Blake wrote:Dom,
I have a 9.5 that I haven't flown yet, bought it for the girlfriend to teach her on. Thing is, I was just down in Hatteras and talked to an instructor from Kittyhawk Kites and he said the Prodigy overflies like crazy and he doesn't like it at all for teaching. I would like to know before I fly this one, or end up selling it as a new, never flown kite, so what gives?
Blake
Hi Blake;
Wow - that's definitely a new one on me; when I come into the beach in lighter winds and go for a reckless self landing (tug centre lines like crazy, release to get kite to over fly), the thing just sits there like a balloon and I end up just dropping it to 3 o'clock and tugging the top centre line to land it.
Not saying it can't overfly, any kite has that potential of you run downwind at it, but the Prodigy is a deep canopy design that creates a lot of drag. It cannot sit very far forward in the window, and so when a gust does come through it is insulated against nose stalling or overflying.
The Razor I would say has a tendency to overfly if you do not watch it when doing certain things in waves, but that's interesting to hear him say that about the Prodigy for over my winter of flying it, stability and resistance to luffing is once of the qualities I would tell someone about in advance of them flying it.
Well, if your kite is under 30 days old, you get a money back guarantee from Ocean Rodeo if you don't like it and you return it undamaged, so I would say you have nothing to lose from giving it a shot.
My no. 1 tip for using it for teaching - set the rear line connectors to the middle setting, you will find relaunch is much easier than on the fast setting.
Let me know how you get on!
Cheers, Dom