Pulsion 18m

[Regis-de-giens]

Day 2 in high end: personnal anemometer (another old model) showed 14 knots but it was rather 7-11 knots
- not a day for a 18m with 30 m lines, but I wanted to get an idea of the high end and usable wind range
- a bit affraid , but I raised the kite , in the middle of the wind window, without pre-inflation ( I am too impatient)
- inflation still longer than 12m and 15m, but very safe
- almost autozenith when you let the bar go
- waterstart was amazing : I started foiling-up before having finished to raise up on the board !
- enourmous power; a bit scary ; but after 30 minutes I loved that and did not want to swap with 12m
- in 10+ knots, 90 degree direction was too physic and too fast for my level, so I mostly did hard up-wind or downwind angles like on race
- toe side was viril but still doable in 12 knots, kite high
- I lost one strap and finished strapless : no worry despite my poor strapless level
- turning is wide, slow and powerful, but I forced myself to try a downloop during a air jibe : i went very welle and did it for every jibes ; when you are surprised and pulled downwind more than expected, kite stops and pause in the sky, waiting for your end of turn to re-tension the line and finish smootly the loop (you have to be careful here to avoid dropping in the water)

Now The corresponding video at this relative high end. Not really fun but it is a way to see it flying. Shame that my gopro battery died before showing the laaaaaarge downloop during jibes (But successful)
https://youtu.be/JQKItEfbCP8

[Nem0]

How much knots?
With a Twintip you can extend the lowend!

[Regis-de-giens]

7-11 knot. Gusts at about 12-13. Wind was more adapted to pulsion 12m in standard line (Some LEI were riding) but i wanted to test the high end of this configuration (18m+30M thin lines) to assess the wind range and report it to you and french forums.

It was the comfortable limit on a foil but not at the extreme high end even strapless . Yes with a TT board it should be higher.

[Regis-de-giens]

With a Twintip you can extend the lowend!

The highend you mean ?

[kitexpert]

High end of Pulsion 18m can be compromised because excessive line drag keeps it deeper in the WW. This drawback helps stability though.

I did a model of a kite with the specs given earlier, kite became 17,9m2 of area. Amount of bridle line was huge 280m, even though I tried to cascade them quite efficiently. Not much to say details of this kind of kite, there is not much of it. Simple kite, but wing is clean and no doubt it is very good kite in low winds.

I was a bit surprised how vents in the ribs are only near TE. It of course works, but normally located vents would allow small weight saving. Also side by side air intakes in the middle of the kite are a bit weird, again there is a possibility to save some weight to ditch one (and also to have an odd cell count).

[Nem0]

With a Twintip you can extend the lowend!

The highend you mean ?

[Nem0]

I was a bit surprised how vents in the ribs are only near TE. It of course works, but normally located vents would allow small weight saving. Also side by side air intakes in the middle of the kite are a bit weird, again there is a possibility to save some weight to ditch one (and also to have an odd cell count).

There is also one near the LE!!!
I found it some days later

[Regis-de-giens]

I was a bit surprised how vents in the ribs are only near TE. It of course works, but normally located vents would allow small weight saving. Also side by side air intakes in the middle of the kite are a bit weird, again there is a possibility to save some weight to ditch one (and also to have an odd cell count).

There is also one near the LE!!!

Correct . It is one of the recent evolution of the Pulsions with two LE main vent (Instead of central zip, on demand) and a additional setting of SPL B for those who wants to play with the camber location, optional.

The problem with too much vents in the middle of intercells is also the fragility it implies (local concentration stresses around the hole) while less air communication between cells like the Pulsion should improve kite rigidity because of air re-circulation (my opinion).

[kitexpert]

The problem with too much vents in the middle of intercells is also the fragility it implies (local concentration stresses around the hole)

Yes, that is true. If rib does not have bridles it is possible to have many and large vents and save considerably weight. Because Pulsion has bridles on every rib vents have to be sparsely used.

while less air communication between cells like the Pulsion should improve kite rigidity because of air re-circulation (my opinion).

Pulsion has quite normal amount of air intakes (6 or effectively 5 because of the center air intakes). So there is considerably cell to cell air movement, but I don't know if it has any significance. If air intakes are very few it takes longer to get kite filled.

[Nem0]

Can you compare the marginal wind flight of Pulsion vs soul at the zenith ? When working the kite ? Even if even with same kite model, 12m2 is easier to keep in the air tat 18m2.

Do you mean comparison 18m Pulsion with my 12m Soul or 18m Soul?
Zenith parking and handling depends on less weight per squaremeter!