My B IV 6.5 is here, took two weeks for my cashier’s check to get to the USA and tridude, about a week for the package to make it here to HK.

Took it for one flight already in gusty winds 4-15 knots swinging through 120 degrees, then for another flight on a beach with onshore 11-14 knot winds, smooth and gust-free. About an hour and half in all, with a half-hour on my Ace 5 as part of the mix, as I’ve always wanted to try the two back-to-back.

When I unpacked it (took a while with dull scissors and layered cardboard, good pack job!) I noticed a few things, mostly that the brakes were led to the kite killer knots, the killers were easily accessible in a side pocket of the bag, and the powers were set one knot back from the end of the handle leaders, the middle of three knots set about 60mm apart.

It seemed that Tridude had set it up to be impossible for a newbie to launch, but easy for a more experienced kiter to lay out in a decent wind and slowly dial up the performance while getting safely comfortable around a new kite.

I reset the brakes to second from the leader end (4 knots there, different spacings, 50 to 80mm apart ) and used the killers on the kite side of the knot closest to the handle. (good ones, a bit heavier around the wrists than the ones from my sting 1.7, and although the bungee material is the same its about 50% longer). The handles look and work good, much chunkier than my sting handles.

Its first flight was on what seemed to be the least lifty of the four knots available on the AoA setting, rather than the three I expected, I moved it up one from the next down, which is likely closer to the third of the three settings I know of from reviews. The kite didn't like it much, in retrospect the brakes were still too tight while the kite was too depowered to get far off the ground.

Next flight was back on the third knot (least lifty setting?) it was originally on as shipped from Tridude. It flew better, but brakes were still just a bit too tight, and it was obvious that the gusty winds and widely shifting window would make for a pretty dynamic flying situation if I continued to dial up the performance on that beach.

So I shifted to a different one facing directly into the wind, a good solid BF 3 (just short of scattered whitecaps) coming off the ocean, a bit much for the Blade at first, and so I flew the Ace for awhile before I got comfortable enough to break out the Blade. I moved the brakes back one more notch, right to the end on the brake handle leaders, and flew it for a bit, not quite so
much power as the Ace on this setting, and still a bit too much brake.

So I landed it again, put the lift on the second setting, forgot about the brake, and tried it again. Brakes too tight again, barely got off the ground. (I don’t understand this one, powering up the kite should loosen the brakes?)

So I noticed that the handle powers still had one more knot to go to the end, and put them on that last knot.

It flew fine on this setting, and I got some jumps in. More float than the Ace, definitely more lift, but equal pull down low in the window. It's going to take me a while to sort out redirecting by using powers more than brakes, but for the time being I got 3-4 foot jumps and several 10-15 foot floats without really trying to send it hard / too far and deep into power, and it all happened about 50% slower than the 5m Ace, which is a good thing.

The Blade seems much floatier than the Ace, and feels much slower in the sky, tho quick enough.
The crossovers on the powers make for good turns on powers alone, with perhaps just a touch of brake, I'm still getting used to that.

Haven't yet tried it on the max lift setting.

The Ace definitely soaks up gusts way better, while the Blade is far better in terms of stability on the edge.

The Ace is much quieter on the ground, the Blade is much more eager to lift its trailing edge into the wind and get exciting if it isn’t well anchored.

The Ace inflates slowly after a collapse, the Blade much more quickly. The Ace doesn’t scare me when it re-inflates deep in the power window, but the Blade does.

The Ace is way more sensitive to the brakes, while the Blade is less so. But I can use the brakes slightly to power up the Blade, and I can’t get that to work with my Ace.

The Blade is a good kite, I'm glad I've got it.

It's definitely had a few flights, and feels well flown in, but other than that it looks like new, with all bits and bobs.

I've got a bit of tinkering to do with it yet before I get it dialed in, and have a few different settings to play with yet on brakes and powers.

There's also an adjustment to the crossovers, is there not? Haven't found it yet, haven't really looked.

I'm happy with the purchase, and very happy with the condition of the kite as received from Tridude.

I’ve always been curious how it would stack up against the Ace 5, and my first impression is that the Ace feels more like a different kite than a kite of inferior quality, pretty much what I had always thought.

@ tridude: you received an earlier version of this post, I got some of the brake / power settings wrong in that post, all corrected in this post, as best as I can remember.

cheers,

furbo.

Congrats on a fantastic addition to your quiver! Tridude takes good care of his stuff and your goods will always be slightly better than he describes. We look forward to hearing all about your growth with the Blade.

Yes there are adjustments on the crossbridles. I never messed with them but want to some boring day at the beach with a steady wind. Ironically this adjustment isn't mentioned in the manual.

DUDE....VERY NICE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was thinking about the comment about turning speed. The 6.5 turns slower than most any 5m kite would. We've flown the 6.5 and 4.9 Blade IV's together (have pics) and the 4.9 turns noticeably faster even with how fast the 6.5 turns for its size. The blade IV is much faster turning than the 6m Ace. 5m and 6.5m kites are just different animals. I agree with your assessment of the handling at the edge. Especially in low lift setting, the blade will thread a needle at the edge. As a matter of fact that is about the only place you can get a rest from the wind unless you land it.

I think this post should read Furbs Blade IV 6.5 arrives...................................

It has a special significance since it was yours. Now it is becoming his. Kinda like an adoption. I feel proud to have provided it care for a few weeks during its days in the states.

Yep, it's def mine now.

Been soaked in thundershowers a few times, packed up quickly and carried home to dry. No salt-water crashes as yet, so haven't had to wash it.

I fly it a bit looser on the brakes than tridude, lots on a recent thread else where in this forum. I think if I were on a board or buggy I'd be needing slightly tighter brakes, but for now they're about six or seven inches looser.

The wind lately has been really frustrating, lots of thundershowers and gust fronts and variable winds making me shuttle from beach to beach to find the right angle. Also not many daytime low tides, and I need those at most beaches to have room to fly.

Today was the best yet out of 5-6 times out since I got the kite. But typically frustrating! The weather report said increasingly strong winds peaking at sunset at 11 knots from the ocean. But I was tracking a massive 400 mile-wide band of thunderheads coming from the eye of the wind at thirty knots (the local state-funded weather service has realtime weather radar accessible from its web page) and figured I'd go for the last two hours before it hit.

So I got to the beach, and there was not even enough wind to get my Ace 5 up... Darn. I tried to take a nap, but that didn't work. One eye on the wind, another on all the sand crabs digging holes in the beach.

After twenty minutes, there was enough wind to get the Ace up with about half the wind window flyable (by width, not area). OK. So I gave it a try.

The wind kept coming on, with no big black clouds on the horizon yet. After another twenty minutes, I've got most of my window, and I'm almost scudding.

Time for the Blade! It went up nice, just enough power to scud a wee bit. I tried it like that for a bit, then landed it and put it on the max lift setting. I've tried it before, but it hasn't worked yet. I got it up, barely -- felt like the brake lines were too short, really weird as I figured powering up the kite should effectively slack off the brakes by a couple inches -- but it made it up, kinda.

The wind was still coming on, at this point I'd guess it was gusting just short of ten mph / 8 knots. The Blade would at first only fly on max power at all well in the gusts. But I could tell it was a real animal on that setting. It was grabby and jerky, the gusts would power it hard across the window, accelerating until it was past the middle, then slowing down near the edge. It got really loose near the edge, flopped around and tried to bowtie a lot, I could recover it most of the time, and that was at times scary, esp when it re-inflated deep in the wind window, so it was getting increasingly edgy for me in mildly gusty wind passing through and a bit past (by now) ten knots. I was getting sharp hard twenty-foot scuds and a few involuntary jumps, and the wind was still coming on, so I landed the kite in order to put it back on the medium setting.

At this point, a lass walked up and wanted to try flying a kite. Turned out she was a windsurfer, but that's mostly another story. Not over yet, I hope...:wink2:

Anyways, about half an hour later she was starting to teabag on the 5m (at about 100lbs body weight), and there was a long nasty-looking line of black clouds rolling in from the horizon, with the wind blowing hard enough to make the sea look rough with a very few whitecaps. The rain was thick and black beneath the clouds, with a little white line along the horizon: a big gust front throwing up lots of whitecaps in front of a wall of heavy tropical rain.

I figured I had another ten minutes or so of marginally safe flying with the Blade, so up it went, and up I went! I got up to head-height a couple of times, and had one lovely fifteen-foot (horizontal, eh?) floater! Fifty-foot scuds with one pass through the window! I did a couple in six-inch deep low-tide water and got soaked to the chest from the spray! Woo hoo!

Then it tea-bagged me at zenith, outdoing my best floater jump, and I just barely managed to (crash) land it at the edge of the window! Did the absolute fastest and sloppiest kite packing of my life and ran for the trees! The heavy rain dump and the gust front (30 knots, at least, broke a few tree branches) was right on my back!

A fantastic day!

Thanks for the sale, tridude.

cheers all,

furbo
:tumble:

Dang well that was an awesome review and story! haha i felt like i was there!!! Sounds like a blast furbo!

That kite will fly better, smoother, and faster on the lower lift settings when the wind is marginally low. Turn it down if you don't have enough wind to jump. On low lift, you can thread a needle out at the edge of the wind window. Very stable. Keep on learning what makes the lady tick, and keep having fun with it.

@ fOrgiv3n: thanks, it was a lot of fun writing this wee kite adventure! I was indeed trying to tell a good story, one as real as I could make the words dance!

@BB: I haven't tried the low-lift setting since my first time out, but I remember its stability at the edge.

The lady seems to tick in a variety of ways (like any lass of quality, she will be occasionally #@%$#!y) but I love the way it has three distinctively different personalities with the angle of attack settings. A bit like having three different fixed foils in the same size!

Low lift: very well-mannered, very controllable, incredibly stable at the edge.

Medium: slightly rough edge to the good manners, considerably more lift.

High: no manners at all, sharp and grabby lift and traction, and the fear factor kicks in!

If I lay the blade out flat, it has a distinctively oval shape. The Ace, however, has a mostly straight trailing edge. I wonder if this is why it is better in low winds? The Ace works much better at the low end of the wind (sub 5 or 6 mph) than the Blade. Perhaps if I try the lowest AoA setting again, the Blade will catch up? I don't think so, but I will give it a try.

But for the time being, the Ace 5 comes out first. When it's flying well, it's time for the Blade IV 6.5. If the wind overpowers me on the Blade, then the Ace can come back out. It's a bit odd, but that's how it works. I didn't really have the chance to try the Ace again today when the wind became to strong for the Blade, but I guess it will extend my wind range a bit. Also, my edgier experiences with the Blade will extend my wind range with the Ace as well.

I still don't get a couple of things.

First, why does the Blade seem to want slacker brakes when I put it on max lift? I was about to try it again with another few inches of slack on the brakes when I was interrupted in the story above. I would have thought powering it up would slack off the brakes all on its own?!? Maybe it's just the way highly powered kites work...

Also, my redirects are not as effective as I'd like. I'm not getting float, usually, and about half the time I jump I make it back to the ground just before it begins to collapse, the rest of the time I'm getting away with it (so far). I think I may sometimes be jumping too soon, but it's difficult for me to put in better terms.

I'm doing pendulem jumps, sending it one way across the window while running the other way at a little bit of an upwind angle, and turning it hard upwind just as it pulls me hard enough to jump. Half the time, by the time land it's going downwind again and I do a little post-jump scud while I get it back to zenith. The other half of the time, by the time I get back to the ground it's collapsing and I have to run away from the kite few meters while trying to re-inflate / shake the lines / turn it back into the wind window.

Sorry I can't make my questions more specific, but any advice?

cheers,

furbo

I'm not very familiar(actually not at all) with pendulum jumping with kites that are actually built for it, but with my beamer, i have learned out to do some pendulum jumps and i have noticed that when i redirect it's better for me to end up at zenith instead of end up in the window. Maybe you're over directing it? Instead of going back down into the window redirect again as soon as it rotates to go back to 10?

maybe...

but when i redirect badly i don't get it to turn fast enough, so it's still near the edge when I land, close enough so it starts to collapse as soon as i hit the ground and the tension of my body weight leaves the lines, with a smaller kite I'd have been dropped by now, I think. My 5m has dropped me a couple of times, but it hasn't gotten me high enough off the ground for any real risk of injury. Kites turn a lot slower as they get bigger, eh? I hear above 8m (fixed foils, no fancy stuff in the bridle) it becomes a problem.

So I don't think it's over direction, but I will keep your words in mind.

congrats for jumping on the 3m! I haven't been able to jump on anything less than 5 as things just happen too darn fast for me with anything smaller!

And by the way, my crossover lines I haven't really tried to figure out yet, for now they are on max slack.

Furb, maybe you are turning to early for your jump. I would always take it (your kite) to about 2:00 and then turn sharp into the wind with some brake applied, then jump. As I'm floating, the kite is heading back to zenith. If I get to zenith and I'm still floating, I would then again turn into the wind without brake just to keep it hovering overhead while I float down. It was almost instinctual (but I was just learning). I really didn't even watch the kite but just felt where it was and adjusted from there. The kite just seemed to go to and stay at zenith without much input from me.

Did you change the crossover bridle settings? I've never messed with mine (or yours either). Keep practicing, and yes the things you learn on one kite will help you in flying other kites.

Furb,

You may want to go to the middle knot or inside knot. I didnt care much for the outside knot. Seemed to turn slower. The middle knots on both the AOA and crossover lines worked well for me but again its all about your style, just a suggestion. As for your pendilums, hold the kite at the edge maybe 60 degrees off the deck. Use a brake turn, and send it back, As you and the kite pass each other (going opposite directions) pull the left or right handle to direct upwards to 12 oclock and jump. You should feel the pop and your off. Once you have reached the pinnacle of the jump, redirect for float.

hiya...

@ BB: you mention turning the kite into the wind, to me that means going upwind (holdover from my sailing days) and I think we mean the same thing, but then you mention "If I get to zenith and I'm still floating, I would then again turn into the wind without brake just to keep it hovering overhead while I float down." So I don't understand... If you're at zenith, how do you continue to keep the kite's leading edge going directly upwind, as that's what "turning into the wind" means to me? Seems to me it would keep flying until it went behind me and out of the wind window: instant collapse, is that not right? Maybe you mean you are turning the kite back into the powered area of the wind window (leading edge facing downwind, kite flying down towards the ground)?

Darn, it's hard to put this stuff into words..

Having said that, I do definitely get what you are saying about not really looking at the kite, can't really fly yet without looking for more than a minute or two, but I am finding that the Blade is far easier to fly blind than the Ace.

@ Tridude: I will try to tighten up the crossovers and see what that does... And a Q: by "redirecting for float" do you mean turning the kite downwind (so it will eventually go deep into the powered area of the window)?

With over a hundred hours on the Ace, I'm finding it hard to adjust, I think... I've spent well over twenty hours on the beach with the Blade, but that has given me barely three hours of flight time.

HK got nuked by half a foot of rain today, so no flying, but managed to get a little wild white water kayak action in! The rivers were swollen and fast!

Windguru, Windfinder, and the local weather service all agree that tomorrow afternoon the wind will be 8-10 knots from the ocean and very little rain, so I will be on the beach from lunchtime on!

Hopefully I'll get a chance to put all this advice to work!

Thanks, all...

furbo

yes a redirect downwind

gotcha! thanks, tridude...

I'm apparently going against the grain here but what I meant was a figure 8 with the kite. For simplicity lets assume we are running left and flying the kite towards 2:00. I start at about 10:00 and send the kite over the zenith towards 1:30 or 2:00. Meanwhile like you say, I'm jogging left and slightly into the wind. At 2:00 I turn the kite back into the wind (counter clockwise) with a tight brake turn and jump. The kite will lift you while it flies toward the zenith. If you had enough wind that you are still in the air, the blade is stable enough to then do another brake turn at zenith (or probably just downwind of it) back toward the zenith (clockwise) to let you hover there till you come back down. Every time I've turned the kite downwind while coming down, I end up going so fast downwind that I have to do a rolling landing. Maybe that is a skill I don't have yet, but I've had good results from this technique with 5-6 jumps over 10-12 feet and dozens (over a hundred?) of 3-5 footers.

Does that paint a picture for you? Hard to put in words but once you get it and feel it, you will then better understand everything you've heard.