Nasa NPW 5

Now this is what started it all for me :

three years ago, a trip into Kreative Kites in Newbury on the off-chance post lunchtime pint, with the vague feeling that I was going to treat myself to a 'silly' toy as a last gesture of youth before I took on my first mortgage...

Kites. Big kites. Looked like a laugh. Had things improved much after flying that Peter Powell back in the early 80's? After a conversation with the proprietor and consideration of the brief: 'maximum power for under £100', I left the shop with two reels of dyneema, two padded wrist loops and an innocuous black and red draw-string bag.

First flight

A week later and as the branches on the trees were bending, I decided it was time to christen the new toy up on the hill. Couldn't be too difficult. Set up as a two-liner, pay out the lines, loop wrists into pads, yank on the lines and I'd be away.

The Nasawing, resembling a rather baggy laundary bag innnocently flopped around a bit, billowed slightly as the wind caught under the leading edge... and then with an earshattering whip-crack noise, inflated like an airbag in a head-on smash and soared upwards at mach 12. A very picturesque view for the observer looking skywards. However, a glance back to earth would have witnessed me being wrenched forwards out of a pair of smoking trainers, already five yards into a rapidly growing mud furrow. Terror !

A newbies view of what constituted 'kite flying weather' meant that I'd taken this apparently innocent 'toy' out in 25mph winds. Those in the know will realise what this mistake constituted, especially when flying on two lines with wrist loops: I was in serious trouble. Steering the kite to either side to try and land it meant it just bobbled along the ground back downwind before violently re inflating and dragging me another 10 yards across the rapidly diminishing field. Nose diving it into the ground just meant that it bounced up and down like a furious rubberised Tazmanian Devil.

All the time it was exerting an irresistable and utterly terrifying pull. Then I tripped. Face firmly planted and my nose acting like a plough-share, I seeded the ever growing furrow with shirt buttons, my sunglasses, change from my pockets, blood, skin, teeth and quite possibly a trail of excreta - a veritable treasure- trove for future archaelogists...

I knew I was running out of space (and dermis), so I took the only option left to me, managed to unhook an abraded wrist from one of the loops and let go.

First flight of a power kite

I didn't venture back out for three months.

Review

The Npw5 is an old design now - but they can be had at a very reasonable price. The forebear to the Npw9, (see other reviews), it's a single skin kite with a parachute style bridling system which gives it its moth-like shape and 'w' like profile in the air. It has a moderate wind window, but pulls like stink within it. It's luff resistant and will only collapse if violently manoeuvred in either light winds or at the edge of the window. It can be flown as a two- liner - but as the above anecdote hopefully points out, your options for control and landing will be extremely limited, so don't take it out in high winds in this configuration!

Four lines and handles or a bar are the best way to go. Contrary to other reports it will go upwind happily and makes for a good and basic buggy engine as it's got excellent pull, little overhead lift and as a newbies kite, has no breakable spars or burstable cells. It'll also fly happily in the wet or on sand as again, the lack of cells mean nothing to fill up with moisture or detritus!

You'll also never get a better low-wind kite or one that'll pack down as small. They'll turn on a six-pence as a result of their low-aspect ratio and this can be used to make up for their less than sparkling speed through the air. Another nice aspect is that they don't have to be 'worked' hard to generate traction, so long reaches are a blast as you can park it in the window and lean out the buggy one handed and flick rude gestures at the other 'posher' buggiers and kites, which are describing vigorous sine-waves and luffing on the turns.

It's controllable (with a bit of practice, as you need to keep some tension on the brakelines for best performance), steady and consistent. On the downside, you'll never land one elegantly on the brakes alone - and even a practiced Nasa pilot may take several attempts to get one down. In high winds, it's a real swine to land at all - so an assistant is often handy. Also beware of the 'Death Spin'. A sharply manoeuvred Nasa (and apparently other low-aspect ratio kites like the Buster) can loop so fast, before you can correct the manoeuvre, enough turns have wound around the bridles under tension that you won't be able to pull the lines through to correct.

Another train of thought that this behaviour is in fact full scale oscillation due to over power - but either way, the kite keeps spinning, generating more pull, winding more line - result: situation FUBAR. Be especially careful NOT to pull fast spins in high wind in the power-zone!

They can also be a bit twitchy on strange occasions, with a weird tendency to fly backwards if they get out of shape and gusted on a fast run, but all in all a trusty old bag of fun.

They're one of the easier prospects as a homebuild and there are some seriously large sizes available on the web (26m and above!) for kite-buggying Mammoths, Blue Whales and those registered insane.

By : ToBz