Most interested to hear and see its performance as a buggy engine.
Me too! I have the 5m but the weather is not cooperating - not even to get it up in the paddock let alone get it down the beach. All I've done is
put the lines on so far and it seems very similar to the FLS setup on the P2.
Managed a few short static sessions today and got lots of photos this evening that I've put in our gallery here: LongStar 2 photos
Kite flys very nicely, light bar pressure, nearly spins on a wingtip, FLS works well and doesn't seem to mess things up, lots of power, maybe some
lift (but very light and gusty winds), depower works well - as you let the bar out, the belly and trailing edge begin losing tension and the power
drops off quite well, lands on it's brakes without fuss. It feels like it should be pretty fast and have decent upwind but I'll have to wait till I
get it to the beach to know for sure. Steffen's done a great job on the bridling with a really even profile when under power. No idiosyncrasies or
peculiar traits that I noticed. Well behaved at the edge of the window. No binding where the power lines go through the bar when turning. So far,
so good.
Managed a few short static sessions today and got lots of photos this evening that I've put in our gallery here: LongStar 2 photos
Kite flys very nicely, light bar pressure, nearly spins on a wingtip, FLS works well and doesn't seem to mess things up, lots of power, maybe some
lift (but very light and gusty winds), depower works well - as you let the bar out, the belly and trailing edge begin losing tension and the power
drops off quite well, lands on it's brakes without fuss. It feels like it should be pretty fast and have decent upwind but I'll have to wait till I
get it to the beach to know for sure. Steffen's done a great job on the bridling with a really even profile when under power. No idiosyncrasies or
peculiar traits that I noticed. Well behaved at the edge of the window. No binding where the power lines go through the bar when turning. So far,
so good.
As noted earlier on XK, we wait with baited breath for your first videos and beach review. No speedos in the shots please.
Did a small amount of buggying with it the other evening - only in the paddock for half an hour or so but it did confirm that it is a very well
behaved kite. At one point, I held it high and stationary with the bar out in light and gusty conditions and the worst thing that happened was the
nose folded over - instantly rectified by pulling the bar in. No evidence of any unwanted or peculiar behavior. It really starts to pull when you
get a bit of apparent wind into it so I'm chomping at the bit to get it to the beach which I hope to do next week - if not then I'll be off to
Kingston on the 14th where there should be plenty of opportunity to fly it. All indications so far are good. The bridling is first class with a
beautifully even tension over the whole kite when under power (some of the pics on XK show that). It get's a little wrinkled when the bar is out but
so far I haven't noticed any 'flapping' as such.
Did a small amount of buggying with it the other evening - only in the paddock for half an hour or so but it did confirm that it is a very well
behaved kite. At one point, I held it high and stationary with the bar out in light and gusty conditions and the worst thing that happened was the
nose folded over - instantly rectified by pulling the bar in. No evidence of any unwanted or peculiar behavior. It really starts to pull when you
get a bit of apparent wind into it so I'm chomping at the bit to get it to the beach which I hope to do next week - if not then I'll be off to
Kingston on the 14th where there should be plenty of opportunity to fly it. All indications so far are good. The bridling is first class with a
beautifully even tension over the whole kite when under power (some of the pics on XK show that). It get's a little wrinkled when the bar is out but
so far I haven't noticed any 'flapping' as such.
I have an email into Steffen Born to inquire about his FAS safety system that the venerable Mr. Holgate describes in his superb LS2 review found on
XK. I'm playing with the idea of buying a 9.5m LS2 to slot into a 4m, 6m, and 12m Peak3 quiver I'm assembling from Chris (feyd). I'm going to be
running those kites off of Flysurfer Infinity 3.0 PP bars equipped with a 5th line for the P3s Reef Line system and I'm hopeful that an FAS-equipped
LS2 will similarly fly well off of such a bar setup. I'll post what I find out from Steffen, assuming its relevant.
I heard back from Steffen about his FAS setup for the LS2. It's really pretty simple. He explained with both words and pictures as seen below:
The FAS system is effective and works with a 5th line.
The basis for the FAS is available in each LongStar-2. All you need is the yellow pull line (you can obtained free of charge if required).
[img][/img]
All you have to do is configure the length of the 5th line at your bar (look at the third image).
Pulled the trigger and joined the (expanding) LongStar2 tribe! I've got an inbound 9.5m LS2 equipped with the optional 5th-line FAS system. I'm
(regretfully) familiar with this design from the LS1 and like it.
Pulled the trigger and joined the (expanding) LongStar2 tribe! I've got an inbound 9.5m LS2 equipped with the optional 5th-line FAS system. I'm
(regretfully) familiar with this design from the LS1 and like it.
Pokey is a happy pony!
Cool! They sound like they are very maneuverable. Look forward to your thoughts. Interesting that Tiger on xk bought them and is a true Peak fan.
That's very telling, however most of those guys fly on the coast so I take their reviews with a grain of salt. You'll get to test the gust handling
ability I assume
Pulled the trigger and joined the (expanding) LongStar2 tribe! I've got an inbound 9.5m LS2 equipped with the optional 5th-line FAS system. I'm
(regretfully) familiar with this design from the LS1 and like it.
Pokey is a happy pony!
Cool! They sound like they are very maneuverable. Look forward to your thoughts. Interesting that Tiger on xk bought them and is a true Peak fan.
That's very telling, however most of those guys fly on the coast so I take their reviews with a grain of salt. You'll get to test the gust handling
ability I assume
I may actually need to send Spencer my JWC t-shirt and wallet ID card. I'm not really planning on doing much buggying anymore in the small fields near
my house in the Wasatch mountains, certainly some fine jank there. Rather, I'm planning on buggying either on the "beaches" of the Great Salt Lake or
the Playa of Lake Ivanpah. Both of these spots have some comparitively smooth winds.
I just heard from Steffen that he is coming out with a brand new LS2 bar. There was some push back on the original bar that he was shipping with the
new LongStar2s and he has pulled off a nice upgrade. He is using an adjustable width bar across the entire quiver. I've used this exact bar with
great satisfaction when I was flying a quiver of NS3s and I loved how I could simply and quickly adjust the bar for different size kites or different
sorts of wind conditions. It also appears that he (finally) has a nice chicken loop, a welcomed improvement IMO. I've had a beef for a while with
his chicken loops but this one finally looks legit. The Australian folks on XK that have flown the LS2 are raving about it.
Too late. I ordered a 3.5 LS2 to try, howsomuchever since the reviews weren't so pretty good on the Born bar I went to a Naish Fusion with stopper
upgrade.
I also bought a 2015 yellow Naish "nekid" to build my kit onto when it comes.
Faster Mr Born, Faster......
Flying mostly single skins, with some orphans, the American flag, and a PL buggy. US01
Does anybody know, or can at least guess, based on other DP kite (e.g. Peak) how much the LS2 DP equates to in terms of reduction in power? Would it
be equal to say a 6 M being as small as a 3 M, or would it be more like going to a 5 M. I hope this makes sense.
I've been fiddling with Steve's Peak2 6m and when it's too much for me and I let out the bar it's hard to tell it's up there, except for a little
flapping. Doesn't want to turn as fast of course, but gives me a minute to get my bearing and then a little tug on the bar and I'm sliding across the
grass with the Peak spinning ahead.
I had no idea I could have this much depower and maintain control. But then I only know brakes, depower is a new thing to me.
Waiting to hear from an expert. Also about the flapping. With the diagrams I saw it doesn't look like that will be a problem with the Longstar, I'll
know more in a few weeks.
Flying mostly single skins, with some orphans, the American flag, and a PL buggy. US01
Does anybody know, or can at least guess, based on other DP kite (e.g. Peak) how much the LS2 DP equates to in terms of reduction in power? Would it
be equal to say a 6 M being as small as a 3 M, or would it be more like going to a 5 M. I hope this makes sense.
All good questions of course. I don't have any of these new P3s or LS2s in my hands yet. On another site (XK from Australia) the venerable John
Holgate has put together a dandy review of the LS2. It can be found here:
He aptly avoids overly comparing the LS2 to the Peak series but does spend some time on that topic. It would seem that the 5.5m LS2 is comparable to
the 6m P2 in terms of pull more or less, I suppose as one might expect.
If your question is that of comparing sizes of DP to sizes of FB that is a whole other sort of question of course. Projected area, pulley systems,
bridles, etc. all naturally work into this equation. Foil, SS, NPW for the FB, so many factors.
Yes another inquiring mind wants to know this. More or less depower than a Peak?
I had the impression that the P2 had a little more depower.....but that was at the expense of quite a bit of flapping. Good for brown trouser moments
but you wouldn't want to fly a P2 for any length of time depowered that much.
We never really got much more than 15 knots to test in but when we did need to depower: ie: suddenly getting pulled sideways, then the Long Star 2
always had enough depower for us.
Quote:
I guess I'm interested in how effective the DP is for the LS2, but also for DP kites in general. So if anyone cares to chime in, please do.
I would take a completely uneducated guess and say somewhere around the 40 - 60% less power with the bar out ?? maybe....maybe less? depower's allow
for more relaxed flying particularly in gusty conditions. If you are flying a little depowered, you also have the option of pulling the bar in for
some extra grunt / lift. (The LS2 didn't seem to have much lift at all).
It's the range of wind speed that makes flying depowers nice - ie: you could use the 3.5m LS2 from say, 12 knots up to 25 or more and the 7.5m for 5
knots to 15 or so. (they're pretty conservative figures from flying the 5.5m LS2 and the 6 & 4m P2's) So 2 kites cover most of the conditions
for the average Joe. The 5.5m was park 'n ride with plenty of pull in 8 knots. 5 knots was possible, but a lot of working of the kite. 14 knots was
fine, Trev flew it in a little more than that with no problems.
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