Cloud 17 is very stable on a tether, I think others have said this is good for small clouds too.
Properly positioned, it will sit still with little flutter and I have not had it wobble or hunt back and forth as some kites do. I speculate this is because it has low AR and long wingtips to rest on...
BWD wrote:Cloud 17 is very stable on a tether, I think others have said this is good for small clouds too.
Properly positioned, it will sit still with little flutter and I have not had it wobble or hunt back and forth as some kites do. I speculate this is because it has low AR and long wingtips to rest on...
Yup - the "outline" and tips is what determines how stable it sits tethered, not whether struts or not.
coleman wrote:can you self launch the kite off the wing tip using a tether?
i would think it might be a problem doing that if there is no wind in the sail from being fully depowered?
Don't need a tether. Just pull the far wingtip into the wind and up she goes. Self landing just as easy. When the wingtip touches down, pull the upper center line. Remember, we're doing this in light wind.
You still need to be very careful with this kite. The fact that it flies in 6kts can be dangerous because if you drop it and water enters the space between the canopy and the LE, then you are left in a very bad situation. I don't see this as an issue with the kite -- just not enough wind. The issue is being over-confident just because the kite flies.
In 8kts+, which should be reasonable to start kiting if you are light and have a big board, then relaunch in water is not an issue anymore. Even more, I find it easier to relaunch than my Cabs.
I cannot imagine the tether should be a problem. If you put the kite on its wingtip on the water it sits patiently and waits for input.
I self launch most of the time. The cloud can be self launch from almost LE facing the wind position just slightly sideways. In nuking wind on the 8 I've changed my technique a bit...to gently tug on the front line to turn the kite and then using the back line. You'll see what I mean if you try.
As usual, don't start off doing this in nuking winds. To me it seems weighing down the canopy with sand is not a good idea. I put something on the LE to keep the kite on the ground. On self land the kite is well behaved, but as with other kites, once it is on the ground run to it, and secure it properly.
DocDeuce wrote:I rode a friends Cloud 17m the other day in 10-12mph. I am interested to see how it relaunches in deep water...
DD
good lord, 36 minutes of water relaunching! Brilliant! that camera man has some real patience to stay with it.....
the tester in the water is ripper tom from austria. His tests are awesome in the german forum. I dont know any guy that writes that much and really gives pros and cons. He tested the Cloud in 17. He is a shoprider and normally rides Slingshot and he pushes the Turbine so hard in the german forum. So he compared it with the Turbine and the Flysurfer Speed 19. In the end he wondered what a funmachine the Cloud is, he never thought about that before he tested. This test made me buying the Cloud 17 for myself and testing it. But this is all written in the other thread with a link to the german forum with google translation.
DocDeuce wrote:I rode a friends Cloud 17m the other day in 10-12mph. I am interested to see how it relaunches in deep water...
DD
good lord, 36 minutes of water relaunching! Brilliant! that camera man has some real patience to stay with it.....
It still looks to me like the kite may have lost a little bit of pressure due to the cold water or air, because shortly after the start, it starts to look like it would relaunch better if it had slightly more pressure in the leading edge.