windstruck

Mistake

Popeye the Welder is a legend in this sport. Take some time to peruse his website sometime. Buggy porn. At the top of his AQR article he mentioned Jeff Earl (BigKidKites). Jeff lives a few hours from me and I got my AQR from him. Jeff spent some time experimenting with various shackles to ensure he had one that would operate smoothly at the moment of truth. I saw some mention of stainless steel in one of the posts in this thread. That would be an absolute must-have I'd think. It will get wet, sandy, and salty depending on where you ride and the last thing you want is for the sliding pin to be corroded to the point where it is essentially welded to its sheath. Defeats the point. One other thing to keep in mind is that you need a different sort of harness interface with an AQR. You wont be using the standard hook. Also, the mechanism takes up some space between you and the pulley that your strop line goes through, so if you are stropped in with handles the strop is going to need to be shorter as you can't easily lengthen your arms. I use DP kites and hook the shackle directly around the chicken loop. Good luck! Super sorry to read about the OBE, pelvic fracture, etc. Man, that sucks. Get well soon!

The gear looks good, very good in fact. I ride with about the same setup. Two things: helmets are often considered "one and done" for truly hard impacts. Hard to know if a used helmet has already been wholloped. Second, a good many of us in the US ride in the buggy with something called an Automatic Quick Release or AQR. This is a mechanical interface in series between you and your buggy that has a shackle. Depending on whether you are riding with FB kites and a strop or with DP kites and a chicken loop the shackle setup will be a little different. Either way, the idea behind an AQR is when you start to get lifted out of the buggy in an OBE the kite will disengage from your harness automatically and you won't OBE. At times the OBE force can come on so quickly that you don't have time to disengage before you are lofted. High winds combined with small rapidly moving kites seem to be a combination for this quick reversal of fortunes. Lower winds with bigger kites gives you more time to do things manually. I don't believe you are allowed to race with an AQR (could be wrong about that) so these aren't used by some of the best buggy pilots out there. I'm sort of a "gentleman farmer" buggy rider so I'll take whatever safety upgrades I can get. Good luck with your new sport! Say goodbye to most of your money.

I've witnessed @Bladerunner hitting these sorts of speeds on stock Coyotes on Ivanpah. Balls like bull. Seeing it made me wish I still owned my 200x50mm Doom setup as we could have bolted his boots to my frames and really seen what a brave sole like him can accomplish. Alas, my former doom setup is in Alaska, holding up the father end of a father-son kiting duo. All of these speeds with skates underfoot are truly impressive and my hat goes off to all y'all.

StreetStar now up on the Born-Kite website! http://www.venturi-power.de/index.php?language=en&cat=c22_Street-Star-Streetkites.html&XTCsid=8jmdp6ob6587dh73u9vfde3r93&cPath=21_22&

The 1.5 would be a great kite for a 7 year old! Good on ya. That bar set up sounds perfect for him. I too had a short term (read one night stand) relationship with a 4.5m Uniq Quad. It's wind window and force ramp was really disappointing compared to the NS3s. The Uniq pulled hard downwind but tapered off extremely quickly. Much broader sweep with the NS3s.

@Darren Tibbey Nice to see another 1.5m NS3 in the air! I like the colors you chose (readers: the 1.5m is a custom job and you get to choose the colors). Most of my flying with my little wasp-on-a-string has been on the beach static from handles with the bridling rigged z-style. I've only flown it in a buggy once on the Ivanpah playa and it was a fun but nerve wracking experience. It was also from handles strong arm style. The little devil darted all over the place and required constant laser focus on my part to keep it under control. One little twitch and it would go screaming furiously about. Certainly pilot issues.

I owned the 6m and 12m P3s for a short period and then unloaded them. I had previously owned and really liked an entire quiver of P2s (4, 6, 9, and 12m) flying them primarily in a buggy on both small grass fields and large playas. I've never flown a P1. While it is completely true that the P3s are more refined, crisper turning, lesser bridling, much tighter in the air (decreased flapping) etc., it came at the price of hugely increased bar pressure. The part not mentioned so far in this thread is that Flysurfer elected to decrease the number of DP pulleys per side from 2 to 1. As such, while more "direct", the pilot also lost a lot of mechanical advantage over the kite. My only flying with the P3s was in a buggy on Lake Ivanpah, an immense dry lake bed on the border of CA and NV in the Southwestern US. You can go for many miles on this playa without turning. I got very sore and uncomfortable with the high bar pressure coming from the side with the P3s and really didn't enjoy flying them in this setting. I suspect they would be great from atop a land board where you face the kite, and further would be completely fine flown on a smaller surface necessitating many turns. Bottom line, I sold the P3s and stocked up on a quiver of Born-Kite LongStar-2s. The LS2s are most certainly in the same lane as the Peaks but have two DP pulleys per side and great bar feel and pressure and are also rock solid in the air. DP can be throttled off more completely with the Peaks than the LS2s, but the LS2s DP plenty. I'm not trying to bash the P3s unduly. There could easily be other pilots out there saying "Thank God they finally got rid of those extra pulleys and gave us some more direct control through the bar" or some such. Most certainly to each his or her own, but I thought XK users should know about this as it is a highly noticeable change if you are used to the P2 bar feel.

@ssayre - I'm curious if the kite effectively had a DP function. Were you able to modulate power with the bar that resulted in changes of force as one might think about with a DP kite? Hard to tell for sure, but AOA did seem to be modulated a bit when I flew it static. My only flight was at the top of my driveway for a few minutes in truly crappy winds. About the most dynamic movement I was able to test was running about 10 yards with it. Hardly a test. Any video?

Too cool Sean @ssayre ! This is exactly why I sent it to you, because I knew you could take it through its paces. I don't have experience or equipment for street kiting. I hadn't thought of the aspect of one handed control with your non-dominant hand. Agreed, that would be funky at first. I like that the kite takes some work to fly skill wise. Something to aspire towards! Rock on!

That's a fine lookin' kite boy!

Man, sorry to hear this. A good friend of mine (Mike Herring) was just forced out as the company President along with the founder who was acting CEO and on the board. Pandora has been hemorrhaging cash for several years now and they were just bought out by Sirius (satellite radio guys) and there are a ton of changes. My friend and team were unable to make the overall business profitable and I suspect their losses were particularly acute in smaller markets like yours. Shame, but many companies copied the essence of their engine and they quickly lost their uniqueness. My son is a musician and has always hated it. I like it but my son hates all my reasons. Go figure. Anyway, sorry to see you loosing a service you like.

According to Steffen these will be available in August. I've not yet seen any prices, nor are they listed on his website.

This "video" (collection of still photos) really gives you the chance to see how Steffen worked the bridling. Good stuff!

More StreetStar Born-Porn!

I had to look up a paraskiflex bar as I wasn't familiar with it. A YouTube video popped in the search featuring a NS2. I see exactly what you're talking about.

Interesting new kite concept fron the venerable Steffen Born, a single skin DP kite flown with one hand from one handle with only bridle lines. In email conversation with Steffen he let me know that good propulsion in limited (narrow) spaces was on critical design requirement.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fNn3SR_vXcFrom Steffen: It`s a single skin depower kite with a one-hand control, without additional lines. Ideal for street kiting. It will be available from August in the sizes 2.0m, 4.0m and 6.0m. I absolutely love how Steffen continues to innovate. I'm a huge fan of his NS3s and LS2s and it appears that he has created another most interesting kite, purpose built for a unique application.

That's a 5.5m NS3. You mention wanting some NASA's for light wind days. Are we talking steady onshore breezes or "janky" inland winds? I'm asking because while the NS3s come in sizes up to 12.5m they are all two line flyers with a 3rd central line going to the nose which you can use to scrunch up the nose a bit by pulling on the little yellow ball you can see at the center of Spencer's bar in the video. If the winds are smooth and predictable then the big boys are fun to fly. In janky wind, however, surges in power on an 8.5, 10.0, and 12.5m NS3 can be a lot to handle in a buggy. Also, if the light winds are janky there are likely drops outs in wind strength happening on a regular basis. In such lulls the big NS3s have a tendency to backstall and even fly backwards. I would characterize the 5.5m that Spencer was flying as a medium wind kite. Maybe 12-15mph depending on riding surface and your Need For Speed.

Great feedback @.Joel. Really great to hear from someone with as much experience as you that deals with the same issue. As my buggying has evolved I end up only riding at best once every other month or maybe once a month if I'm lucky. When I do ride I get to places that are really wide open allowing for long runs of several miles in length (Lake Ivanpah in California/Nevada and the "beach" along the edge of the Great Salt Lake in Utah). I love to park and ride for miles so bar pressure is most certainly an issue for me during those runs. I do lift weights regularly, but prefer to keep my iron pumping in the gym.

I continue to be a bigger and bigger fan of the LS2s! I just sold my 12m Peak3 and ordered the 12.5m LS2, completing my quiver of these beauties. IMHO, the LS2s far outshine the P3s at this point. The LS2s feature the standard two-pulleys-per-side rigging for DP, but oddly the P3s now only have a single pulley per side. This results in the P3s having vastly higher bar pressure than comparable LS2s. Plus, flat out, the LS2s just stay beautifully solid in the air. While diminished in the P3 versus P2, the Peaks still flap more (particularly around the trailing edge corners) than the LS2s, particularly when the bar is out. Lastly, not a session goes by when somebody doesn't spontaneously comment on how nice the LS2s look. This past weekend I was flying the 7.5m LS2 in striking white and blue and I got a whole bunch of oohs and awes and a pointed comment on its beauty from a fellow kiter! Big fan.

I was historically a big fan of the Peak2 line of single skins and at one point owned the entire quiver. I sold them off over time and quite excitedly bought the 6m and 12m Peak3s. I have now sold both P3s. The kites themselves have been refined and are really quite nice. Oddly (in my mind) the bridling/pulley system has been modified in the V-3. P1s and P2s featured a standard two-pulley-per-side rigging out at the kite for DP, but the P3s only have a single pulley on each side. This has resulted in much higher bar pressure for the P3s than the P2s (and presumably the P1s though I've never flown a P1). We're talking A LOT of bar pressure! I'm a strapping lad but I find it too high for pleasurable flying in a buggy when the pull comes from the side. So... fellow flyboys and flygirls, does anybody have any thoughts on this? Why might Flysurfer have done this? I'm struggling to find an advantage of this simplification. I for one never had an issue with the pulleys so I'm baffled. Thoughts anyone?

How about some videos? In this last video you really get a sense of the size of this beast from 2:30 to 2:40. As @ssayre noted you need to take this kite seriously. The larger NS3s will spank you in winds that are too high for your setup, skills, etc. This 12.5m NS3 really is a stump puller. Here are a couple with the 10.0m NS3!

@Darren Tibbey - glad you are enjoying the NS3s. These are great kites. I've owned the following NS3s: 1.5, 2.5, 3.2, 4.0, 5.5, 7.0, 8.5, 10.0, and 12.5m. I've used all of them for buggy riding flown from B-K's three line bar harnessed in. Also flown the four smallest on handles with z-bridles. I sold or gave away all but my smallest four. Depending on your wind conditions the larger (8.5-12.5) can be a whole lot of kite to handle in gusty, so-called janky winds. If you are getting ocean breezes this may be a different picture as all of my large NS3 flying was done in mountain fields with shifty winds. These l-a-r-g-e FB NASAs really create a huge amount of power when the wind picks up. Couple this with the fact that NS3s by their nature sit deep in the wind window so it is easy to get pulled sideways with them when getting overpowered. I would not rely on the third line going to the nose to meaningfully scrub power. I also own B-Ks newest LS2s and think they are absolutely great SS DP solutions if SS and DP are your thing. For me I'd be looking at DP for large kites if your winds are at all gusty since you won't be able to throttle back with a large FB very effectively. Good luck and have fun!

Glad to see "yipskippity" getting the attention it deserves. That's one big SS right there. I'm sure it will bring you may days of joy when others are merely watching from the sidelines. I didn't snap photos but I too got some fine LS2 goodness in the mail last week, so my SS DP quiver now consists of 3.5, 5.5, 7.5, and 9.5m LS2s and a 12m P3 aka Session Saver. This 12.5m LS2 beauty will now be that kite for you. My FB SS quiver now stands at 1.5, 2.5, 3.2, and 4.0m NS3s all rigged with Z-bridles for optional handled flying or conventional three line bar flying. Plenty of options! I'm very happy you have found a similar affection to these LS2s. I know you also jumped on the LS1s with mixed success. Great to see that Steffen pulled off a great SS DP kite line.

I've really enjoyed watching the Monjet Ninox development. I'm a personal big fan of SS kites so this is great to see. Good call on going with the 6m/10m combo; that's a nice quiver assuming these kites have a good range of DP. I'm quite curious to learn about how the cells are inflated. Passive inflation or active with a pump? Also, for inland riders dealing with uneven winds, days that would call for the 10m often have wind gaps that will sink any kite no matter how light. I've got a fair amount of experience with a 12m Peak in these conditions and getting the kite to settle to the ground in such a way as to allow for easy relaunch is an art form in itself. I'm thinking that the added structure of the closed cells may really help in this regard. Particularly if you end up with a leading edge closed cell. Watch out for making the leading edge burstable with pile driving the nose into the ground. Tough, but it's gonna happen.