First flight of the Blade 4.9

[mrbonk]

I took my recently acquired first generation Blade 4.9 out this afternoon in ~10 - 14kts.......Woot!! I've never had so much fun beach jumping in all my life :D When I finally get out at low tide and have a go in the buggy, I can see I'm going to have *plenty* of power! I've never flown a 4 line kite on handles before, so the brake-turns thing was pretty cool to be able to do. I put the handles on my 2.1m foil as a 'test run' before flying the blade......it's funny to see the kite basically turn in it's own space :lol: .

The only issue I encountered with the blade was having the kite start to reverse down the window when the wind dropped off.....is this normal behaviour for a foil? A couple of quick solid tugs on the handles managed to get the kite to fill up and fly forward again (most of the time), but a couple of times the kite seemed to 'deflate' and start to collapse at the tips. The resulting 'powerup' when it started flying again was interesting to say the least....I don't think I've got much skin left on my heels just at the moment :wink:

My brake lines were pretty slack......certainly not so tight that the slightest movement pulled the brakes on anyway. What sort of reverse speed should I aim for with full brake application? I assume the kite shouldn't totally collapse and flap down like when you toss the handles and let it go to the killers? I've made some short extensions for the brake lines (with a few knots so I've got some room for adjustment later if necessary), so I'll fit them tomorrow and see what happens.

Roll on the weekend I say! Bloody afternoon high tides at the moment, so by the time I finish work, there's no beach left to try out the buggy :evil:

[The Duke]

Welcome to the fast lane :lol:

You will find that most race kites will not reverse very well when brakes are applied you just have to feel your way with them to prevent collapse, you'll get used to it.

[nigel]

One trick to stop it luffing is to keep it moving.
If you let it sit in the one spot in light winds then all kites tend to luff.
Try figure of 8 patterns to not allow the kite to stop.

As Dukey said, most quad line kites look like flapping garbo bags when too much brake is applied.
This is fixed by only appling a little bit of brake, enough to make it back down slowly. Any more and it goes all flappy with little control over its final landing zone and if left in this state by attaching it to a ground stake or similar fixed item it can in stronger winds launch itself a metre or two up and just flap for a while.

Try finding out through practice how much brake you need to apply. Give enough to back it down without the kite distorting into a flappy bag. The kite should be fully inflatted with a crease or two along the trailing edge.
You should be able to control its desent and park the kite on any spot in the window big enough for the kite. Or ontop of your friends heads. :lol:
The amount of brake you will need will vary between makes and sizes of kites.
A word of warning about backing the kite down: the kite will actually pull harder for the first part in pulling the brakes on, and it might have a considerable pull durring the landing. This will depend on what kite and what wind it is being flown in.

Another way to actually stop the kite in mid air and still have it ready to power up at a moments notice, is to have the kite facing the ground with the brakes on (hovering) while in the middle of the wind window. You can then with a quick tug have the kite on full power and be able to steer it to any corner on the window, great for buggy racing as you can block others before the starters gun goes, and then zoom off before they can get their kite upto full power. :D
Sorry Dukey you can't do this trick with the raptors nor other race kites with some closed leading edges, they only falll from the sky. :lol: