Just put a new vid. together that shows my sandy terrain south of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
I'm flying my new Blurr for the whole sequence and it doesn't do too badly pulling me up the sand dunes.
Link:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Uup6di-YJ9s&feature=user

Cool video SY...what a playground you have!

If I remember right, you fly the Blade IV 4.9 quite a bit...was curious to hear your thoughts on how the Blurr compares (i.e. is the upwind as good, stability better, etc).

BTW, what was the wind speed?

what is that buggy your on?
i'm waiting on a 5m Rasta.

Quote:

Originally posted by revpaul what is that buggy your on? i'm waiting on a 5m Rasta.

I am sure the Sand Yeti will respond in full, but in the mean time, the buggy is the UDB the Ultimate Desert Buggy, built by the man himself

The Ultimate Desert Buggy

Quote:

Originally posted by popeyethewelder Quote: Originally posted by revpaul what is that buggy your on? i'm waiting on a 5m Rasta. I am sure the Sand Yeti will respond in full, but in the mean time, the buggy is the UDB the Ultimate Desert Buggy, built by the man himself The Ultimate Desert Buggy

Damn PTW, you are, with no doubt, truly the man.
i'm sure it's been asked before; when are you going to grace us with your presence?
Paul

QUOTE from lunchbox
Cool video SY...what a playground you have!

If I remember right, you fly the Blade IV 4.9 quite a bit...was curious to hear your thoughts on how the Blurr compares (i.e. is the upwind as good, stability better, etc).

BTW, what was the wind speed?
UNQUOTE

lunchbox
You might think it's a cool vid but the desert playground is very hot. Nonetheless, I think I must have one of the best playgrounds inthe world.

I fly Blades most of the time. This year it has been predominantly the 4.9m & 6.5m Blade IV's.

The 5.0m Blurr is quite different and is not a substitue for the 4.9 Blade. I will fly the 5.0m Blurr in a wind that I would probably have my 4.0m Blade flying in. i.e it likes lots more wind than the 4.9m Blade.
I'm still flying it on the 25m Lines where as I normally fly on 40 m lines. It also has the Flexi feature where I can change the angle of attack. I still have to play with that some more.
It takes time to really understand the full kite potential & I'm not there yet.

I class the Blur as a kite more for intermediate flyers .
It is extremely stable & very easy to fly. In the dunes it just keeps pulling with none of the sudden snatches one can get from a Blade. i.e. less chance to be lifted from the buggy.
A very nice feature of this kite for dune buggying is that it turns rapidly for a mid sized foil. I have to be able to turn at a moments notice. As you can see from the vid. being in the dune troughs means I can't see what is over the next dune. I just have literally a few feet to redirect the buggy away from any undesirable obstacle.

Our winds often zap in very fast in mid afternoons and quite gusty with it. We measure the winds but as they are jumping up and down, it is difficult to give an accurate wind speed.
As the afternoon moves on, the winds slowly ease. Normally, I will start off over-powered knowing that the wind will be dropping off as we head towards late afternoon.

The other phenomena about our winds is that it can hammer us like a locomotive for say 15 minutes and we find ourselves overpowered, it the drops off to almost calm for say 10 minutes, then picks up again in full fury.
During the lulls in the wind, we are flying under-powered.

I guess the wind in the vid. you saw was changing between about 14 knots & 22 knots.

QUOTE from revpaul
what is that buggy your on?
i'm waiting on a 5m Rasta.
UNQUOTE

revpaul
As PTW indicated I'm riding the UDB, which I did indeed design & build.
I used production buggies earlier but couldn't find something that would:
1) Hold together in one piece (Dune buggying is hard on buggies)
2) Meet my needs of desert buggying.

I need a stable buggy for the dunes when on the slopes but also needed to get the seat off of the floor to stop dragging my backside when traversing the dunes. Higher C of G means less stability. It's a case of optimizing between bum dragging & stability.

I have put a simple suspension on the rear. This is to reduce the shock loading on both me & the buggy. It works quite well. The biggest shocks occur when descending a steep dune slip face and transitioning out to the floor below.
I carry 3 litres of drinking water in a Camelbak bladder, spare kite, mobile phone, GPS and spare reading glasses during my desert runs.

Incidentally, I have been communicating with PTW for some years now and we have shared some ideas with each other on buggy design. I met him last August ona trip to England and we did some buggying in rather poor winds.
I will be seeing him in about two weeks & he promised to let me ride his new Dominator. I'm looking forward to that.

For the future development of buggies, here in the UAE we are starting to experiment with buggies made from composite materials. I have already been testing a 1.6m long axle made from composite materials that weighs only 2 kgs.
We think we can build a buggy for a total weight of 31 to 32 kgs, which means the three BF wheels (21 kgs) are twice as heavy as the rest of the buggy.

I note you are getting the 5m Rasta. I guess that is the Blurr, is it? Good luck with it.
What buggy are you riding by the way?

Thanks for the write up SY.

Quote:

QUOTE from revpaul what is that buggy your on? i'm waiting on a 5m Rasta. UNQUOTE revpaul As PTW indicated I'm riding the UDB, which I did indeed design & build. I used production buggies earlier but couldn't find something that would: 1) Hold together in one piece (Dune buggying is hard on buggies) 2) Meet my needs of desert buggying. I need a stable buggy for the dunes when on the slopes but also needed to get the seat off of the floor to stop dragging my backside when traversing the dunes. Higher C of G means less stability. It's a case of optimizing between bum dragging & stability. I have put a simple suspension on the rear. This is to reduce the shock loading on both me & the buggy. It works quite well. The biggest shocks occur when descending a steep dune slip face and transitioning out to the floor below. I carry 3 litres of drinking water in a Camelbak bladder, spare kite, mobile phone, GPS and spare reading glasses during my desert runs. Incidentally, I have been communicating with PTW for some years now and we have shared some ideas with each other on buggy design. I met him last August ona trip to England and we did some buggying in rather poor winds. I will be seeing him in about two weeks & he promised to let me ride his new Dominator. I'm looking forward to that. For the future development of buggies, here in the UAE we are starting to experiment with buggies made from composite materials. I have already been testing a 1.6m long axle made from composite materials that weighs only 2 kgs. We think we can build a buggy for a total weight of 31 to 32 kgs, which means the three BF wheels (21 kgs) are twice as heavy as the rest of the buggy. I note you are getting the 5m Rasta. I guess that is the Blurr, is it? Good luck with it. What buggy are you riding by the way?

i have a used PL Race. not sure of the age. everything is stock I believe.
the Rasta is Blurr 5m. Flexi sent a 7m by mistake and i have couple hours on it in low winds. no complaints and WOW on Flexi's attention to detail on absolutely everything.
*composite materials, sounds very interesting and cutting edge buggy design.
Paul

http://www.extremekites.com.au/news/international/power-kiti...

Sand Yeti........look where I found you. Great article. Very cool