Ram Airs Crash in 2022-2023-2024-2025-2026

[grigorib]

Time for new topic for 2022
We’re kind of running out of time in 2021 for the crash with all the holidays and being busy for the rest of the year

Worrying that PMU is not at the top of his game anymore.

[PullStrings]

Ram Crash Landing

[Trent hink]

Lol PullStrings...

I've actually witnessed lei riders who did much worse!

[Kristan]

[Pump me up]

TRIGGER WARNING

Notice to Ram Lovers: the following content is potentially distressing, including graphic references to ram air failures, underperformance, and inferiority.

Despite the lies and exaggerations, ram airs cRaSHeD in 2022 in Freestyle, Wave, and Speed disciplines.

Ram lovers try to hide their problems in their own little forum, but the issues keep leaking out, e.g., inferior lifespan, safety issues, sinking, problems with relaunch/landing on rough beaches, mixer tuning problems, and a litany of other disasters.

Ralf Groesel, who once designed ram air kites for FLYSURFER, had this to say:
“… it’s the Tube-kite that stands victorious. From a designer’s point-of-view it shines in every aspect; its simplicity in design is the key to controlling its complexity. Tube-kites rule most of the sport-related requirements… Soft-kites have an approximate market share of 4%, meaning that 96% of all kites sold worldwide are Tube-kites. This figure basically validates the success of the concept. Without being too sarcastic, you have to be a believer to think that Soft-kites are the future of the kite market…”

RIGIDITY
The increasing popularity of wing foiling has emphasised the importance of wing/kite rigidity. Increasingly popular wings and kites are made from new materials like Aluula and N-Weave which impart hitherto unknown rigidity, improving consistency, stability, turning, handling, and aerodynamic profile. Ram airs are soft and floppy. Birds, wasps, stunt kites, and planes are rigid. ALL high performance aircraft (eg hang-gliders vs paragliders) have rigid structures. Rigid hang gliders out-perform soft paragliders on all measures. Increased rigidity enables inflatables to withstand gusty conditions better than ram airs. Ram airs deform, fold, collapse, and twist in gusty conditions. Another major weakness of the soft structure of ram airs is a lack of tactile feedback. Ram air kites are soft so the feedback is soft, sloppy, and imprecise. Rigid inflatables, in contrast, provide a wealth of nuanced feedback to the rider, e.g. kite position, speed of turn, and gradations of power delivery.


Ignore the LIES and exaggerations. Ram airs are grossly inferior compared to inflatables.

Pumpy ........

[cor]

I am pretty sure these guys do not agree.

[grigorib]

Renaming the topic to reflect another year passed

[tkaraszewski]

Even pumpy has gotten bored of the exact same thing every year.

[Peter_Frank]

Ha haa, great thread

[Pump me up]

Well, the end of 2023 is nigh. Time for a wrap-up and analysis of the failures of ram air kites this year.

Despite a multitude of ridiculous over-the-top CLAIMS from ram lovers, ram airs cRaSHeD. It's interesting to note that NO ram airs..... no NOT ONE (!)…. feature anywhere near the top of world rankings in ANY discipline www.gkakiteworldtour.com
Ram airs crashed in Freestyle, Wave, and Speed disciplines.

The same ol’ problems keep recurring: the low-end of large rams is 7-8 knots at best. Ram airs are INFERIOR on downwind legs (collapsing, bow tying, etc). Ram airs really suck in gusty conditions and downwind of obstacles. They are positively lethal in cross-offshore conditions. Relaunch is a NIGHTMARE. Ram airs suffer rapid obsolescence through stretching, bridle deformation, and by being superseded by newer models.

WING FOILING continues to make large inroads into kitesurfing. Many erstwhile kitesurfers now exclusively wing foil. Interestingly, the trend in wing foiling is towards increasing RIGIDITY. There are NO RAM AIR wing foils. Why? Because they’re too soft and floppy, too difficult to control, and lack tactile feedback. The inherent benefits of inflatable rigidity are summarised below:

RIGIDITY, STABILITY, BRIDLE STRETCHING, & FOIL SHAPE
The semi-rigidity of inflatables improves consistency, stability, turning, handling, and aerodynamic profile. Ram airs are soft and floppy.

Birds, wasps, stunt kites, and planes are rigid. ALL high performance aircraft (eg hang-gliders vs paragliders) have rigid structures. Rigid hang gliders out-perform soft paragliders on all measures. Interestingly, the trend in paragliders is towards increased rigidity, e.g. stiff mylar reinforcements, plastic stiffeners in the leading edges and carbon fibre rods sewn into the ribs. These stiffening innovations have resulted in paragliders that are so successful in competition that old-style soft gliders are no longer competitive. Similarly, kite manufacturers are always looking for ways to make kites more internally rigid, eg by joining the struts firmly to the leading edge.

Semi rigidity enables inflatables to withstand gusty conditions better than ram airs. Ram airs deform, fold, collapse, and twist in gusty conditions.
e.g.
What a disastrous advertisement for ram airs!! Check out the ram air kite collapsing and deforming from 1:14 onwards.

e.g.

The foil kite went down. No problem except it now had a twist (an hour glass in my old spinnaker sailing days ).
Worked on it for a while but eventually rolled up the lines and then tried to roll up the wet, soggy kite and place it on top of my board.
Not easy when it has water in it. Swam for a while but another foiler dragged me in, thankfully. I was way too far out.
Any tricks to remove the twist? I couldn't think of a way to do it but assume there is.

Read the full admission at http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php? ... 1&p=953414

Another major weakness of the soft structure of ram airs is a lack of tactile feedback. Ram air kites are soft so the feedback is soft, sloppy, and imprecise. Rigid inflatables, in contrast, provide a wealth of nuanced feedback to the rider, e.g. kite position, speed of turn, and gradations of power delivery.

After several weeks of use, ram air bridles typically stretch and deform, further compromising aerodynamic performance: http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php? ... 58&start=0

Have you done a mixer test and checked your SPL length? SPL = spare parts line = the bright yellow lines that go through the pulleys... they can shrink A LOT and bork up the handling…

Moved to a foil kite 5 years ago (flysurfer pulse 10m)... I found after 6-9 months that the RAM started performing very poorly especially in gusty conditions I assume this was due to bridle stretching, I did manage to trim the bridle regularly to what I thought was intended spec however as already stated these are complicated bridles with many attachment points and I'm not sure if I did a perfect job! In the end I couldn't get the kite to feel anywhere near how it performed during the first 3 - 6 months of it's life. I think the kite and the bridles became quickly blown out...The kite was expensive and an attempt to resell the kite at half its purchase price failed...

Hey bro's. I'd like to make my speed 3 less stally. Apart from resetting the mixer what else do you recommend?
Is it simply a matter of lengthening the rearlines or shortening the front?
Should I lengthen the Z line abit?

I am assuming a few things:
1) You have reset the mixer to 0
2) You have compensated for Back line shrinkage by shortening your front lines using the Black Line above the adjuster. Front and Back lines should be the same length when the Adjuster is fully open and the bar is pulled all the way down to the chicken loop. Best to tie up the end of the lines to a tree or other solid stationary object to test this.
So. If the kite is still to backstally, try lengthening C. B will adjust itself harmonically by itself. This will sacrifice a bit of stability, but will give you less backstall. Lengthing Z will just make the kite turn slower and will also reduce the Low end of the kite.
Gunnar

For the complete discussion on the diabolical problems associated with "resetting the mixer,” ”compensating for line shrinkage,” “adjusting the adjuster,” “adjusting lines "C", "B", & “Z,” & trying to stop ram airs from back stalling, check out: http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php? ... 91#p778491

20140701 Flysurfer Speed 3 deluxe21m backstall
Wingtip folding
Board Carafino 2008
Wind 6-7 knots
[vimeo][/vimeo]

Yeah that looks like the opposite of fun. We've all been there. Far from shore, wind dies. The difference with an inflatable is that you can wrap the lines and swim it home.

I had a Speed in 2007 and it always seemed to stall in the first power dive. Wing tips would curl in, kite would drift back into the power zone, and just as my ass was falling back in the water BAM, it would fill with air and yank. I'm sure it was partially low wind and user error, but damn. Inflatables always just felt more intuitive to me.

Ignore the LIES and exaggerations. Ram airs are grossly inferior compared to inflatables.

Cheers,

Pumpy