Fulcrum

[Exult]

On 11/12/2017 at 12:12 AM, khsidekick said:

in 3 to 5 mph wind. We had the “light” frame in and it broke. He flew to the top of the wind window slowly, turned the kite 180 and was about 1/2 way down and the kite folded in half.

Thanks for those words of caution regarding the use of the UL-spine. I’ll try to not to be lazy switching to the std spine when the wind gets high enough for the UL-spine to provide no benefits over the standard one.

I guess the stiff spine means you are more prone to end up surprised - In a (rev) Hadzicki-wing one is reminded of that one has a light LE in by the flexing of the LE (the flex being a part of the control). For the Fulcrum one doesn’t use the flex - it’s like it’s not there (I say after only three sessions with my new Fulcrum). Without the flex one doesn’t get reminded that it is time to change the spine in the same way when the wind picks up.

[LaLuna]

Hello everyone, I'm thinking about to buy a standard fulcrum. Living in Germany I assume means getting problems to order some spares for the kite. What is your experience, are there any parts in the kite that are so special, are hard to get, that I bought them right in the beginning.
My quad-line experience comes from Spiderkites Nemesis and Smithi pro. With the Spiderkites Lycos I learned a lot about speed of parafoils. Thank you for your experience with the fulcrum!

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[Exult]

On 11/5/2017 at 5:01 PM, makatakam said:

The advantage that the Revs have over the other types is the ability to revert from 3D towards flat when the wind pressure is reduced or eliminated, which makes side slides, axels and some other moves easier. Moves like axels are extremely difficult, if not impossible, using a 3D sail.

I agree when it comes to the side slides, especially upwards vertically – you simply don’t come very high up in the wind window with the Fulcrum.

However I do not agree when it comes to the axels. The Fulcrum (with  its 3D sail) is forgiving when doing e.g. (quad) axels - it will not fall out of the sky on slack lines or hardly ever get tangled even when provoked. I was soon axel cascading at a time when I could hardly do one axel on a rev. You can even do DLK-like half axels with most of the feeling preserved. If trying to to do the corresponding thing with a 1.5 rev it is more like you emulate it needing to help it all the way through the DLK half axle imitation.

Flipping it (as in part of a flic-flac), turtle and flaring it etc is not easy for me – have only more or less accidentally managed it a few times, but then I can’t flic-flac a rev yet. On the other hand, in light wind, a DLK-like pop-up launch (which involves some flipping) is quite easy to do (if you are used to do it with DLKs at least I suppose).

 

On 11/29/2017 at 5:50 AM, Robertsepolen said:

hardest thing was getting used to the orientation of the kite which is easier to do with the Rev.

Losing track of what was LE and TE occasionally happened during the first few sessions, but that problem disappeared after 5-10 sessions or so.

[bsturmco]

Hello everyone, I'm thinking about to buy a standard fulcrum. Living in Germany I assume means getting problems to order some spares for the kite. What is your experience, are there any parts in the kite that are so special, are hard to get, that I bought them right in the beginning.
My quad-line experience comes from Spiderkites Nemesis and Smithi pro. With the Spiderkites Lycos I learned a lot about speed of parafoils. Thank you for your experience with the fulcrum!

Gesendet von meinem SM-G955F mit Tapatalk

When purchasing your standard Fulcrum, be sure to buy the UL frame as well to compliment the standard frame. That being said, the only pieces I have broken over the last 16 months with my Fulcrum are the Nitro Lite tubes which make up the outer spars of the UL frame. One was broken by gusty winds in the mountains of N.C., the other by my rough handling of the tube. Get yourself a spare Nitro Lite tube and ferrule with your order.
There are two different diameter sail standoffs, qty 2 each, that come with the kite. You might ask for one of each size to act as backup in case you misplace them. All other frame components are sewn into the sail.
The most important thing to remember with your Fulcrum is to make sure you get the tubes seated deeply into the T fittings on the outer spars when assembling the kite. I always assemble the kite, pop it into the air, fly back and forth a couple times, set it down and go double check the assembly to insure that the frame is seated deep into the rubber T fittings.
I’ve enjoyed my Fulcrum. It’s unique shape attracts attention, I can yank and bank with it, and with the UL frame there is always enough wind to fly.


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[Exult]

12 hours ago, bsturmco said:

the only pieces I have broken over the last 16 months with my Fulcrum are the Nitro Lite tubes which make up the outer spars of the UL frame. One was broken by gusty winds in the mountains of N.C., the other by my rough handling of the tube.

May I ask details about how the “rough handling of the tube” happened (so that it hopefully can be avoided) – A hard landing/crash or an off field incident like damage from closing a car trunk door?

12 hours ago, bsturmco said:

There are two different diameter sail standoffs, qty 2 each, that come with the kite. You might ask for one of each size to act as backup in case you misplace them

I have attached all four stand offs to the battens using pieces of old kite lines. When disassembling and before rolling the kite up I make sure that the stand-offs are parallel to the battens, either by using constantly on small rubber bands or fitting them into the pockets that holds the battens to the sail. I have previously lost (and then manufactured) one pair of battens (belonging to my Fazer XL) and then decided that I never would need to do this again. So therefore I attach smallish objects like this to the kite whenever there is a possibility to do so.

12 hours ago, bsturmco said:

I can yank and bank with it

May I again ask for a favour by asking for details here as well?

12 hours ago, bsturmco said:

with the UL frame there is always enough wind to fly

A Rev 1.5 std can with a bit of effort be used indoors. Only one time have I tried to use the Fulcrum (with the light frame in) indoors. I could only keep the Fulcrum in the air by running around in a kind of survival mode – no up and overs possible. However this was just on one occasion and the technique could be likely be improved. But no, not really, I believe that the fundamental difference in sail shape makes it impossible to use the full area at the same time as an efficient wing. With a Rev/Hadzicki-wing it is possible by design, and therefore the zero/low wind properties of a rev will always be better if properly piloted. Though I’d appreciate if someone could prove me wrong here actually.

[bsturmco]

Exult

The "rough handling" of my UL tube was all my fault. When assembling the kite I had one of the tubes tangled in the bridle. Instead of releasing all of the standoffs, I removed just one, when I went to pull the tube in question from the T fitting, snap went the tube in my hand. Lesson learned, remove all standoffs before disassembling the frame.

As far as yanking and banking goes; that is my way of saying you can fly the kite hard with exaggerated inputs.