Ultrafoil 15

Since the Sutton Flowform 16 was discontinued,  kite aerial photographers have been after a similar small kite for light kap duty.  So Ray and Jeanne Merry have designed the Ultrafoil 15.  I find the small/medium sized foils perfect for hoisting a gopro up on a picavet mount as there's no setup time with the foil or spars to break.  Take it out of it's bag, connect the line and it's ready to go.

The Ultrafoil 15 is 3' wide by 4' 8" long and is designed for winds from 5 knots to 28 knots.  5 knots is too light to haul a gopro, and over 20 knots, I feel the Ultrafoil needs a tail extension.  It's supplied with a 14ft fuzzy tail but when the wind gets up to 20 knots, the Ultrafoil does start getting knocked down to the side of the window.  Something I've seen a couple other foils like this one do.  An extra 20ft of tail goes a long way towards calming this behavior and the Ultrafoil will fly quite stably and a moderately steep angle.  Too steep and getting the picavet to hang properly can be a problem.

The Ultrafoil has mesh covered vents on the face of the kite and a larger vent at the rear which helps to stabilize the Ultrafoil and vent any excess pressure in gusty conditions.

A sturdy bag is supplied...but it's a bit of a squeeze to get it back in there.  The kite is manufactured in China and the quality feels pretty good - it's not the heavy bombproof feel of the HQ flow form or KAPfoil, but it's neat and tidy and for what it is, I have no complaints in that dept.

Recommended line is 150lb Dacron.   The Ultrafoil is also available in a smaller Ultrafoil 9 and a larger Ultrafoil 30.

It's easy to launch, has no particularly bad habits. You could do a lot worse for a small lifter for kap or light line laundry.  Mine's been very good and I've taken some good photos with it.  Next trick is to attach it to the rear of the buggy and hoist the gopro up for some video on the move like Perrin has done over in NZ with a Delta....I'll let you know how that goes!