riffclown

I do double stitch the TE now but I had not looked at the Phoenix closely enough to note the LE treatment.. i'll take another look.. I am not a fan of the French Bridles.. Just a personal preference.. Also not a fan of magic sticks. They just don't alter the flying in a way that I can appreciate. Combining them IMO opinion takes some of the flow and personality from the sail...

You've asked several very valid questions. First, I'll point out that There really isn't a right or wrong answer. It's a right for you or wrong for you answer.. Paul and I come from very different schools of tuning. Paul tunes heavily so each kite will fly in its appointed wind range with virtually the same inputs. It's a technique few really master but he truly has got his kite arsenal tuned to a T. I tune differently and emphasize that every sail should have it's on personality in with that (in my mind) own capability. OK, That being said, more curvature in the leading edge imparts glide into the sail as well as creating a positive tension across the belly of the sail. While there are merits to both, I typically use about 1.5 inches of total curve across the LE. Just enough to tension the sail but not enough to glide it out.. It's my choice.. I've made a few sails with a lot of Curve and they fly fine as well but, like Paul, I prefer the shape of the sail to emphasize how I fly. Since I'm making my own I actually have total control of that aspect and I've played with it extensively. Every kite before the Diamonds kite was an experiment into how adjusting, sail tension, camber, curve, and dimensions affected the way the kites fly as a whole. As for the Flushed LE, that is accomplished by using a T Connector inside the LE Sleeve (exposed or not) which makes for a very smooth leading edge and an overall cleaner look.. it also nearly eliminates any possibility of snagging a flying line while doing axels or fades. Unfortunately the tradeoff is that T connector changes ever so slightly the length of the main stacking lines to be different than the other 5 stacklines on a sail. I DO fly stacks and to my knowledge, I'm the only person routinely throw launching a stack to fly. The Flush LE add literally another hour or so to the tuning time since you no longer have the initial starting point of all stack lines the same length. I love Freilein, Revolution and Phoenix kites. Things I do like in those kites I incorporate into my sail. things I don't, I go my own way. Freilein, I like their endcaps so much, they are what I choose to use for all my kites. I'm not a fan of the Flushed LE. Hole along the LE instead of mesh are fine but I don't want to spend all that time cutting holes. QC on these kites is beyond anything I've ever seen. 100% consistency across the lines. Revolution, Truly the pioneer in this design.. Things they got right are basic layout, dimensions, the best frame process and everything Eliot Shook ever built for them. Things they got wrong, Changing the frames to "discourage copiers", adding the annoying springs to their sails to impart float, ignoring production glitches and not taking accountability for a really bad run of frames. They blamed the customer. I like Rev but those things moved me quickly to the used market to get frames from outside the bad batch. I haven't bought a new Rev since. Phoenix, Bazzer makes (and always has made) great sails. Through inputs from iQuad, JB and the Pro series, he turned those experiences and his vision in the Phoenix. He got a lot of things right and they are beautiful sails. I like the Ashes best of the line. What Bazzer missed in my opinion the venting the trailing edge of the full sail on the Phoenix line really changes the way the sail loads up and raise the bottom number of the wind range a bit. What I tweaked to incorporate into my sails is: -standard width (I have 3 standards, 72", 93", 96" -Sewn LE ends to discourage fraying and a few personal LE tweaks I learned from Eliot Shook -Slightly shorter verticals (speeds up the sail overall without sacrificing too much of the low end) -VERY reinforced bottom attachment points and LE End points. (To quote Eliot when I showed him my tweak, "That doesn't suck!, you might see this again" all of my sails are different and they fly somewhat differently because of that.. That's also a reason I firmly insist on flying them first, if they are a failure, then I can remake.

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

@Paul LaMasters Thanks for the suggestions. I realize the way of the future is a flush LE but I prefer the classic approach for stackability. I may make a few with the flush LE for experimentation but that's not the plan right now. Someone we both know (MC) that won the Rev invitational Sunday said it only needed a French Bridle and Magic sticks to be right by him. Also suggested I let you fly it.. For most of these videos there was but a whisper of wind..

There is a mesh stack in the works but that's a different project.

Piloted by @Khal I really like the sparkle of this particular sail.

@jeepinjeepin walking by at the 50 second mark. @Bill Clay Displaying his Phantom at the 4:20 mark.. All in all I was very pleased with the way each of these sails performed from the beginning. Everything was well balanced and had very good low wind performance..

First Flight was spot on for all 3 diamonds sails.. Winds were below 5mph until after lunch. After that is picked up to around 8MPH.Great light wind day and perfect conditions to test these sails out..

First Flight at the Rogallo Festival, Nags Head NC for Touch of Blue, Scrapestry and Purple Fade... Winds less than 5MPH

Understood.. These fit Freilen, Skyshark and the older Rev Frames.

Awesome. looking forward to pic!. Thanks for the shout out..

Welcome to KiteLife...

Winds are looking extremely light for tomorrow. Let's hop it improves a bit..

Next up is a series of 3 sails all in gray tones (Black, Charcoal, Silver and White)..Not sure if this will be a stack or individual kites yet. Picture is to give an idea of what is coming. Patterns are by no means set yet.

Paul, these are the Freilein caps, they only fit original Rev tubes prior to the total refit at Rev... They do not fit what Rev is producing now. I only use Skyshark to make frames anyway.. The "inny" type connectors that Rev uses now makes a rod with a small split completely unusable.. A cap that covers the rod can tolerate a rod that has a 1/4" split in the end and has been glued since it covers and stabilizes the fracture.

That's Right. One gross of endcaps to make 24 more kites.. I should be well stocked for a while now.