Ozone Part 1 : Frenzy flight school

Over the last year the ozone frenzy 04 has proved to be a best selling kite for use on land, water and snow. However, some have given the kite bad press for its supposed difficulty in control in gusty conditions. Intrigued, matt taggart from ozone was kind enough to lend me his kite in order to evaluate its flight characteristics.

A development of last years groundbreaking 03 frenzy, the 04 is billed as being lighter handling, more stable, as well as having more performance and improvements to its safety systems. In this article I will be detailing how to handle you kite more effectively, flying the kite in depower mode as well as unhooked flying, and adjusting your kite for technical manoeuvres.

Part one : changing your wrist leash to a handle pass system.

This is a useful mod if you hook in and out regularly, and requires only a minimum of outlay in additional materials. Unlike an LEI 'suicide leash', this attaches to the safety system of the frenzy as opposed to the chicken loop. This should be taken into consideration when performing Ariel handle passes and the like, as the kite will not remain at zenith, but start a controlled descent.

The only additional material needed for this mod is a piece of centre line, no shorter than 30cm. start by doubling up the line as shown below.

Next, loop the line under and thread through the hole now created. Pull tight.

Now, with the other end of the line, loop through the 'handbrake' line as shown. Make sure the line sits between the two knots or this will affect actuation of the safety system.

As you can see, the line goes through the handbrake, loops to the right, passes under itself and emerges above the loop now created. Now pass the end of the line and pull tight.

Now, for extra security, loop the loose end of line from the knot around itself as shown and pass through the loop. Pull tight to secure.

The finished knot should appear as shown below in the picture.

Now you need to attend to the part which attaches to the harness. Here I have passed the end of the wrist leash which usually attaches to the wristband through the 'D' ring on my harness.

Now, pass the end of the line with the safety pin through the other end as shown below. Pull tight.

The harness end should finish up looking like the picture below.

Here is a picture of the completed system connected up. The pin attaches through the loop you created in the usual manner. You may also notice in this picture the additional knot on the 'handbrake' end is not present. This is to allow fine tuning of the system once installed. For example, I have quite long arms so had to lengthen the length of line from the handbrake safety to the quick release pin to 20cm. the system should be fitted so that when flown unhooked, there is no tension on the handbrake when the line is either side of your body. Slack should also be kept to a minimum. Fine tune to your own requirements.

By : bushflyer