will produce more power when parked. As you work the kite from side to side the power will come on stronger, the faster the kite flies the more power it will produce. You can get tons of power from the kite by knowing how to fly it.

As said by many who fly the twin skins, fly em like your ticked off at em. Spank it around and it will wake up and start performing a lot better for you. Once you get moving and up to speed you can park the kites and still maintain the performance. When your going slow or still the kites just dont produce like you would expect them to.

The beautiful thing about them is that the more you work them the better the performance. The power comes on smooth and controllable. Get use to the kite more and you will start to figure out how to get the power out of it.

I did notice alot more power when moving the kite. I guess static jumps arent too easy to come by with this kite? Or do I just not know how to use it well enough yet? GREAT!!! I get ticked off at my kites anyways!!!! :D For those of you that have bouts of kite tourrettes, you know what I mean. Funny thing is I have TS :singing:

Ahhh great excuse! Sorry sir I didn't mean to hit you w/ the kite, one of my tics is a downward twitch while pulling back on the same hand and moving the other hand the oposite way. (For those of you who couldn't follow that I am describing a combo break/power turn)

This is so true! Once you get the hang of it . I had a 6m phantom out on the water today in 30-40 winds. It was like flying a sports car over 4-6 ft rollers. will have sweet dreams tonight!............ajIM

Quote:

Originally posted by awindofchange The Bomba is a lower aspect ratio kite, so power will be a little less than one may expect, especially after flying fixed bridled kites. One thing that many people don't realize about the Twin Skin kites is that their power is generated from the kite moving, unlike an LEI which will produce more power when parked. As you work the kite from side to side the power will come on stronger, the faster the kite flies the more power it will produce. You can get tons of power from the kite by knowing how to fly it. As said by many who fly the twin skins, fly em like your ticked off at em. Spank it around and it will wake up and start performing a lot better for you. Once you get moving and up to speed you can park the kites and still maintain the performance. When your going slow or still the kites just dont produce like you would expect them to. The beautiful thing about them is that the more you work them the better the performance. The power comes on smooth and controllable. Get use to the kite more and you will start to figure out how to get the power out of it.