Search the Community

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

This flying machine was born out of having no money . The material costs amounted to £20 and the plans taken from the internet ,up to now we had only experiance of cheap delta sports kites and a couple of flexifoils. For the nasas maiden flight we decided on cleethorpes beach (the we being me and bro inlaw mark ),it was a bright sunshiney day as the song goes, with wind at a steady 15 mph. Mark had decided to start with the nasa as a twin line kite, (possably as we only had one pair of lines) so the left hand power bridle point was tied to the left hand brake bridle point and the same with the right , the lines (150lb) were larks knoted in place and we were ready to go. I stood with my back to the kite with a bridle point in each hand, the kite fully inflated above my head ,string trying to remove my fingers like a cheese slicer, Mark with his hands through the straps shouted to let go. The nasa flu straight up and parked its self 30 m, above our heads , Marks arms streached at full length and the lines screaming like a hendrix guitar , I said it looked very nice . A lady shouted at us to shift down beech as we were frightening the donkeys, a sort of power kiting asbo ,as good boys we did as requested. After a bit of tuning of the bridle by mark and a chance meeting with a nasa wing guru at sunderland kite festival our kite flys like a dream. Flight caracteristics ? well it turns on a sixpence you dont push or pull on the straps but almost think it to turn, abit of the force be with you,in high winds it will give a flexi a run for its money in the speed department and the power always seems to be on where ever in the wind window. If you think I love this kite you would be right ,I have Symphonies a C,Quad, Sky Tiger 40, Lt Devil and other nasa kites, but for total fun my nasa 1.8 takes some beating . A couple of years ago I nearly lost the kite ,blown out to sea the lines snapped I was nearly in tears! I have learnt to fly the kite on 220lb lines Jona (age 47 ) By : jona

I reviewed this kite last year for this site and said I would get back on it's suitablilty for kite landboarding as some people think they are just not the kite for that. I have actually had more fun boarding with the NPW9 than either my own Buster 4m, Frenzy '03 9.5m (a bit new to this kite yet!) and a friends BladeIII 4.9m. The NPW9 is just so easy to board with. OK, you won't get any jumps with it, but if you just want to cruise along having some fun then this kite is perfectly suited to landboarding. It turns so quick it is easier to get moving than with most other kites, it pulls well in all but the lightest winds and once moving, you don't have to work the kite at all, simply park it at the 2 or 10 o'clock positions (depeneding on direction of movement), hold it there and off you go. I board at Pontefract racecourse, and anyone who knows the site will know of the slopes that join the different levels of the football fields. These are great for boarding down once moving but proved a bit difficult to get back up using the Buster 4m in all but quite strong winds. Well the NPW9 5.3m gets me back up these slopes no problem at all due to it's slow moving but powerful pull. The NPW9 is also really easy to get back up wind with on the board and I'm no expert at this. Struggled with th Buster 4m and BladeIII 4.9m to get upwind buts thats probably my limited ability. The NPW9 is easier to board with as it flies so slowly so needs less of your attention once moving. As for speed, I was easily out-pacing a guy with a BladeIII 4m in a buggy and I was on a board which are usually not as quick. In stronger winds a guy with a speedo on his buggy clocked me at about 23-25mph and I was not having any problems at that speed. If you want to board on the cheap get an NPW9 you will not be disappointed. Oh, they are now availble in sizes a lot larger than 5.3m. They do 7.6, 12 and 15 meter sizes. Now these sorts of kites will allow buggying when the only wind is coming from the sparrow farts in the trees. By : Graham Smith

I got this kite because I had tried a NPW9 5.3 on holiday and compared to my other NASA, a 4.? NPW5 it had seemed incredibly more responsive. Anyway I ordered the 12M from the USA and received it complete with Bar and Lines, it was not cheap and maybe I paid a bit too much. Personally I am very happy with NASA wings, I have both foils and wings and can not agree with these people who put the Wings down, mostly whom have never flown one, hey the R+D that went into its development probably cost more than all this years kite designs put together.. Thankyou NASA! The 12m is more or less what you would expect, flies in incredibly low winds right up to the edge of the window, seemingly indestructable and has an incredible pull which is very sudden and permanent compared to my foils. Easy to control and suprisingly quite a quick turner, thankfully easy to land if a little inelegantly. I have flown mine only in 4 and 3 line mode, I would not dare fly it 2 line as I feel it would soon exceed my ability. It responds well to the brake but the reach required for the brake lines to cover its range is a little more than I can manage so with 4line and handles I have to fly compromised. On three lines and a bar, I lose the brake steering but have the brakes complete range, I am sure I can work out the problem eventually with handles. You can get the 12M in any colour as long as its Yellow! The 12M has a couple of things that are different (possibly only in magnitude) to my other experiences of NASA wings. First, it seems to have a bit of lift which was negligible on my 4.?. Secondly the brakes need applying a bit to get the shape and maximise pull, but if you slack them off completely you dump at a guess about 50% of the pull which is quite a handy option to have ( It is pretty unmanouverable like this but it gives you a chance to sort yourself out). If you pull the brakes hard the thing comes down nicely. Packing and unpacking are same as other NASA wings, the Bridle is a bit unwieldly though and I of average height cannot get the whole bridle taught to unravel any tangles which I can with the 4.? This is not a full review as I have not dared to fly it in anything over about 5 Knots and I have only been scudding with it. I ain't got my buggy yet! By : Alan Dixon

My first introduction to a traction kite was the NPW 9, I was lent one of these by a work mate when going on holiday, it was 3.2 meter. I flew this on dartmoor, more to the point it dragged me across the moors on my face, it was at this point I became hooked on flying traction kites. Over a short period of time I aquired numerous kites, but my heart remains loyal to the nasa wings purely due to there simplicity, indestructable nature and pure grunt that they can generate in reasonably low winds. I have flown NPW9's for a while now along with a phantom 12 meter and blade 111 3 meter. My overall view of these kites is that every quiver should contain at least one, I have 3 a 1.5, 4.6 and this one the 7.2. They are cheap to aquire in my case I have a mate whose friend stitches them. The construction is simple yet strong, this is a single skin kite, you can crash it into the ground, it will not be damaged there are no cells to damage no back to blow apart. In the air it is extremely stable, and launches with ease. I fly the 7.2 in 4 line mode on an airush 80cm bar with depower setup, attached this way it is possible to pull the the nose of the kite in and dump a percentage of the power. As a traction unit it is superb this will pull you on a board in winds as low as 5 to 6mph at 8 mph you are positively zipping along, I find very few kites that can give you such traction at low wind speeds. Whereas with other kites it is possible to generate lift, the nasa does not work this way, it can thought if the wind is strong take you a foot or two off the ground. This is not a slow kite by any means, it will also turn on its wing tip. It should be treated with respect, it will most definitely bite your ass if not respected. My biggest concern in flying these was the safety aspect, hence using the depower setup, while not a true depower kite this setup does work to an extent, with the depower strap pulled all the way in the nose collapses slightly bringing the power delivery down by at least 30%, hook into your harness pull in the bar and you can feed the power in exactly where you want it, it is even possible to reverse the kite down the window and park it on the ground in this setup mode also. Using a leash on one of the brake lines it is possible to release the kite if overpowered and the kite safely will fall out of the sky like a deflated carrier bag. You by no means feel as safe as you do with the phantom and the ease of use this gives you, but then you can pack 3 of these kites into a small rucksack and take them anywhere with you. My kite bag will always contain a few of these kites and with summer coming and low winds these will get even more time out of the bag than my other kites. I have let lots of people fly these who are mostly into expensive must have the lastest gear, all are incredibly impressed with the kites ability and power delivery Overall I would recommend that everyone at least try one of these at some point, you will not be disappointed you may even buy one. By : TTTT

this was the first "power" kite I made about 8 years ago and I am now in the process of making another but larger I love them! there really is something nice about flying a kite you have made yourself. NPW's are easy to make difficult to bridle properly and just plain cussed to fly. NPWs need to be flown using the brake lines to keep the air in the nose of the kite otherwise you get catastrophic collapses and impressions of a bin bag in a breeze. However with practice they can be flown with a high degree of precision and very accurately placed in the wind envelope. So much so that on buying my first 4 liner I was disapointed how clumsy it was and little effect the brakelines had. They pull well and consistently and I have found them useful as buggy engines although not as easy to relaunch as foils. On the whole they are an interesting relic and oddity but for price and size they are powerful and fun also being single skinned pack down to next to nothing if making one for yourself the lines and handles will cost more than the sail and bridling. Go on try one you might be suprised. By : dick dastardly

As a beginner, I took a 3 day course in kitesurfing as i knew nothing, learnt a lot, but i wanted to improove in the cold winter of UK, i really liked the NPW we flew, mainly coz the price was about £300 cheaper than anyother kite! so i blasted along to the shops straight after my course and bought one, in the bag for £140 including a mauimagic 4 line bar and a set of lines which i was tre tre pleased with! i got it out with my brother first time round, and had fun, but there was hardly any wind and the nose kept caving in. i searched the web and found the fix for the nose. problem solved! so i went out again a few days later with my dad. The winds were real strong and i had the time of my life getting pulled around this park this way and that, just having fun skudding around. there was a few weeks of vertually no wind, and i stayed in:( hopingly looing out the window for the branches to sway. only 2 days ago i went to take the kite out on a moderate day, however this time on my own. I got down there layed my lines out, no bridle tangles!!! but about 50 twists in the line, ok no problem i said to myself ill just unhook the bridles and untwist that was as it will be 10x easier! i'd finishd untwisting and some b*stad gust of wind blew my bridles into oblivion and they came out like a ball os string.... only very tangled. i sat there for about 2 minutes till i worked out that it was feeble, i was loosing light and the knots were astronomical!. so i screwed the kite up and swapped the lines up around (being in a big stress i could not be bothered to pack the kite down!) i was so annoyed and fustrated. However tonight i thought the winds were perfect! i got the kite out again after taking 30-45 mins untangling my lines up last nite. i got in from school and changed quicker than superman, as i only usually get 30 misn of light once i get in from school. got the kite up, only about 2 twists. was extatic when i saw the kite get up into the air! i had 30 minutes of bliss, and another 30 after that. i thought it was getting a bit dark so i pulled the kite down ungracefully i may add, not something the NPw are renowned for and packed the kite down. wow i thought. that was the best, muddiest, and funnest hour of my life i had such a great time. and for my birthday in a few weeks time. i will be purchasing a Kheo air-s just to get my board skills up before the summer starts i just thought i'd say that anyone who wants to buy the NPW9 series kite should buy it! you can pick them up for about £70 and it will be the best £70 you ever spend !!!!!! BUY NOW! NPW RULE!!! just add that i will be out tomorrow with it and sunday and monday night. and i think you get the picture. thanks for reading and i hope it maakes you go out and buy one. because they are the best kite on the market, for pull, value for money, unbreakableness and FUN! By : Tom

Bought one of these kites to use for buggy cruising mainly... The kite is quite unique in a number of ways, firstly it's a single skin kite so there are no compartments, secondly it is a different shape to the normal in that it's more of a diamond shape compared to a rectangle. It can be flown on either two or four lines and is very easy to get it flying within a couple of minutes setting up ( purpose built bridle securing points are at the top of the kite for ease of use ). The kite attracted me for a number of reasons... Value-for-money is the first reason ( less than £100 ), it also has been used on various kite expeditions which seemed to me to demonstrate its durability and reliability. Finally it has a bad-ass reputation as a real strong puller with very little lift and boy is that the case!! First time flying was in 10 mph winds and what an experience. Because the kite generates alot of pull it was a real struggle to stop from getting pulled out of the buggy sideways but this was mainly due to the wind conditions. The kite does not look so pretty in the air sometimes because it has a tendancy for the top to fold over but when the wind is blowing hard the kite looks great in the sky. The second time i got this kite out after launching at the edge of the window i was dragged a hundred yards down wind and ended up letting go of one of the handles in fear of my life so watch out as this kite can bite you! Over-all this is a seriously good kite for those of you looking for a low maintenance easy set-up buggy engine. If scudding is your thing then this will fit the bill just great. By : Darren McClintock

I spent many hours working through the great kite resources found on the web and decided to build a NPW5 for my first large project. The information available to scratch build this kite is great and I had no trouble sorting out the building process. The NPW5 since it's a single surface kite wth a low number of parts was not so complicated to sew except for the seam construction that took some tests on scrap material to get right. It built up in about four evenings, about 16 hours to complete. The bridal is simple arrangement and worked up with not too much fuss. Use the procedures listed on some of the NPW sites and it comes out good. First flights were troublesome for me as I had the angle of attack all out of wack and it never got off the ground more than 5 feet. It pulled like heck in a 20mph wind and was tough to keep it's shape... So after plenty of adjustment of the main panel center bridal lines I adjusted the angle of attack to perform better but it was still tough to get higher than 20 feet. I began to tune the break lines and let them out, alot... The kite zoomed up to overhead and stalled and collapsed. I think I got it by this time. (7 flights later) I find that this kite works much like many of the last posts in this listing indicate. However, I struggled for quite some time to tame the kite and stop it from folding up, flying backwards, not climbing, spinning, and get control of... I have scared myself twice as the gusts came up beyond 25mph and found that it was pulling me so that I lost foot traction and was getting close to trees at the end of the field... Make sure that you fly this kite 4 line as it can pull you more than you may be prepared for and you need a way to get it on the ground. It's been a real challenge to learn with but after fighting with it I can probably work any other kite available. It's turns fast but goes slow, pulls hard and is plenty surprising when it collapses and changes shape... It's a fine first kite for the first time scratch builder if one takes a little care and attention. It will help you build up all your skills for the first season in building and flying big traction kites. I recomend it for a beginner project and suggest you make it four line or it will pull you to where you really don't want to go on the first day you dare to take it out in moderate to strong winds... Lot's of workout and lot's of laughs... Spent $130.00 and my time to build... Go for it... By : Bruce Feaver

Bought this kite a year ago as a first 4-liner, mainly because it was cheap at 70 quid, but also because it was different. I already had a Symphony 2.2, a pair of Flexis and a couple of deltas so I decided to get a 4 liner. I looked at a few traditional foil types but the prices were a little frightening - then I saw the NPW9. I had seen an NPW5 flying a few months before and was quite impressed and having read that the NPW9 was a vast improvement over the original I bought it. Kite, lines and handles for approx £130 - most quality foils would cost at least double that for an equivalent size. The shop owner warned me to take it out in a light wind at first as it was very different to anything I already had - I didn't listen and went out in a 20mph wind and got tangled up before it was of the ground. My stupid fault for not taking good advice. Anyway, got home, spent a while sorting things out and waited for better conditions. Due to the time of year (early Jan) I had to wait a while for lower winds but eventually there came a good day. Quite bright and about 5mph wind off the sea. Got set up, quick prayer to the big man upstairs just in case and then took off. I was not dissapointed at all. I had expected a slow kite but the NPW9, although not as fast as a foil, is no slug. It turned faster than expected aswell - especially on the brakes. This kite can turn like a revolution, albeit a slow one. The power is incredible even at 5mph my arms were getting a severe stretching and I could really lean back on the turns. The power stayed on right to the edge of the window - unlike a foil - which would probably be an advantage to a buggier or boarder. Another advantage is that it files backwards and is also easy to take off backwards after a crash. The only problem I had was that the nose kept collapsing but this was easily sorted after a quick visit to the NPW5 website (Npw5.com). I fitted limitation lines to the brake line attachment point which are then joined to the main bridle point. I believe this is now standard on the kite when you buy it - it wasn't at the time I bought mine. This sorted the problem straight away, the nose still collapses in really low wind but a quick pull on the brakes usually straightens things out. All in all this is an excellent kite. HQ always produce quality and this is no exception- it is bomb proof. There are several more expensive "big name" foils that I have tried since that don't come anywhere near it for value versus performance. I would highly recommend this kite to anyone, but take my advice : DO NOT go out first time flying in more than 5mph wind, also take a helper if you can.Make sure that your power lines and brake lines are all exactly the same length.Always take time to pack away properly as the bridles can become tangled. It pays to make sure that they are as tangle free as possible - I always unpack again at home and take any twists/tangles out before my next flying session.Enjoy - you will not be dissapointed with an NPW9 By : Gary Robinson