Untitled - KiteLife

the lines in an attempt to fold it upin mid-air, the more the kite wouldrespond by dumping the excessair around the flexing wingtips . Althoughthis made the kite slowconsiderably in tight turns, wefound it to be quite predictable .We managed to "ground" the kiteonly once in the day's flying .As the wind speeds neared 15mph the Accelerators began toget into high gear. Although theywere not as blindingly fast as otherkites of their size they did trackvery well . At this point, the kites'ability to dump excess air becomesa relief from the speed anda boon to the control factor. Italso lessens the strain on thehands and arms which is a niceplus in the comfort department .We found that there are no realbridle adjustment points on thekites, at least in the traditionalsense . The bridles are a three linesystem (on each side) with an absenceof the usual sliding clip arrangement. Some of the knotsmay be retied to lengthen or shortenvarious sections of the wholeapparatus but this is obviouslygoing to be a rather time-consumingaffair. Happily, most of these .adjustments can be dealt with bythe movement of the lowerspreader bar which, at least to us,seemed to serve roughly the samepurpose .There are a number of good, aswell as interesting points about thisnew kite : the camber-enablingnosepiece, the adjustable lowerspreader, and certainly neitherleast nor last, a very nice price($40 .00 suggested retail) . Therewere some items that we didwonder about, however. One ofthese items was a cut occurring inthe lower edge of the leadingspare which is, presumably, tofacilitate the changing of theleading edge spar. This might bemore easily and aerodynamicallyaccomplished by inserting thenew spar through the opening inthe upper portion of the leadingedge . Secondly, we noticed somerandomness in the stitching thatprobably would be absent werethe Accelerator produced on alarge scale .In the final analysis, the Acceleratorproved to be a verygood flier, with more than its shareof technological plusses . We'regoing to try more of these littleguys in larger stacks. This is somethingthat in consideration ofprice, is neither beyond the realm,nor the pocketbook, of a lot ofconsumers . We think that you'llsee a lot more of these in the airthis summer .C .B .MODEL: FREESTYLER (Style Libre)FABRIC WEIGHT : .75 oz. ripstop nylonKITE WEIGHT: 310 gramsCOLORS AVAILABLE : VariedWIND RANGE : 3-25 mph .CONFIGURATION : Delta-type 92 inch wingspanLIFT SURFACE : 9.1 Sq. Ft .MFGR's SUGGESTED RETAIL : 130 .00MANUFACTURER: L'ATELIER DU VENT INC .The Freestyler comes to us fromthe same company that gave usthe Spyro-Jet and, more recentlythe Ultra-Leger (Ultralite) models .The Freestyler is aimed at theteam market . It is noticeably largerthan either of the other twomodels . Kite assembly is by thestandard method . As you assemblethe kite you will noticeseveral features worth mentioning .The leading edge vinyl connectorsare glued to the wing spar, so theycannot move around during flight(This method also necessitatesgetting replacements from themanufacturer should you break awing spar. Also making for somedifficulty in removing a brokenspar.) The Freestyler has no arrownocks on the wing tips, but uses avinyl tubing and shock cord arrangement.This appears to bemuch more durable for hard offwind landings . The fitting has asmaller diameter tube within thatfits into the main wing spar. TheFreestyler also has a very heavyduty,hard plastic nose piece . TheFreestyler also has a pair of wingbattens that are inserted from thetop of the wing ; the battens are3/16" wooden dowell .The first day of tests were at thetop end of the suggested windrange at 15-25 mph . The flightswere made with 150' - 135#Spectra (manufacturer suggests125') . The kite exhibited somewobble at launch, and had atendency to oversteer in turns (thisis a familiar characteristic withmost high aspect ratio stunters) .The Freestyler does present a