Leaderboard

Flew the Hydra yesterday in pretty bumpy and gusty winds. Nothing above 5 was smooth and increased throughout the day. When gusts started hitting 25/26 mph I quit. Way above the Hydras wind range but hey what can I say.Should have went vented but I was in a damn the torpedoes kinda mood. Kite is quick and above 12/13 gets really quick. Tons of fun. Thinking about this post while flying I have to agree with the advice that bigger and slower would be best. I've only flown a Vision twice. Had fun but the Widow ng is a major step up. That would be my choice. A lot of good reviews from excellent fliers on the Silver Fox 2.5. Don't know of any other kites in that price range that are that good. Another plug for the Widow ng is your access to Kites and Fun Things. If you want radical the Premier Addiction is a blast for not much money. Fast, tricky and tough with a wide wind range. Haven't flown the Pro. Should be a little better. Maybe a consideration for your 3rd kite 😊. Was fortunate to have the Addiction, Nighthawk and Widow ng at the same time. Very different kites. Sucks I couldn't keep them when moving up the food chain. Out of the 3 the Widow took me the furthest.

If you want to make your own it's relatively simple. It is a scaled-down copy of the 1.5 bridle. Get the measurements of a 1.5 kite. Measure the 2. Figure out the percentage of reduction. Reduce the length of each leg by that percentage. Or just spend $20 and buy a replacement if you haven't made any bridles before and don't want to get into that.

I fly the Hydra the most because I get excited and try things I'm not good at yet. It's tough, fast and I seem to have a better chance of correcting because of speed. That could just be a false perception though. Outer battens are stressed mostly from roll ups. Where I fly is fairly rough. No rocks but stubborn vegetation would be accurate. The spot is called a Playa. Different then the surrounding pasture. Have 2 on my property. In wet years filled with water by now. Not this year which sucks. No frogs, toads or dragonflys. Won't be very many migratory birds coming by this fall.Having to adjust to the day is one of the most appealing aspects of kiting. Slide stall practice and 1/2 axle attempts daily no matter the wind.

You can do a stack with the flush LE but it does make the stack lines a bit trickier.

hi Riff, As a future improvement to consider,.... The Down Spar end-caps on top should be flush along the leading edge, sticking up is sure tangle point some day when you are all slack lined and spankin' it. and maybe a little more curvature built into the leading edge (seems pretty laser straight in the video compared to other kites shown) so it "cups air" better. Try a couple of inches (2) down from the center (on each wing-tip) so the curve is built into the leading edge sleeve without a set of sticks inserted, your kites look good in the sunlight, editing could take out JH in the foreground, Ha!

Bear in mind, the stock leaders on the B-Series are actually shorter than what most experienced pilots use... As you learn more, you’ll figure out how to use long leaders and still get the kite moving with a little kick or “whump” to activate and maintain the forward drive. There are examples of this in both the Launch & Control and Sail Loading tutorials. Key is, it’s harder to start forward flight when the kite is resting (flat and no frame flex), but once you can flex and hold the frame in a different shape the drive ratio changes to your advantage.