12m Speed2 first impression

Well I got my first flight this afternoon with the speed2. Was leery of trying at first cause the winds were 20km gusting to 30km. Forecast was suppose to be less but that's okay.

Laid out the kite and first admired its beauty for a bit. What a lot of lines on the bridle, at first I thought that they were tangled but I was wrong. Launched from the edge of the window let it sit there for a minute to watch it inflate in mid air, pretty amazing!!! Once up at Zenith I made sure that all was good and did a nice dive into the power zone :roll: a nice scud for twenty feet and back to zenith I flew it.

I played around with the kite for ten minutes just getting used to the handling, then came the jump attempts. First few tries I was too easy on it and ended up flying close to the edge of the window and a couple luffs caused it to twist and invert. (shoulda listened to you there KAMI ) Realigned the kite and hooked back in up up and away. Let out a bit of trim strap and tried again this time really running through the pendulum sending the kite with full intentions. :wee: Jumped a good 5-7 feet floating back down real easy.

I played around a bit more and noticed the winds starting to die. Pulled the wind meter out of my pocket and yep we were sitting at 12-13 km/h winds. Thought that I'd better try to ride before it got to low. Riding in low winds is gonna take some real practice IMO cause whenever I would try I would either tack upwind to fast and stall the kite or go to quick toward the kite also causing to fall to Earth.

I can see how the new infinity bar would be nice to keep the lines from twisting, I found myself wanting to twist everything back at the chicken loop after doing a few loops. When I buy a 19meter next spring I might invest in one for each kite and use the others for backups.

Never actually got a ride out of it but over the two hour session I learned a lot about the kite, I'd say the more flying in low winds would actually make a person a better pilot sooner or later. Never drove the kite into the ground but had to reverse launch several times when taking it too far to the edge. Reverse launch is a breeze in the right winds; in, lower winds its a bit of a chore but can be done well if timed correctly. One reverse launch was in about 8km/h winds at least that is what my windmeter said when I pulled it out of my pocket after the kite was in the air.

All in all I was really impressed with the session. Any of my other kites and I wouldn't have even pulled the kite out of the bag. I think that when I get this thing to the beach in about 18-20km winds I'm gonna have a really nice ride on the ATB. Never have I been able to jump with a kite in sub 25km/h without riding and sending the kite extremely hard and not so easily either. This kite is gonna give me a great snowkiting season and an even better water season next summer If you haven't flown a flysurfer yet you don't know what you are missing


I give full thanks to Tridude for selling this great machine to me I'm gonna progress a lot from it!!!!

Cheers
Shaggs

Good job! no messing around, straight into it

There's tips in the manual for what the hard/soft will do for you ... mine is set in the center and is much better now both of them are the same :o
Can't help the luffing sometimes, but your FB/arc skills will help out there ... and you can recover bowties/inverts too, from the bar. I wouldn't do it on land out of paranoia for damage, but it's easy on the water

Good kites eh - way more bottom end than the arc, more range than LEIs and I just love my 19 for low wind! Arc vs LEI vs foil all have their ups and downs though ...

Oh the bar and twisted lines thing - bothers me a bit too but an Ozone CL will solve that problem ... no need for the whole bar to be replaced!

What tri said - absolute upwind monster! In light wind, I cut across the wakes of people riding their biggest LEI and a 6' directional at like 45° into the wind
Speed or power dies off - bar in, the kite moves back in the window, edge up and away we go again! Love my S2! Now to get it fixed

Next Friday at the lake 20km/h NW, packed sand lots of space will be the victory day, just as long as I don't end up in the water. Forecast is to be around freezing. Maybe I should be like my buddy and throw on the 7mm wetsuit and jump right in.

Get the SA2.5 then ... apparently it's got the better quality fabric.

How are you launching? By leeward do you mean a hot launch?

I'd launch hot like an F.B. foil until about 12 knots, maybe ... sand the T.E. and lines laid up directly upwind. I walk back to tension the lines, then gently pull the center lines by hand to raise the L.E. into the air flow. It'll pre-inflate a bit but even without that, a good tug and walk backwards with conviction will send it up and it should be mostly controllable until completely inflated. Be prepared for a scud as it goes up. The steering will be mushy and slow, needing an early and heavy hand if you need to keep it inline. Once the tips pop out, you're done.

Side launch ... fold over and sand the upwind tip, lines out across the wind. Hook in, put a touch of tension in the lines and walk upwind in an arc without disturbing the kite. It's kind of like a twinskin launch but I like walking upwind until almost directly upwind and then walking backwards to lift the downwind tip. You can kind of steer it like this, keeping the tip up and getting it to pre-fill a little. Then (keeping the lines tight) rotate back downwind and back away from the kite - it'll launch, probably drifting back in the window as it launches. I'm not a huge fan of side launches, as the kite can roll over onto the T.E. and drag over the beach :ticking:

Pack up ... the manual suggest laying out the kite perpendicular to the wind with sand on the upwind tip, pulling the tips together and rolling the bar up in the kite. If I do that, I add folding over the wing tip and putting the bar on the outside of the kite then rolling up ... stops the bar tangling in the bridle. Make sure to keep the bar at the T.E. of the kite and when you roll, keep the T.E. on top of itself or when you come to fold and pack the kite, it won't fold short enough ...

Lately though, the bar has always been wet & sandy and I'm worried about damaging the kite, so I do this ...

Wrap the lines onto the bar, walking up to the center of the kite - when I can't wrap anymore cos the tips will be pulled, I tie off then gently throw the bar over the kite so it lands above the L.E. then "roll" or more actually fold many times, each wing tip into the center making sure the bridles (mostly) stay inside ... try to end up with about a 1 - 1.5 foot flat slab for each side of the wing. Then fold the halves together on top of each other, fold the kite in thirds (L.E. to T.E.-wise) and slide into the bag. The bar should be poking out the top with about a foot of lines - I lay it down the front of the bag, passing the strap over the bar and through the CL then close the top flap. Bar dries out and there's zero concern of something poking a hole in the kite :D

Phew! Well done if you bothered reading that!

How are you changing direction? If you can slide-turn on the board downwind, you should be able to keep speed in the kite ... I was just starting to do it on the landboard at the end of last winter ...