Kite review: XL Leading Edge Company 376 High Street COFFS Harbour Jetty NSW 2450 AUSTRALIA Phone +61 66 52 11 99 Fax +61 66 51 67 60 DESCRIPTION The XL is a full size delta, dual line stunt kite. Sail is scalloped, some billow, 4 standoffs, no winglets, a fat tail. It uses 6.3 mm pultruded Beman "Air Circus" carbon frame, 32 g/m2 (.5oz/sqft) Icarex. Wingspan is 2.50 m (8ft10"), height is 1.10 m (3ft23"). Recomended wind speed is 2 to 5 bft. Weight is 330 g (11.6oz) for usual configuration. Window is normal wide. Price ratio is around mid-level kite price. There should be a UL version, later in the year. SUMMARY This kite is fun, sail has a some colors, less than the Evolution. Program is: stunt, precision. It is a very good choice for intermediate fliers, to become more advanced ones. This kite is very close to some high level stunt kites, with more up to date details (tips, leech line, wind tamer...) Frame details Frame is made with Beman AirCircus pultruded carbon, it is very stiff, not so light, but the kite is not made to fly under 2 bft. This lets it to be rock solid, this is a good point for fliers who can made errors and unwanted contacts with the ground. You can disassemble the kite very easely. A ProComp15 or Skyshark3p UL version should be available. Fittings are made with hard plastic, and I never broke them, even when I was flying this winter, in cold wind. Sail details Sail is made from light Icarex and l.e. are made from heavy dacron. The sail is colored, and scalloped. L.e. are not curved and the sail has a some of billow. Tail is fat and the t.e. is some angle and two facet. Rest of l.e. is curved. There are 4 stand-offs, but a newer version should have same system as the Evolution, ie, aka three line bow, without distorsion on spars. Aspect ratio is higher than Evolution, nose angle is about he same as NSR or BB1. The sail is made with glue'n sew techniques. The different panels are assembled with two faces tape, and then sewn with zig-zag style. This is very clean, the quality is very hight and I never had problems with sail. Leech line make it totally silent, even with strong wind. The thread is auto-adaptive: it is attached to a bungee, and you can tune the tension as usual, just a bit less tension and it would become noisy. This is the way I can control kite precisely. Bridles details Bridle system is simple. Top bridle come from top spreader connector to swivels and to bottom spreader connector, you can tune this. Another bridle comes from tee to swivels. There is not crossing system You can adjust the tuning, but it is ok when it comes out of the bag. TRACKING CHARACTERISTICS XL is light in hands, in the whole window. Tracking stays light on normal wind, and regular in the whole window. Forward speed is good. Pressure is constant from edge to edge, top to bottom. When the wind becomes too heavy, you can add a wind tamer. This is an amazing one, it looks like a bra. You attach it from le/bottom speader join to tee to opposite le/bottom speader join, and at each end of the stand-off. This technique is very interresting, because it doest not affect line positionning nor look and it is very efficient. TURNING CHARACTERISTICS Like any modern stunt kites, it turns somewhere around the l.e./bottom speader join. It performs very good push-pull turns without oversteer and sharply. Keep a good pressure on the sail and you will never have bad moves, but you will never have bad surprise, like with radical kites. PRECISION Like any modern stunt kites, with multiple stand-off and leech line, precision is good, but you have to move yourself to control its speed, there is no buzzing/flapping effect on t.e. to help you. STUNTS Snap stall and slides are easy, the sail is in tension with the 4 standoffs. The stunts are made much more slower than with Evolution, of course, the kite has much more aspect ration and is bigger. Every stricky start can be performed, l.e., nose, turtle or face launches and so on. The nose angle is not a problem. Espacially turtle launch (R. Reich's definition) is easy to achieve, because you have plenty of time to analyse what this kite is doing. this is lot more intuitive with Evolution. Every tip stand, tip dragged can be precisely controlled. Many axel are easy to perform. Slow axel, kick axel. I like smooth, flat axel, when the kite is in fact gliding. This is a pleasure with this kite. Groundwork is good, and as the frame is rock solid and almost inexpensive, some can begin touchy tricks with it. Turtles are easy, and it goes out of it almost alone. This is hard to reach the ground in this position, or you began close to it. CONCLUSION This is a all-purpose kite. Very good for precision, easy for stunts, with an amazing wind tamer wich helps to fly it with strong wind. It is hard to use with zero-wind, even if 360 are welcome. This kite is modern, innovative, and makes my beginners friends happy. My 0.002 cts ... ;-) --------------------------- Bruno Brottier 37 rue Chaptal 92300 LEVALLOIS PERRET - FRANCE E-mail: Bruno.Brottier@icare.fdn.org -- [NeXTmail] ---------------------------