My first Nasa Wing (definitely NOT my last....) Beautifully made. Very light - will fly in not much at all. Very stable. Constant grunty power even at slow speed and even in gusty conditions. Nothing to break. Fast turning. I don't think there's anything I don't like about this kite. Sure, the wind window is certainly not as wide as an Ozone Method so I'm not expecting it to have the same upwind ability and because it produces it's power at relatively slow speeds, I'm not expecting to set any speed pb's with it but for varied terrain (farm/dunes & the like) and solid power that really seems to smooth out the gusts...wow, I'm impressed. I had no problems going up and down my 'tracS-P-A-M-L-I-N-K- with a few slightly upwind sections.

I found Born-Kite.de on the internet, shot them an email, and Steffen Born was very prompt and friendly with his replies. No problem sending me one from Germany. Got to Australia in 9 days for a very reasonable price too.

Here's the vid:




Now as this is rigged as a two line, with a third 'depower' line - a question for four line Nasa wing flyers - What percentage of power is spread between the 'power' lines and 'brake' lines? ie: is most of the pull coming from the top/power lines?

And can you steer a four line Nasa using the rear/brake lines?

very nice review !

Nice video review !!! Bobalooie, DON'T LOOK !!

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Originally posted by John Holgate Now as this is rigged as a two line, with a third 'depower' line - a question for four line Nasa wing flyers - What percentage of power is spread between the 'power' lines and 'brake' lines? ie: is most of the pull coming from the top/power lines? And can you steer a four line Nasa using the rear/brake lines?

Since the other NASA flyers have not yet chimed in I will answer first. My three are all NPW5s so the flight characteristics of the NPW9 and NPW -HA may differ. Mine fly with an even split of power between power and brake lines, needs lots brake pressure to "hold" the wind. They fly, in my opinion, very much like Rev's.

Yes quite a bit of steering possible/ required with the brake lines up to and including hovering and reverse flight.

Thanks Cerebite - that's exactly what I wanted to know.

Cheers guys.

If anyone wants more info on any of the line from BORN Kites let me know. I am the US distributor for them. I always have a few in stock and have even been known to send them out to demo. There will be both the depowered NASA Star2 and the NASA Star1 at Wildwood full set of each to demo and purchase. Find me at Wildwood or hit me with a U2U.

:wee:

Great review John...got me interested, for longboarding :wee:

http://streetkiter.de/en/

http://www.born-kite.de/index.html

The streetkiter link is interesting. Don't see anyone down this way flying no lines straight off the bar style.

Was hoping to get some footage in the buggy this weekend but the wind dropped to 3-5 knots so had to settle for a static fly instead. Got some nice video - particularly impressed with the ability of the Nasa Star 2 to nose dive it straight into the ground, take a couple of steps back and it flys up backwards, does a loop and off you go! Don't ask me how it does that, but it does. I'll get that video together in the next few days....

Here is said video.....

Don't know how it manages to fly backwards to re launch when it's not a four line kite.....:puzzled: but it works and it's a hoot to fly.

very nice!! Thanks for sharing, suprised at going two line with a depower line, as these things really come alive in 4 line. That said looks like someone has done a good job on improving the design.

Had a good fly with the 4, 5.5 & 7m Nasa Star 2's on the weekend in gusty 4-14 knot conditions. When powered up, I had no problem getting upwind. At a very rough guess, I might lose 10-15 degrees of upwind capability compared to an Apex or Access but was still able to gain ground without too much problem...except when the wind dropped down to 4 - 5 knots and I had the 4m up. Probably no surprises there!

Was flying alongside a 6m Century and an 8m Toxic and in those light and gusty conditions, both those kites were often on the ground. I was able to keep the Nasa's up all the time. Sure, when the 6m Century was going, it passed me like I was standing still but that's to be expected.

Put the 7m up in 4-7 knots at the end of the day and it was instantly park 'n ride away. Well powered. Super stable. No problems getting back upwind. Slow (I was on grass) but heaps of grunt.

I have the bar rigged up with Born-Kite's conversion kit now (yt clip here: Nasa Star 2 conversion kit and find it very easy and reassuring to have the red ball & pulley - that is on the line above the bar - tucked underneath a finger so if I get overpowered, I can just haul back on the center line effectively killing off the power in the kite. Also handy when hot launching - just let the bar out a little to take the power out of the kite.

When 'depowering' the kite, the nose folds over and the kite slows down, which is the opposite of a depower foil. So I can't really use the depower in the same way as normal.....more for taking the power out of the kite. Not the most 'elegant' solution I've seen, but effective, nontheless.

Very smooth and responsive to fly and most of all, a hell of a lot of fun.

A closer look at the 2.5m and how the depower works.....

Very nice review, John. Makes me want to tinker with flying my NASA's on 2 lines/bar. You could take your whole quiver in one backpack!

Great review John

Hope to see a little video review of the 5.5m and 7m in action before I dive into getting one, or two. :tumble:

Here's some buggying footage taken at Truganina Park close to Melbourne with the 4, 5.5 & 7m Nasa Star 2's. The 7m can have me rolling in the buggy when bigger and way more expensive kites are struggling with the light conditions. The window is certainly narrower than foils, but even so, getting upwind did not prove to be a problem.

Thanks John! Looks like the 7m might be the one to choose for very low wind conditions Is apparent wind much of a factor? It appears that the kite achieves maximum powers almost instantly? Thanks again for the video post

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It appears that the kite achieves maximum powers almost instantly?

That was my immediate impression too. Had to work it a little when the wind dropped to 4 knots or so. I have no idea what effect apparent wind and a low friction surface is going to have - I'm yet to get them onto the sand. You've pretty well had a snapshot of all the buggying I've done so far with them. They certainly produce power and park 'n ride a lot sooner than any of my foils. I can only assume this will work against them for high speeds on the beach. Hope to find out soon!

Well, finally got the Nasa's on the beach and they surprised the heck out of me. Getting up to the point at Sandy Point and back down almost to Waratah Bay wasn't a problem. (Quite a long section of beach - about 12km in a big curve, so you end up running upwind at one end or the other). Running side by side with Clive on his 4m Flow when I was on the 4m Nasa wing there was maybe 2kph difference in speed - me being faster in the lighter winds and Clive faster in 17-20 knots. Wind range surprised me too....parked it out at the point and pulled my wind meter out 19-22 knots....yet was still reasonably comfy flying it. Smoothed out the gusts nicely. Sat quite deep in the window with a fair bit of side pull so a comfy harness is recommended. Got a 49.7kph with the 4m and 48kph with the 2.5m - I'm sure the Methods would be 10kph faster and go upwind with much more ease, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Nasa's did on long runs (I bought them for shorter inland runs where the wind is often gusty). Very stable too. Great kites!

Check out the 'Shoot the Breeze' (in the buggying section) music video to see how well the 4m and 2.5m did on the beach. Just ignore the idiot playing electric guitar on the beach......

Gave the 10m it's maiden voyage on the weekend in 5-7 knots with the occasional gust to 9. Wow! what a park and ride monster! Launched fairly effortlessly and as soon as I started to move, it just parked with enormous power. Headed slightly upwind towards the point with Cris on his 12.5m Montana (not sure if it's the IV or V). Interestingly, Cris was working the Montana pretty hard and having to occasionally tack - he caught up at one point, then had to tack and after that seemed to drop further and further behind. All this time I just had the 10m parked low in the window. Sorta like being pulled by a tractor! Heaps of side-pull, so it will test how comfy your harness is for sure. Like all the other Nasa Star 2's, it was very responsive to input - not sluggish at all with a very direct feel. Was flying it in the two line configuration with the third depower/flag out line.

Seems to me, the lighter the wind is and the bigger the Nasa Star 2, the more advantage you have over similar size foils. With the 7m currently selling at 179 Euros (kite only) they make for a remarkably good value light wind weapon.

Earlier that day I had gone from the point down to Waratah Bay - a run of nearly 14km - with the 5m Ozone Method and as the wind was dropping down to around 8 knots, I had to work the Method ALL the way down to point. I hadn't been expecting the wind to drop that much, so I hadn't put in the big kites, but I did have the 5.5m Nasa Star 2, so I launched that for the return trip. Straight away, it was park 'n ride away with only one finger needed on the end of the bar to keep it in a straight line. Mind you, half way back to the surf club the wind had dropped to 5 knots and I was having to work the 5.5m a bit......but it still got me back.

Really looking forward to summer coming back and some light wind runs with the 7 & 10m NS 2's. I've had the 7m pulling the buggy nicely in 4-5 knots. Don't know what the low end will be for the 10m - it's got heaps of power in 5 knots.

nice story !

as good old peter lynn himself said:

http://peterlynnhimself.com/Kites_For_Yachts.php

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In very light winds, the NASA type has useful upwind performance when compared to other styles of kites that are used for kitesailing. The reason for this is that, because of their highly cambered form, NASA's develop strong pull even while hanging at their maximum angle to the edge even in very light wind- whereas higher performance kites require to be 'figure eighted' in these conditions, thereby losing much of their effective upwind angle.

http://www.peterlynnkites.co.nz/news/0801news.htm

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It's true that kites are not equal- some are better in the light than others. The very best light wind fliers are NASA style single skin frameless kites- they fly in winds you can barely feel. When Chris Brent and I tested NASA's against Arcs using identical KiteCats in 2005, we found not only that the NASA's allowed kitesailing in much lighter winds, but that the performance crossover was at much higher wind speed than we expected. NASA's have L/D's of around 3, Arcs >5, but even when the wind was more than enough to allow the Arc to be parked solidly in a corner (+/-15km/hr), a NASA of similar size would still beat it around an upwind/downwind course.

http://www.peterlynnkites.com/news/0507news.htm

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Another new thing is that we did our first comparative testing with a 15sq.m NASA kite derivative for light wind kitesailing. VERY interesting!: I had expected that as soon as there was enough wind to be able to use a 19m Venom, it would be faster, especially upwind- but this proved not to be so. The cross over was at 5 to 6 kn true wind- well above the Venom’s minimum flying wind. Although the NASA has an L/D (efficiency) of no more than half that of the Venom, even from 2 kn or so it stays up easily - and pulls like a train. All it’s meagre L/D was therefore immediately available for upwind sailing, whereas to stay up in lighter winds, the Venom required figure eighting- thereby losing so much of it’s L/D potential as to drop it below the actual performance of the NASA- which was also the faster kite downwind. I can see a real niche for kites of this type in very light wind sailing, and we will definitely be carrying this development further now. Of course as soon as the wind rose above the about 6kn crossover, the Venom powered KiteCat disappeared rapidly over any horizon you cared to point it at- but it is surprising how often we sail in lighter winds.

--- thats the reason i fly nasawings a lot lately. they are just more fun in those light summer breezes. and: nasawings are much more tame than other foils when a strong gust hits the kite. they do not accelerate and thus do not explosively jerk you around.

I have seen some footage of your last trip John, interesting about cris not being able to keep up, amazing performance with the 10m NASA, will be looking forward to seeing it in action, BTW 5 knot winds are right in the sweet spot for my 8m toxic, so will give you a run for your money.

Thanks for the quotes from those Peter lynn articles, Herc. The Nasa Star 2's may be more efficient than the Nasa wings Peter was using at the time too....

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nasawings are much more tame than other foils when a strong gust hits the kite. they do not accelerate and thus do not explosively jerk you around.

I definitely felt that should a gust hit, I would have a lot more time to react / pull the flag out/depower line if need be than I would if I was on the 9m Riot. The 10m Nasa Star certainly put a very large grin on my face!!

Quote:

BTW 5 knot winds are right in the sweet spot for my 8m toxic, so will give you a run for your money.

I would assume you'd wipe the floor with me with the 8m Toxic but I'm looking forward to the challenge

And a bit of footage of the 10m. er...some very bumpy footage!

And the 4 & 7m....

And some footage of the 5.5m with the Libre Vmax...

Here's the vid of my afternoon flying the 10, 7 & 5.5m NS 2's at Sandy Point. 4 knots seems to be about the bottom end for the 10m on 20m lines. Next time I get the opportunity, I'll try 40m lines and see if I can get it down to 3 knots....

From what info that is out there about these kites and how to fly them on a bar am I correct in saying that if you are hooked into the harness the only way to depower the kite is to grab the ball on the third line and pull it towards you. So if you want to depower the kite with the bar then you need to be unhooked. Please correct me and explain if I am wrong.

Susan (npw goddess)

I think you are correct, Susan. The Video posted on 4/14 in this thread seem to show and somewhat explain.

It's too bad you dont have a system where you can remain hooked to harness to keep power there, and not on your arms while using depower...much like a regular foil depower does.

But It's a very different set up. Basicall y a 3rd 'brake' line(on nose) sliding thru bar hole center vs the powerlines sliding thru same on foil depower.

Seems the only way to depower hooked in(shed some full power) in fixed position with Born Nasa is to steer bar with one hand and pull ball with other hand slowly(too much it will lose all power and collapse). This seems akward.

But flying unhooked you have the depower. Tried Jens and Owen's at WBB.

Susan, you should try and make a depower like these( unless design is patented).

If you never tried one , they are an interesting step up from a simple NASA.

THEY HAVE A SYSTEM CALLED THE Z-BRIDLE THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO USE HANDLES.
http://www.venturi-power.de/product_info.php?info=p199_z-bri...

Just checked it out. Defeats whole depower design.... no depower on quads.. But at least you have an option.