After having flown the WSO by German Siebert’s Drachenkiste for some time we (the AERIALIS Team Flyers) decided to find a kite more suitable for our flying. Back in October 2004, we did a test of eight different kites with (very) different flight characteristics.
And in addition, Anders sat down at his desk designing a couple of kites himself. One of these kites happened to be inspired by the Pro Reactor series from Spectrasport Kites. However, Anders’ variation comes somewhat scaled-down and with a somewhat different sail panel layout. It’s also a VERY light kite and you can fly it down to absolute zero wind conditions.
Now, I happen to have one of those Reactor-inspired kites that Anders made for the team. (We never really flew them.) And that was the third kite out of the bag on the frozen lake yesterday.
Now, this is a really old school design, perfect for flying slow, straight trajectories, and cutting razor-sharp corners with just a flick of the wrists. When it comes to tricking, however…. Well…. Nope!
The pilot is still somewhat on the rusty side and from time to time there’s too much input, but this is what it looked like!
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It’s hard to imagine a dual that is not trickable (guess it depends on the kites I got). Surely it must be possible to stall it? And then you let one wing tip slide back a little and then one axels it? Not? No belly landing/pop up launch? No fades? No turtles? When you landed on one wing tip, what would have happened if you pulled on the other to try to jump to standing on the next wing tip (“coin toss” was it?). Well from the video at least stalls, side slide and tip stabs were possible.
Well, well, should perhaps try harder to trick my small Cross Kites Speedwing ( https://kitelife.com/forum/blogs/entry/293-20-first-minutes-of-speedwing-a-really-short-session-for-a-change/ ) and speedkite Spiderkites Atrax to attempt something difficult. On the other hand HQ Fazers ( https://kitelife.com/forum/topic/6989-you-need-a-really-big-van-to-have-this-one-in-the-back-with-the-le-assembled/?do=findComment&comment=61306&_rid=10687 and https://kitelife.com/forum/blogs/entry/234-feb-log-getting-more-acquainted-with-fazer-xxl-and-more-en-masse-tricking/ ) are surprisingly trickable and they are supposed to be power/speedkites.
Of course you can do some tricks with this Pro Reactor’ish kite, but the original was built for precision flying only way back in the mid-nineties (I think). Back in those days trick flying was in its very early stages and not many tricks were ‘invented’. (Here’s a post about the origin of the Axel.)
Back in those days stunt kite flying was all about precision flying and the kites were made for just that. Short standoffs/flat sails, simple three-legs static bridles, loose trailing edges for slowing things down, winglets to ‘grab’ the air for strait trajectories, ruler-straight LEs and what have you. Not a kite designed for tricking ?
But you can do an axel on this kite, but you will have to set it up 100% correctly if you want to succeed. No, 99% won’t do! ?
…and if you manage to somehow get into a fade to turtle, you will have serious problems to recover, believe me! ?
No, they’re built for precision and that’s about it. But if that’s your cup of tea, you’re definitely in for a treat! ?