HQ Beamer MKIII 3M

I first flew one of these in prototype form, at the Skypark last year. The winds were snapping lines and flagpoles and the wind generators on the horizon were going for it! Late in the session a proto Beamer III 3m was handed to me, and one thing instantly took my attention, shock cord on the killer lines!

It's interesting that since kite killers were introduced by Flexifoil some years ago they've become synonymous with necessity for beginner to intermediate flyers. At last it looked like the HQ versions were going to take a significant step towards the quality of the Flexifoil ones with the addition of this simple piece of elastic, more on that later.

Flying this proto Beamer III had me with my objective head on. The Beamers remain the most successful kite in their class, and any major deviation from the design formula they used for this success was going to be dwelled on by me if I was not careful. Using a Flexifoil standard freestyle buggy I headed off across the park, already planning my route with the scope of existing Beamers in mind. But what's this? This thing is sharp, responsive, has a bit of bite and goes upwind as well as a Crossfire! The whole park was accessible easily, and this warranted a quick chat with the HQ guys there to see just how much of that was going to be in the production version. 'We want to make it more stable at the edge, which may reduce its upwind ability a little' they said. Hmm, that put me on hold for a long time as the kite I'd just flown was exceptional and the thought of the edges being knocked off that had me frowning a little. I fully understood the flight reasons for the suggested change, but I'm now walking away thinking they should keep this one and release it as a new kite altogether, this was a bridge between the Beamers I knew so well and the rather more bombastic Crossfire's. I'd have to wait and see.

Drawing direct comparisons in my mind was not easy, as this kite size didn't exist in the current range. Formerly the Beamer II had taken exactly the same foil as the original and added some key improvements to consolidate the design. This complete re-vamp therefore had to be considered without the direct comparisons to the former kite, it was best to consider adherence to the likely original design brief of the series and see how well the new one achieved those same aims.

It took some time for the production versions to get to me, but I've now put some mileage on a 4m and a 5. I was pleased to have the 5, my Beamer mk1 version allowed me to take big strides in the buggy when I was first getting into it. The MkII gave the same benefits but with a more taught feel, the new one however demonstrates the most significant change of all to the feel of the Beamer III's in flight. Being a kite specifically designed for beginners the earlier ones did generate the impression that they had their wings clipped sometimes, at least from the eyes of someone who's been flying for a while. Drawing the kite away from the edge of the window, by design, to keep the kite predictable meant that pushing limits on upwind and low wind flying required much input from the flyer. Only in winds where the kites where fully powered up would they really let loose, up to that point they did generate a slightly cumbersome feel, mostly as a result of the robust construction used, and some fine steering control needed to be developed alongside my learning about keeping a powerkite in shape. So if part of the assumed design brief was to maintain the feeling of surety of the kite in the air, HQ seem to have responded well to feedback from flyers.

Every Beamer owner will tell how the cells towards the tip of the kite would develop a fold if pressure was lost at the edge. This characteristic caused few problems as such, but it did compromise turning up at the edge sometimes, needing a touch of induced power up to keep the cells fully inflated. The new one shares the stiff 'shell' feel of the Crossfire's. Both these kites can now significantly lose the pressure of air entering the cells yet stay in reasonable shape, ready for when the air gets back in there. What this means is that the kite 'floats' more should it be close to stalling at the edge in lighter winds, drifting back into a safer area rather than tip folding it's way back to the more powerful areas of the window. All this means that the new Beamer is far more forgiving in light conditions.

Given light winds then it can be said that our potential early flyer will be able to fly with reduced risk should they get something wrong, yet retaining it's excitement by being workable to generate more power, as this smoother version with its bigger window and increased scope for control just 'breathes' better under way. Static flying can be precise, and speed control has also opened up somewhat as line tension is wound up and down as required by the flyer. This kite can be described as being 'broader'.

I had a few light wind sessions but was keen to get one really powered up to see where the limits lay, and to establish just how much of that upwind ability had been knocked out of the kite. This took a while, but came eventually in the form of gusts of long duration on a few occasions at my local site. Inland flying is a test for any kite, and these demonstrated an empathy with all fourliners on handles if not watched, but with some sensible input the kites could be worked up in the lulls. During the sustained gusts though something came to the fore, I think these are more powerful than their predecessors.

Lift is a requirement of any kite, without it they would not fly, but it's about degrees. It's fair to say that the Beamer III has more lift than before. Still firmly in the low lift category, it now has a smoothly developing tug at you in the right conditions. As this balances the kites improved ability in lower winds, and all of this stuff seems to point to the main feature of the new marque which has come to the fore. I think people will keep the Beamer III's longer than before.

This wider scope of output power, wind range, and increased controllability and speed has opened up the potential uses for the kite, and I feel it will be less of a kite to move on from. At the end of the day a low lift machine is not purely in the domain of the beginner, many flyers want to retain that feature in buggies and on boards, but kites other than the Beamers had to be bought to gain and expand those advantages, they now appear to be within the name of Beamer.

I'm a control freak, full on, when it comes to kites at least. I like the sensation of interacting with a kite to make it an extension of what I'm doing on the ground. This requires good responses from the kite, and it has to have the ability to send signals back via the lines to let you know what it's doing. The steering on these comes across as being of a slightly bigger radius than before, at least when push-pull steering alone. This is a trade off between sensitivity and 'tracking' ability ('tracking' being the kites ability to maintain a straight line, a sensation of being on rails). Whilst the Beamer I's and II's may have been more sensitive than this new version, the latter sits on the other side of the steering/tracking range. Half a dozen of one, six of the other. However brake steering fills the gap to an agile kite when needed. Brakes are not as sharp as a Crossfire for instance, but they feel firm and positive and have a wide operating range, response is much better. Reversing the kite needs a sensible amount of force on the handles, with a wide ranging first element followed up with a more sensitive top end, near to where the trailing edge would fold when too much brake is being applied. They can be flown inverted at will and have not gone out of controllability in all winds flown so far. Higher wind landings are fine, but side sliding the kite to a precise landing spot seems to be tricky. What I mean here is that you should be able, in sensible conditions, to land a kite within a metre or so of a given spot on the ground. This can mean bringing the kite down to a few feet to clear nearby kites, and sliding the kite sideways to the landing spot as needed. I found it easier with these to turn the kite through ninety degrees and either drive forward or reverse to the target before rotating to a landing. Hardly the end of the world, but indicative of the kite erring on the side of tracking as a preference, it doesn't like slipping sideways!

At the edge of the window this one is much improved. It'll hold edge positions much better, with good response to fine controls, and upward turns are less prone to having the upwind tip forced in. Down wind turns need bigger control inputs to clear the ground, and you have to be aware of this in advance, as it's speed drops the kite quickly when faced down, and you run out of room very soon. At two span height it's full on brake steer with push pull added to whip them around in time to clear the ground. This makes down turns in a buggy great fun, as with the added element of more robust pull at the edges buggy turns can be more evenly powered up than before. The kite does come down quickly through the turn and a boost, lying in quality somewhere between a former Beamer and a Crossfire, gives a firm but progressive launch out of the turn.

I'm glad to report that the upwind ability remains very good. Evidence is better than chat, and you can see some on this in the accompanying video. I drive the buggy upwind to the launching area, if you look in the background you can suss the wind direction from the way the kites on the ground are staked out.

In the gusty conditions we've had of late I've had some occasions where the kite has suffered. Some collapses occurred when winds turned off then back on in a flash, and some overflying. The collapses were placed firmly in the 'as all fixed bridle kites would in those conditions' bracket, but the over-flying had the kite drifting still in shape back into a stable position without any dramas. I've yet to fly one of these in on-shore winds on a beach, so all of these statements are based on flying inland at the end of a UK Winter. Recovery from folding and emergency release seems OK, difficult to say as it didn't happen a lot, but any tendency to bow tie seems reduced, though if you do get a tip caught in the bridle it takes a bit more jiggling than before to open the kite back up. There's a deeper arc to this version and tip bridles are more reticent to pull out a tip if it's inside the bridle. However the kite remained controllable through these instances and a simple solution was to arc the tucked tip over the zenith to take the tension off the bridle on that side. The kite just fluffs itself up again. Kite recovery is important, when we do have to let go of the handles and let the killers do their work the kite remains as a potential hazard lying on the site, so the easier to get it airborne again the better.

On the subject of emergency releases we get back to the killers. HQ have stumbled a few times with these in the past. The wrist straps got all of the attention up till now as they morphed into the ones that came good later in the Beamer II's life. But the single most significant improvement on these things is through the use of shock cord, or 'Bungee', as the killer lines. The fact is that the nature of this elastic is such that they tighten progressively, in other words the more you tension them the more they resist. One make of killer line has an elastic operation, but the tension remains fairly constant until the shock is taken up sharp and a jolt occurs. Better than none at all, but never as good as a free length of shock cord. Letting these handles go now has the sensation it always should have. The kite is long de-powered before any serious pull is detected on the wrist straps. In fact a few flyers have over braced themselves when letting go in anticipation of a tug that doesn't come as big as they thought. Made with function taking precedence over form, the presence of these shock cords is a relief to be sure. They are about the right length too, allowing full freedom of brake movement whilst minimising surplus. Yet to be tested in anything ballistic, but the signs are very good.

Beamer handles have always been met with a resigning 'you get what you pay for' acceptance. Early versions of the Beamer II handles had issues which even when overcome still left the flyer with the sensation that the money had gone into the kite. The new ones may turn out to be a 'Marmite' thing for the experienced, but they are undeniably far far better than those before. Completely coated in a foam material with an exotic sounding name, which escapes me at the moment, they are still a little too firm for me. But the new surface is better on the fatigue front, they are well finished, and they inspire a lot more confidence than their predecessors. Loops rather than pigtails for strop connections mean more effective use of the strop length, as the connections can be shorter.

Flying lines are now sewn looped and are colour coded. Beamer lines were always sound, but these are a step up too. Line stretch on earlier sets has been noted for some time but never witnessed by this reviewer, but with adjustment now less accessible on the lines themselves, only time will tell if the apparent improvement in quality removes this particular problem area for good. The kites I have had been flown before me, but by what degree I don't know, the lines seem to be fine up till now though.

The superb kite stake is still there along with the comedy zip, now reduced to closing a slit of a compartment big enough for the stake to go into, alone. The bag is a sort of bag shaped thing, which looks like a bag. Seriously though the Beamer II saw the introduction of a decent backpack and this construction quality has crossed over to the new one. They require the kite to be folded up a bit slimmer and longer than before, but no problems.

Normally I'd accompany a review with some pictures, but on this occasion there is an accompanying video to allow you to see one in flight, that's available here:

http://www.waveform.eclipse.co.uk/VIDEOS/BEAMER%20III%20REVIEW_SM.wmv

If you're in the market for a kite to get you going in the sport, or now wanting to upgrade to a traction engine from your starter kite the Beamer III is worth a serious look. It has the capacity to take its buyer further than before, and could be the main source of power for some, for some time to come.

By : Jerry