Elliot Mirage XL 3.1M

Actually this is no foilkite - but I guess some of you might be interested in some infos about the Elliot Mirage XL.

I shot my Mirage XL for 100 Euros at ebay, a fantastic price. Well, I thought a big power delta will be fun and I have to say this kite is awesome.

Package:
A 180cm nylon quiver, black. All you think of on seeing this is 'what will this look built up?'.

Kite:
Ok, no five minutes after getting hold of my little darling I was starting assembling the kite in the livingroom - after a few minutes I worried if there will be enough space. The wingspan of the Mirage XL is 310 cm, the height around 130cm, so this is very impressing in a normal living room. The spars are 10 mm CFK so you can make a good guess what this kite is built for. The wings have two stiffeners and one GFK standoff each. The sail is made of several panels, the sewing is accurate and of a very good quality. However the standoff fittings needed to be fixed with some glue after losing two of them while flying. The bridle is made of a quite thick material which stretched during this summer making a resetting of the bridle necessary. I attached a pair of 35m, 130 kg Cyclone Extreme, which I think of being enough for only powerkiting.

Starting and Flying:
This is a heavy kite, more of a bomber than a lightweight precision tool. The 900 grams of kite really need a bit of a breeze, so flying under 2 BF is not possible. Starting needs as expected a bit of a tug and concentration, but as soon as the current is on it will 'talk' to you! The whooshing sound is really very impressive.

This is a fast kite, as anyone can guess from the stretched shape. It is not only fast, with the speed there comes the power! This cannot be compared with a foilkite, the power delivery is more of a merciless kind. Loops generate more power and you think twice flying a loop with such a fast powerkite. This kite is a jealous one, it demands your total commitment to flying it, because of the speed - or maybe I am just too slow for it 😉 . It flies as on rails, however it overturns a bit because of the weight.

Oh - does anyone expect me to talk about some tricksy line fiddling stuff? Not with this one, try to axle it and 900 gramms of kite just fall out of the sky. You may do that with an S-Kite, but the Mirage XL is too stretched.

Conclusion :
No foilkite flies like this one. Flying the Mirage XL is such a great experience. Speed, power, total commitment. I love my ram-airs, but this one is special, the fun flying it is incredible. I would not buggy with it, maybe an experienced buggier would try, but I think it is just too fast to buggy it.

Fly it in higher winds, get dragged over the area, you can even get some small air with it - the merciless power the Mirage XL delivers will give you a big grin on the face. ... maybe a mystique from Elliot could top this experience.

By : StZ