I started to work on this kite back in September 2020. I was inspired by the Xanadu by Ocean Shore Kites and based on the success of the Skiron, I decided to build the Minimalistic using dacron only too. It was – like said – meant for those really windy days of autumn, you know, for those days when the gales hit the coast from the west.
I was very curious about what the kite would feel like, yes actually if it was possible to fly it. Soon I had the first prototype ready and took it for a spin. The result was mixed. Yes, I did get it to fly, but there sure were plenty of room for improvement! …and in its current state, inverted hovers were impossible!
To remedy this, and hopefully improving the kite’s general feel, I added a pocket on the leading edge, inserted a GF rod and ‘hooked’ it up to the bridle. This prevented the Dacron along the leading edge to be blown out of shape, thus adding a few more square centimetres to the wind-exposed area.
This modification did improve the kite’s flying characteristics and suddenly the inverted hovers felt within reach.
Yesterday I tweaked the bridle a little too before I started to fly, and despite the wind staying in the kite’s lower wind range, the tweaks further improved the kite. Now I was able to hold those inverted hovers, and when the wind picked up a little, I could even do decent looking inverted side slides!
Of course, based on this kite’s sail, or rather the lack of one, makes it different to fly compared to vented quads. There’s no acceleration to it. If you pull on the front lines for more power, not much happen. There is almost nothing for the wind to grip. This means as long as the kite is facing the wind, the pull is (very) light but also very consistent.
Braking is also feeling a bit … weird! Due to the lack of sail, the kite doesn’t stop dead on that dime but slows down before stopping. Yes, brutal ? breaking input, timing and practice will remedy this to some extent, but no, no killer dead stops!
But …. You can keep on flying even if the wind goes absolutely ballistic! And that’s not bad come the windy months of October and November!
Here’s a quick glimpse of the Minimalistic flown in its lower wind range.
2 Responses
This kite against the sky looks like art. Perhaps all quads do, but we are so used to see the normal Rev-like shape? No, this one is “extra art-like”.
Noticed that it also can be made to axel in the hard wind at 4:25.
Thank you! ?
It’s a kind of rev-shape though, it still has about half of the outline! ?
And, yes, it DOES axel! But requires a pretty correct entry/input. You definitely notice when you get it wrong. Then the kite falls dead to take ground, unrecoverable!
But when you get it right, they can be pretty nice and flat. Unfortunately I didn’t get any of those on video. Better save it for later. ?