DrLightWind wrote:Sounds good
What is the weight of the 17.5m since it is 30% lighter
Similar to Norcom's kite the new Flite 17m is 3.7kg, down from 5kg. Most of this savings is in the LE which makes a significant difference in the kite's ability to stay flying in very light winds when normally the weight of the LE would pull the kite forward and cause it to luff over.
C Johnson wrote:what's with the hatchet and flannel?
That was a video shot by the guys at XL kites. Phil threw the plaid jacket and ax in as a tribute to our Canadian roots.
jespin4845 wrote:eree wrote:
yeah, no strut kite is a bubble...
but wouldn't it be nice if mr Harrington explains why no venturi bs, no kinked leading edge and no even number of struts design performs better than the much hyped (by OR itself) "venturi bs, kinked leading edge and even number of struts" options?
haters gonna hate...
in my experience venturi isn't great below 14/15 knots, boosting in 20+ knots its magical and the kite turns fast so the zig zag LE works great...
It's a pretty simple explanation actually, none of those features are needed on a dedicated light wind kite. Kind of like a spoiler's not needed on a truck.
The FST increases the sheeting range of a kite and bar pressure. Two things we do not need for a dedicated light wind kite, the Flite is not designed to operate over a massive wind range and being a large kite already has good bar feedback.
The vents help decrease the chance of a stall. Obviously something that would be important with a light wind kite but they specifically help offset the chance of a stall on kites with large sheeting ranges and the potential to oversheet (such as the
Razor and
Storm). The
Flite was designed with a longer root cord which already makes it very tough to stall (like our
Prodigy) and therefore does not require vents.
Our design team is focused on results and makes use of the technology needed to achieve those results. We are not going to include FST or Venturi technologies on a kite design that doesn't need it.
