Hello together,
got my hands on an pansh aeolus 11m this weekend.
Here are my first impressions:
To me:
I am a kite surfer so my intend is to look for a kite which is suitable for water kitesurfing.
Due I'm a little heavy it has to handle a good downstroke during the starting procedure, so agility is a requirement.
Agility is devided in two parts:
Turnability: Is it turnable well (egg. looping possible)? Does it partially stall during turn?
Velocity (depowered): Being able to make a kite run quick is a good point for loading it to generate drag.
Also we have pretty gusty winds in our region, so a good depower and stability is an important point, too.
Over all I would summarize, that a good allrounder trim of the kite would do best in having best characteristics over all in:
Agility, depower stall to stall, stability.
Important is the capability of reverse start - every usable foil kite should be able to handle this on the water.
Last I take a look in potential of initial filling (without prefilling), not so important, but should be remarked.
I own several tube kites and pansh A15 in 12m and 18m. Pansh A15 I tweak for over a year now and after all I'm pretty fine with them after A LOT of tweaks.
Session/wind:
Unfortunately I was just able to take a first view on monday morning, I had to start to work in the afternoon.
My battery was down to 1% so I was just able to create a few shots of the kite.
The wind was about 8kn, good wind for testing on the beach.
Here it is:
On the ground:
Kite is pretty nice - I'm a fan of panshs capability of canopy design and kite fabrics. Well done pansh!
Interestingly I like the yellow / purple colors (-> what the hell happens to me
) ?)
The lines:
Hmm... z is in panshs design a line which has to handle 'no force at all'. The genius behind pansh canopy designer seems to have no equivalent when it comes to bridle. This is a result which I found at pansh A15 also. I would suggest to get rid of the UHMWPE line types
at the highest level of bridle to make them as thin as possible...
Pls pansh, here me!
Next to that they take the THICKEST line in complete bridle (the orange type) for z, which has to take the least force?
Think of wind resistance of the lines - (this is important, wind resistance stresses the lines -> they are engagued -> they are bending the profile)
Here you see another problem of the thickness of the lines: At C12/Z12 the knot of LCL is overloaded by the two lines being connected to it. Result is that they get off easily, they just slip off. So: Check before flight!
Lots of lines!
Weight:
I measured 11m aeolus is 2,9kg incl lines and ECLs.
But in was some moisture and sand also.
Would assume 2,7kg dry and clean, kite complete with bridles and ECLs, without bar.
In the air:
Here you see the aeolus in the air.
If you zoom a little and look observantly you see the same slack line thing of z than at pansh A15: The kite hangs completely in a-c Lines, z isn't engauged at all from depower to power?!
I got rid ot the 5th line, going with a 4line bar. Have good experiences with my A15, because 4line safety tangles less - if engauged.
Bridle System: The bridle system is much shorter than in older kites -> This is good to long term stability, because the same relative shrinking error of line will lead to less absolute error. Absolute error in line lengths will make kite unstable over time...
hmm, but no trim options for mixer trim?
Impressions during first flights:
Agility
Turnability: Pretty well on 11m - I'm impressed. Even with slack Z it feels agile in turn. It holds power during turns, I dont feel real stall (loss of pull) effects - nice.
Ground-Loopings are no problem on short lines.
Drawback: Going low depowered flight the kite tents to tip flip (lower tip flips inner side) which results from little stalls of tip.
It flips back when you go up again, so nothing serious (and I think I can tweak this later)
Velocity (depowered): Remarkably good. Even with the thick lines it comes quick -
The low profile heigth may cause this and during upstrokes - this is my first UL canopy - an effect from this also. Overall nice.
Depower (stall to stall): No problems here. My bar throw is about 45cm, it handles well. Kite flighs with a regular bar (all lines same length, in total powered condition). No surprisingla issues at harsh power/depower actions.
Wind edge: Tip flip (tip stall) during landing procedure. Correct landing procedure: Land kite powered and slow - no further issues.
Start: Prefill not neccessary from 6kn on I would say - fills instantly
Reverse start: No problems
Result:
What I can say - Nice kite in first impressions!
I go out on the water next time wind is about 20kn! Should be this weekend, if my wife lets me go
.
The collegue, who supplied the kite to me, remarked less thightness of the kite - dropping maybe is a nono! The kite seems to intake water through the UL skin so it fills pretty quick in this case. The drainage is small definately - in his case he was not able to restart it again because of too much water in. He had to abort the session.
Regular price seems pretty high - but it isn't if you wait for promo. Actually you get 1st halfed priced aeolus and a second (smaller one) for free.
My critics till now is the completely (useless) loose z and thickness of lines at highest bridle level, in special the z's are far to thick.
A proper engauged z should improve agility and the pull in powered jump situations. We have to check that before tweaks.
I always wonder where pansh could be with an optimized skill in bridle design and bridle fabrication.
... to be continued...