First flight of the Nasa Star 3. :D

Really crappy wind, but it felt smoother, slightly wider window, super responsive and direct with less tendency to back stall. Mind you, these are all just first impressions in 0-10 knots! So I'm chomping at the bit to get it down to Kingston for a couple weeks of kiting at the end of this week. Lots more to come....

Holy cr@p! ... Somebody buy my Reactors... I want some!!!!!

Very impressive kite! 3.2 meter? I didn't see that size or color scheme on their web page.

Yeah, hey John... I had trouble hearing you and the bit about the "rumor" regarding the 3.2m. Mind commenting?

Also curious if anyone can comment on how line length translates to size? I think I'm right in saying you can use a bigger kite in bigger wind on SHORTER lines. So say I want to use the 5.5m in 4m wind, what line length would make that doable?

Here's my conundrum... In my wind, the most frequently used foil I have is my 8.6m RII and the way Jason and Sean have been discussing how the sizes are comparable, I'm leaning toward getting the 8.5m NS3 when the time comes, but I don't want to be left out when I need say a 4m... now I know I can always get the 4m down the road, but for now, what line length would have the 5.5m working like the 4m. Is there a good means or equation for sorting that? Mostly curious.

Lots to consider but I would focus more on what you plan to use on long lines. Shortlines may give you some flexibility but will still be challenging with inland wind. It seemed like you would use the 5.5 and 8.6 mostly from your videos. I would start there and expand from there. Personally, I use the 5.5 and 7 the most and could really stand to use a 8.5 and a 3.2. It has been tough to get good 4m wind. When I'm in 4m range, the wind is usually 15ish with gusts in the low 20's. The 4 is too much in the 20's and the 2.5 isn't enough for the lulls. If I could do it over, I would get a 3.2, 5.5, 7, 8.5

Edit: Something else I'm going to try is pulling the yellow depower ball in a slightly depowered position when I'm in wind that is between sizes. I'll let you know how that works when I try it. This would allow you to remain hooked in but you could use the kite in a depowered position. So far I have trained my brain to pull the main safety only when things get out of hand. It might be awhile though, I have pretty much shelved the kites until I get some work done around the house. You know, that whole priority thing.

Thanks John, I'm going through my garage and closets to see what I can sell now. :D

Good advice, thanks Sean... now get some work done!

Edit: Now I'm thinking maybe a good 3 kite quiver would be 3.2m, 5.5m and 8.5m... ugh but I always was wanting something in the 7m range with my foils.

Very tough call. The 7 is a size I haven't had before and I really like it. Although, I've never had an 8.5 either.

Edit: I forgot, I did have an 8m toxic for a couple of weeks. I used it in the buggy a couple of frustrating times and declared war on all of my foils. That's when I gutted the quiver and bought ns2's

Not to change the subject too much, but where did Black Betty end up?

I think Riffclown ended up with one of them...

Quote: Originally posted by ssayre

Very tough call. The 7 is a size I haven't had before and I really like it. Although, I've never had an 8.5 either.

I found that the 5.5m - 8.6m with foils covered a good range, but I often wanted something in between A. to have something just a little smaller than the 8.6m and just a little bigger than 5.5m and B. well... just because :D.

With the "depower" ability of the NS3s I'm thinking this will be a decent set to cover all ranges.

Pistol Pete has black Betty. She's breathing some north west ocean air.

Riff has Jason's old one.

Can't comment too much on line lengths, but when I first had the 4m, I put it up on 6m lines and was a little underwhelmed by it's power. Swapped to 20m lines and it was a completely different beast. Careful comparing these directly to foils ie: my 4m Method needs 15 knots to 25 knots. The 4m NS2 does the same job in 10 knots to 20 knots (although 20's getting to be a handful). My 7m NS2 is good to go from about 7 knots to 13ish.

Having said that, I did run the 4m NS2 side by side with Clive and his 4m Octane and there was only ever a couple of kph difference between them - I was faster in the bottom end and Clive had the advantage when the wind picked up.

Rumor is that you can win the NS3 in the video with bar and lines (it will be brand-spanking new though). No other details yet - when I know more, I'll let you know. Those colors look kinda familiar though......:D

Your Australian wind must be better than ours. the 4m in 10 knots wouldn't budge my fatness. 20 knots would be kicking my tail.

Quote:

Your Australian wind must be better than ours.

Could easily be. (different, I mean) More moisture or cooler/denser air definitely packs more punch. I'm told when QLD'ers come down south to kitesurf in Victoria, they usually have to drop a size kite for the same winds.

I've also had days where I've been well powered in cooler winds, whereas the same wind speeds on warmer/drier days are not as powerful.

Really enjoying this thread!

What are red, yellow and blue loops at the leading edge for ?

I will guess for storing your bridles tangle free.

Bladerunner you are correct.

nice , answered a ton of questions

and the only question i have, the NS3 v. npw5 on a bar...is the NS(3) more front line biased than NPW5?

seem to recall NPW5 definitely needed to be balanced front to back on the handles esp. when i used it with a strop.

how does all this play into the Nasa star version on a bar ? i remember the 2 line set up but never went that route for use

The Z bridle option seems to be the answer to that issue, Phree. It puts the kite into 2 line mode, but the are separated such that pressure on the brake lines puts extra pressure on the rear bridles braking the kite... Check out BigE's thread.
http://www.powerkiteforum.com/viewthread.php?tid=29696

Quote:

seem to recall NPW5 definitely needed to be balanced front to back on the handles esp. when i used it with a strop.

While I haven't tried this with an NS3 yet, I can tell you that I also had to balance front to back when flying the NS2 on handles. As soon as I started to let off trailing edge tension, things started getting 'flappy' fast.

Z bridle is the easy way out there for handles with the NS2.

Then again, the NS2 (and I assume the NS3 (need to test in a bit more wind)) reverse launches fairly easily on 2 lines so I don't really feel the need to have the extra control that handles do provide.

Vid of the NS2 on handles (no Z) here: NS 2 on handles I have no reason to suspect the NS3 will differ too much.

Wow. These several threads have me in a Nasa Star euphoria. Lol. I can't wait to put up the 7m.

That's exactly what I want to try as well Sean. The yellow ball. I'd love to rig up and adjustable stop for just what you are saying. I want to be able to eat cake and watch some TV while I buggy lmao. I can already see a need for an adjustable ball stop at jibe. Don't want to be too overpower in one direction down the beach. And don't want to have to run a few miles unhooked holding all the kites depower. Kinda what I've been saying all along. To be able to lock in a set depowered position in one direction if needed, then adjust for full power back up wind.

Quote:

nice , answered a ton of questions and the only question i have, the NS3 v. npw5 on a bar...is the NS(3) more front line biased than NPW5? seem to recall NPW5 definitely needed to be balanced front to back on the handles esp. when i used it with a strop. how does all this play into the Nasa star version on a bar ? i remember the 2 line set up but never went that route for use

difference between the npw5 and nasa star on a bar is the 3rd line to the nose on a nasa star. This allows for partial or full depower. Other than that, the nasa star flies like a 2 line kite on a bar unless you have the nasa star pro depower which I think john has the only one in existence or you split the bridles and convert to 4 line. His video from narrowong and this video are 2 completely different bar set ups. You could rig a npw5 on a bar by having dual leaders on each side of bar so kite is balanced than connect a strop with qr and Y the brake lines to a kite killer of some kind. John has rigged his ns2's that way before.

His pro depower bar is a complete setup with lines and fancy pulleys on the kite side. I'm still not exactly sure how it works but he said it splits the power evenly to the harness between the center lines and brake lines so that it functions more similarly to a actual depower.

The most common set up is the 3 line "depower" which is what I have and what john is using on his narrowong trip video. All power is on the outside of bar and kite flies as 2 line with a 3rd line that activates partial or full depower depending on what you do.

Sorry that was a mouthful, but john has videos explaining each which will help. They are a little confusing at first. I don't think you could rig a npw5 like a nasa star without the nose bridle. Maybe that could be added but I'm not sure if it would work. :puzzled:

Jason, I agree. I love seeing the dot beside a nasa thread glowing green :D:D

Quote: Originally posted by ssayre

Pistol Pete has Black Betty. She's breathing some north west ocean air. Riff has Jason's old one.

She does like that long fetch light & clean beach wind. Strop line on handles worked but I prefer the Ozone Turbo Bar safety/brake handle-line features. When it gets janky she goes back in the sack.

Enjoying the posts on the new NS3s. Nice to see the new single skin kite advantages getting more tuned and tested.

As to using the depower function constantly...... it wasn't really designed with us buggiers in mind and as such, I feel that depowered, the kite sits back in the window and slows down - not quite what I want for the buggy at speed. Ok for the streetkiting usage where they're not usually travelling as fast and a bit of extra drag is not a bad thing but perhaps not suited to the buggy. Hence, I only tend to use it as a primary safety. Give it a whirl and see what you think....

Once again... great thread

Who is carrying these in the U.S.?

Crash then swim on here used to but I don't think he has stocking any. I talked to him a few months back. I have talked to Steffen about being a distributor for him here, but not sure yet If I actually will. I'm still working on the details.

Myself and 3shot have ordered direct from born-kite in Germany which is easy to do by emailing Steffen. You just have to allow anywhere from 2 - 5 weeks for delivery

thanks for details and thread ref.

one rainy no wind day mod job is at hand , thanks!