I was talking to DonaldL the other day and he was asking me about comparisons on these three kites. I really had never flown them back to back so it was hard to give subjective opinions. Well today I did just that.

It was a crummy day for the bug with variable westerly winds tumbling over the island at about 5-6 mph gusting to 9. So knowing that it was not optimal for these kites, I took what I got and took a 5.6m Twister II, 5 m Crossfire II , and 4.9 m Blade IV for some static flying. With these winds there would be no jumping, but a good chance to see how they worked the window in light and variable winds.

I had them all set up side by side and did my best to put them through similar maneuvers as I jumped back and forth between them to fly them in similar winds.

I can at least say that they are all in the same league. I think further testing will bear out my hunch that the Blade is still the strongest of the three, but that comes at the cost of literally getting jerked around. It still has that hit-the-gas-and-pop-the-clutch feel to to it in lumpy winds. The Twister and Crossfire both were smoother on power build up. I could feel the gusts for sure but not with the same violent tugs the Blade delivered.

The Crossfire has always been a heavier sail than many others size for size (but we know it's built well!) so it took more of a yank to get it off the ground, but once moving it powered through the potholes in the sky just fine. Downloops at the edge of the window capitalized on the weight and made turns easy. Turns were plenty sharp either way and would tuck a tip only if I turned it inside of the wingtip- fully expected. HQ puts 20m lines on the 5m and smaller while the other two were on 25m. I would have liked them to be the same but the CF still flew fine.

The Twister was a real delight. Leaped off the ground as fast as the Blade and tuned about as nimbly. Powered up smooth in the puffs and flew through the luffs nicely in it own apparent wind. When I went to check the ground-adjustable bridles of the Blade and CF to make sure that they were both on the default AoA setting, I noticed something interesting about the Twister bridles that I had overlooked before. The B and C primary bridles both cascade and connect to the A lines way up near the kite and not down by the toggles as the other two ( and many kites) do. This means you will never put an AoA adjuster on it, but it makes for a kite with a lot less bridles to drag through the air. The toggles still have those giant knots with the free ends that act like grappling hooks for the other bridles, but that problem is minimized by the fewer lines. They fixed that knot problem on the Reactor II and I will likely try some retrofit of my own. A lot of other kites have the same kind of toggles, so this is not a real knock on PL.

Tomorrow afternoon I will got out in the afternoon when there is better chance of the sea-breeze kicking in and giving me a smooth off-shore breeze. Then I can give the three a better run for the money, but I would not put any money down. These three are all great kites in the lifty class.

I love this stuff but never seem to get an opportunity to do a comparo like this and have time to execute it. I'd like the same thing with a 5m Reactor, Blurr, and Flow. We could have all these at St. Augustine so who knows. It would be even more fun and maybe more enlightening to bounce observations off each other while going from kite to kite.

Nice job going to the trouble and letting us know what you found. Keep us posted on round 2.

Quote:

Originally posted by acampbell I was talking to DonaldL the other day and he was asking me about comparisons on these three kites. I really had never flown them back to back so it was hard to give subjective opinions. Well today I did just that. It was a crummy day for the bug with variable westerly winds tumbling over the island at about 5-6 mph gusting to 9. So knowing that it was not optimal for these kites, I took what I got and took a 5.6m Twister II, 5 m Crossfire II , and 4.9 m Blade IV for some static flying. With these winds there would be no jumping, but a good chance to see how they worked the window in light and variable winds. I had them all set up side by side and did my best to put them through similar maneuvers as I jumped back and forth between them to fly them in similar winds. I can at least say that they are all in the same league. I think further testing will bear out my hunch that the Blade is still the strongest of the three, but that comes at the cost of literally getting jerked around. It still has that hit-the-gas-and-pop-the-clutch feel to to it in lumpy winds. The Twister and Crossfire both were smoother on power build up. I could feel the gusts for sure but not with the same violent tugs the Blade delivered. The Crossfire has always been a heavier sail than many others size for size (but we know it's built well!) so it took more of a yank to get it off the ground, but once moving it powered through the potholes in the sky just fine. Downloops at the edge of the window capitalized on the weight and made turns easy. Turns were plenty sharp either way and would tuck a tip only if I turned it inside of the wingtip- fully expected. HQ puts 20m lines on the 5m and smaller while the other two were on 25m. I would have liked them to be the same but the CF still flew fine. The Twister was a real delight. Leaped off the ground as fast as the Blade and tuned about as nimbly. Powered up smooth in the puffs and flew through the luffs nicely in it own apparent wind. When I went to check the ground-adjustable bridles of the Blade and CF to make sure that they were both on the default AoA setting, I noticed something interesting about the Twister bridles that I had overlooked before. The B and C primary bridles both cascade and connect to the A lines way up near the kite and not down by the toggles as the other two ( and many kites) do. This means you will never put an AoA adjuster on it, but it makes for a kite with a lot less bridles to drag through the air. The toggles still have those giant knots with the free ends that act like grappling hooks for the other bridles, but that problem is minimized by the fewer lines. They fixed that knot problem on the Reactor II and I will likely try some retrofit of my own. A lot of other kites have the same kind of toggles, so this is not a real knock on PL. Tomorrow afternoon I will got out in the afternoon when there is better chance of the sea-breeze kicking in and giving me a smooth off-shore breeze. Then I can give the three a better run for the money, but I would not put any money down. These three are all great kits in the lifty class.

nice informative review--you say the blade was tugging at you violently??i find that hard to believe......

sweet write up!
Ive been day-dreaming about other "lifty" kites out there and didnt know how the crossfire stood up, great read!

Had same lousy wind Sunday, so no further review with better winds. Tied up this week with travel and visitors this weekend so it may be a while...

Thanks for doing the review - it's difficult to get so many kites out with similar conditions for an accurate test.