Hey everyone.
I am looking to get used PL kite to practice with and I am curious about the famous auto zenith feature on PL kites.
I heard from people that this feature was in the past and the newer PL kites like synergy and charger do not really have it anymore (despite of what PL claims). They say that Vortex and Phantom were probably the last to have real auto zenith.

I would like to hear from PL kites owner as to if they think auto zenith still works well or is is now as it used to be?
(Specifically I am interested in synergy 12m, as this is what I am thinking to get in the next couple of days)

Yes, they still got the auto-zenith!
But it is kind a different.
On the older PL-Kites the autozenith was like real smooth, the kite just stood up there, not moving at all, like really calm. On the newer ones (flew the Charger a bit, Synergy not as much), the Kite still goes up in the zenith, and it doesnt come down any more. But it is not as calm anymore. The kite keeps on moving a bit left/right all the time...

Me personally I love my old 8m Venom1 Best kite for ~40knots EVAR!!! (just dont jump the small sizes in high winds ).
But otherwise absolutely my favorite high-windkite!

Hope I could help
regards
Maurice

Thank you for your answer. Yeah, that is what I saw on youtube videos. My question is if the kite will go up to the zenith on its own if you let go of the bar. I am thinking it will be useful on hard pack snow or ice where if I will fall, it will not crash with auto zenith.

Letting go the bar, the arc will tend to go up and stay up ...

yes, it will go up, thats right!

synergy has it as well, not as stronger as the venom² but still remain stick to the zenith in laminar winds.
it will have more tendancies to move left and right in gusty/ unlaminar winds, not a big deal.

i used to put a solar shower on the CL on the beach with the kite at the zenith so i could take a shower ( no stick or whatever to put the solar shower on)