I had a session recently when I was out with a 9m Airush Varial X from 2012. The wind was pretty strong... was riding with full depower and with my arms fully extended most of the time. I happened to end up in the middle of a frontal where the wind speed probably was above 40 knots/s. I know that I shouldn't have been out there in the first case, but I was and it wasn't much to do at the moment.
Anyway, the strong wind made the kite to collapse in the air. The centre of the leading edge was sort of being bended downwards and the wingtips got bended slightly upwards, the shape of the kite was more like a sigma than an arc.
It was pretty impossible to manouver the kite when it got deformed, all I could do was to ride downwind in an attempt to make the kite go back to its normal shape.
I ended up doing a massive wipeout before I got back on land.

The kite was pumped to 7+ bar.

Was wondering if this would have happened with any other kite in this wind? Anyone who has experienced the same thing?

I have a 12m airone 2012. At first I thought my kite was weak because it would deform also in high wind. I am using a slingshot 25 inch four line comp bar. All lines are even. I found out that even when fully powered and sheeted in all the way the kite did not stall back so I thought back knots on steering lines was fine but, also when fully sheeted in would make the kite deform so I put steering lines on last knot and depower 5 inches and my kite never deform again.
Turning my kite with less range has made my kiting more manageable. kite turns a lot faster and use of the stopper to cut short the over sheeting out helps control.
Maybe adding a knoted 4 inch pigtail to the outside lines of the kite may help with the turning.

If the kite is feeling mushey and it Over-sheets easy, could that also be caused by the front-lines being stretched ?

Bille

dude your kite was fully depowered in 40 knot. of course its going to go strange shit!

ps your not pumped to 7bar.... thats 105psi!...

lot of overpowered kites deforming one way or another. this "sigma" shape is probably courtesy of bridles pulleys. if bridles attachment points on LE are not secured in space with fixed bridles you can get any shape of deformations. but those pulleys allow to flag the kite more effectively.

I would expect that most kites would deform when put into wind that much over its top-end range, especially any kite that is tuned to maximize performance within its designed range.

Kites are not rigid structures, man....

Beware pump gauges that lie too... I have some that are not calibrated properly.
The efficient high end kites are pushing the limits of structural support, and on full depower their support is drastically reduced with half the laminar flow detached. You are asking a lot of it! Better handling, efficiency and manoeuvrability using a kite inside it's windrange..

I used to take some kites to 9-10 psi, until the pump struggled to push more air on some of the very early kites (pure bows), since then they are a lot more stable with a lot less pressure.

A while ago I did see one chap out with such a big kite, and de-powered so much that it's forward drive was less than it's drag, thus is was falling back in the window when he was up and riding. No deformation, he just could not produce enough drive to overcome the drag and was asking why his kite was not working properly..

De-power is a luxury, not a right

use it responsibly

Most kites out of their wind range will do that. You can only depower a kite so much before it gets wind on the top of the kite. The VarialX is an awesome kite

I've had my 7m 2010 Cab SB out in 35 knots gusting to well over 40 knots. It seemed OK until it did the same kind of sigma shape during a really strong gust, after which I activated the IDS to kill the kite. I mention this because I think just about any kite will do this if you are well over its intended wind range and particularly if it is gusty. I have demo'd the Varial X and it is a killer kite, the first one that's made me think about getting away from SB's.

K