Earlier this year Anders was doing some tweaking to the A-Quad bridles. One of the tweaks was to add an activator leg on each side of the bridle. This activator seemed to positively impact the A-quads’ overall flying characteristics and yesterday I installed these activators on my Hardcore.
I adjusted them according to Anders’ instructions and I was ready to go and check it out. I got the chance in the afternoon and soon I found myself on the beach downtown ready to fly!
The wind was strong. No problems for the Hardcore, but maybe a bit too strong to really get the feel of the activators. Well, wind or not, I was ready to give it a go. First some warmup like big circles, a couple of figures of eight some rectangles and crisp cornering. Hmmmm….. Was there any difference?
I flew the kite to the top of the wind window and let it hover up there. And flying with a 10m (30’ish feet) you get the kite close enough to take a look at the bridle at play. The fluorescent yellow coloured activators were easy to spot up there and they seemed somewhat slack. I landed the kite and shortened both activators a little before I started flying again.
Straight to the top of the wind window and now the activators looked right. Correct tension, give or take, and ever so slightly bending one of the original bridle legs. OK, here we go!
My verdict?
Well, I will have to do some more flying before I jump to any conclusions. Like said, the wind was a bit too strong for getting the right feel for the upgrade. However, I think I could sense an improvement in reverse flying; going faster and more stable. The axels also felt slightly different. It might be because of the strong winds, but I have a slight feeling that the kite now needs a more correct setup for the axel, but when you get it right, I also have a feeling the axels are flatter.
Anyway, I need some more time on the kite and in lighter winds before I can come up with my conclusion, so stay tuned, because I will update you here on the AERIALIS Kites website as soon as possible.
In the meantime, check out the video below and … Just Fly!
One Response
> Well, I will have to do some more flying before I jump to any conclusions
Wise words, wait and see how it evolves. If something changes, the muscle memory will say: Not functioning as before! Will one eventually realize what the designer intended (even though piloting styles might differ)?
I see every sufficiently different kite almost as a mystery journey. You don’t know where it ends or how long time it will take. Often a change helps in learning a new angle of a problem. To get used to bridle-less piloting in no wind, I fitted pigtails to the top and bottom if the downspars of the Rev 1.5 B-series Std. in light wind. If I would have had access to my low/no wind Andykites 4WDs I would instead have approached no wind piloting with a bridle that *feels* more like a normal Rev bridle (but is simpler in design…) and the learning process would have been different. To get bulk training doing axels, I practiced using the, in this aspect forgiving, Skyburner Fulcrum.