Brand new Matrixx 15m (2010)

[havasubob]

Strangely enough I landed a brand new, never been flown Matrixx kite at a local pawn shop! After watching a few vids, I unrolled it at the beach, bagged the wing tip and attempted to fill it with air... Soooo would a fresh kite be less inclined to fill? (the air-dump zipper was closed) Could the screen cloth over the air-intake ports be too restrictive? Needless to say, this is my first foil kite experience. Also any comparisons to the Matrixx II may be useful...Cheers

[geopeck]

Most foils are going to inflate partway from being tipped up on their trailing edge, but the closed cell foils won't take a whole lot of air that way. Just grab the center lines out past the bar and give a few tugs, the kite will hot launch and inflate by the time it reaches the zenith as the air is pushing more directly into the vents.

That's a light to mid wind technique by the way. If you stay with that cobra launch (you are trying to do a cobra launch with the weighted tip) then just keep the bar out, steer the kite off the ground, taco (that's a verb you'll be learning as you become a foil user), fall back into the hot launch position and then take off. The important bit is to keep the center lines tight and maybe just a dab of steering input to keep it into the wind and inflating on the way up.

Nice score.

[havasubob]

great, I'm following that pretty well...now to go put that into action - Thank you king cobra !

[Kamikuza]

I tried to pre-fill a Chrono... They also have the screen over the vents, which is a retarded idea and hinders getting air into the kite in a big way.

What geopeck said is about your only option, unless you want to pre-fill at the defeat zipper...

[davesails7]

When I first started flying foil kites, I was amazed that there seemed to be completely contradictory advice from different people on the same topic So now here I am having to disagree

I have a lot more success when I keep the bar sheeted in as the kite goes up. Also I always pre-inflate a bit (hold each intake vent into the wind for 10 seconds just before launching). When I don't pre-inflate it takes longer to inflate in the air.

The Ozone chrono video helped me:

[foilonfoil]

Hey Bob - Any test flights yet?

[geopeck]

"great, I'm following that pretty well...now to go put that into action"

and that was the last we heard of him...

[havasubob]

Sorry for the delay..season's ending here in So Cal and I'll admit to some frustration confirming ALL these lines are properly cleared. So here's my observations as a 1st timer with a foil kite. Once the front edge and intake ports are properly exposed to the wind ("building the wall" as in paragliding ), the kite comes up with a bit of tugging on the front lines. It fills reasonably quickly when up, with the tips only taking a tad longer (no surprise). I did find that the turning was darn responsive and not really what I imagined for a foil. This is good news since it's the larger sweep movements are what's required to get it to generate some pull in 12-15 mph wind. I'm 89kg and I found myself unable to generate sufficient energy to get up on a TT (I'm still learning KBHF). So far I find myself a bit disappointed at the lift generated. And yes, I understand this kite it to be flown differently, but the power doesn't completely match some of the videos on Youtube. So at least for the moment, I suspect my technique needs more work and/or I'll have to come to terms with what conditions are appropriate for this kite. As my skills improve with my Alpinefoil, I still hope this kite can be a useful tool for lighter wind foilboard riding.

[andrewjohn]

I flew a 15 Matrixx for a few years on land. Once it gets to about 14mph it starts jumping nicely, lots of float. 16 ish it it goes big. Tops out at about 18 to 20 on land. Most I'd launch it in would be 16.
I haven't tried the 12 the still have a 9. That is a superb jumping kite on land lots of lift and quick, I can use that from 12 to 25, starts jumping at 15, but doesn't have quite the same float as the 15.

I've been almost 100% on the water this year with LEIs, but had a session on the 9 a few weeks ago, and getting back on that was quite disconcerting, due to the incredibly low bar pressure compared to my LEIs, which I don't think of as heavy.
But I'm sure I'll be doing more land kiting during the winter, so will be back on the foils.