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Soul 12M in low wind behaviour

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grtlakes
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Soul 12M in low wind behaviour

Postby grtlakes » Sat Aug 25, 2018 9:38 pm

OK my first time out last week the 12 behaved beautifully. Wind started around 9 session ended around 25. Amazing power and depower. I was very impressed/pleased. The landing I botched and the kite ended up bow tied and looping. I sorted the lines and packed up.

Today was misery. My friend flew his 17M contra and it responded OK with a few crashes in the lulls but several good runs. The soul was a nightmare. It overflew me several times. Hindenberged multi times and basically was slow and unstable. After crashing it relaunched and untangled almost automatically but basically was useless.

I realize it is my first foil and wind was under 10 kts for the most part. I was happy just to try it in very light winds for practice and I am handy with lei in low winds. I tried sheeting in sheeting out. Keeping it moving helped but each turn I really had to work it or it would stall and wrap up inverted. There was no way to just “ park” it.

So. Is this pretty much typical low end behaviour? Plus lack of experience? Or could I have damaged something on the previous landing?

I hope it was just the fact wind was too light and not that I damaged this beautiful kite.

Thanks...

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Re: Soul 12M in low wind behaviour

Postby airsail » Sat Aug 25, 2018 10:32 pm

Sounds like inexperience, smaller foil kites need to be kept moving in lighter winds, keeping the bar out to maintain speed and gently using the brakes so as not to stall the kite. As for hindenberging, foil kites have low drag and will shoot over your head if allowed to in light wind. Always pull the bar fully in when the kite moves to overhead, slowing it down, stopping the hindenburg.

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Re: Soul 12M in low wind behaviour

Postby foilholio » Sun Aug 26, 2018 12:04 am

12m is not small. Foils need to have the bar pulled in to prevent overflying. Good to have backstall on the bar to do this. Some foils overfly easy or hardly at all. Gustier conditions will make a foil overfly more. Foils are most stable at 12 oclock and will tend to always hold their shape there when drifting on slack lines.

There is some adjustments you can do to make the kite more stable or easier to control. You could choose to use it like that more regularly or as conditions dictate, say gusty. You generally loosen Z to do this. Given flysurfer mixer adjustment you would shorten C and B with C 2 x the amount of B. Be aware this will also, reduce your depower, making the kite more likely to stall in light wind. It is one reason adjusting Z is better.

There is also the PMAs on the soul which will change the overflying of the kite. They alter the shape of the kite slightly. You may need to consult soul owners on this, but if you shorten the top skin, and loosen the bottom(bridle side) you will have less overflying. There is a thread I think on tubelesskiteforum about them.

I have rarely to never seen a foil hindenburg. They can collapse but still drift in the air. Something does not necessarily sound right with the kite. You could post a video if you continue to have trouble.

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Re: Soul 12M in low wind behaviour

Postby haare » Sun Aug 26, 2018 4:50 am

1 thing. If it is new kite. Just shorten backlines so that when you fully pull the bar it will backstall back to the ground. If this does not fix it then shorten B 1 cm and C 2cm on both sides. You can also lengthen Z 1-2 cm. But I think it is very unlikely that you need to tune mixer if the kite is new. You probably just have too long backlines. Also you need to keep constant bar pressure when flying foil kite. When gust comes you need to pull it always all the way in.

corrected typo. Z => C
Last edited by haare on Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Soul 12M in low wind behaviour

Postby andylc » Sun Aug 26, 2018 9:18 am

I started using a Soul 12m for light and medium winds recently and I can honestly say it has not once done anything like you describe, either overflying or hindenburging. In fact I would go as far to say it is way the most reliable kite I have ever used, and will put up with me doing stuff that would down an LEI without any problems at all. The only thing I would say is that I much prefer it on a 55cm bar rather than the 50cm that Flysurfer recommend.

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Re: Soul 12M in low wind behaviour

Postby Adventure Logs » Sun Aug 26, 2018 1:22 pm

First thing you always do when in doubt is do a quick bridle/mixer test. Takes a couple minutes and then you’ll know. With what you are describing, sounds like something is off. This on a FS bar/lines?

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Re: Soul 12M in low wind behaviour

Postby cwood » Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:30 pm

That was some wildly funky wind or something is wrong. With kite lying flat grab the two pigtails of one side of the kite and hold them up at arms length then walk off to the side away from the tip of the kite so that all the bridles come to tension and you can see the layers a through z....to ensure you don't have micro knots or something odd. I helped a guy at the beach the other day who had two bridle layers knotted together. Do mixer check as well but on a new kite very unlikely an issue.

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Re: Soul 12M in low wind behaviour

Postby grtlakes » Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:52 pm

New kite and FS 50cm bar. I’ll double check all lines including a mixer check.

Hey Chuck. They were not great winds. I probably just found the low end plus “new to me” kite syndrome. Off shore and gusty at the Avon house. Like I said the previous windy day was excellent. Best kite I have flown.
No wind now for a few days I will update next session.
Cheers.

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Re: Soul 12M in low wind behaviour

Postby cwood » Sun Aug 26, 2018 4:04 pm

grtlakes wrote:
Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:52 pm
New kite and FS 50cm bar. I’ll double check all lines including a mixer check.

Hey Chuck. They were not great winds. I probably just found the low end plus “new to me” kite syndrome. Off shore and gusty at the Avon house. Like I said the previous windy day was excellent. Best kite I have flown.
No wind now for a few days I will update next session.
Cheers.
Ha! just realized who I was talking to! How did your injury heal up? Congrats on the kite. I would have told you to put a 60cm bar on that baby. Got a 60 for Kathi's.
FWIW...at Cherry when the wind does the west switch and goes a touch off shore....it will make perfectly tuned foil kites do that shit. We call it "making the letters of the alphabet" as they turn inside out and fall from the sky. I think its from the turbulence of tree tops and such. You absolutely have to keep them moving to have some correct air flow, and be ready with some sheeting action to stop overfly or other strange stuff. I tend to keep about 1/3 sheeting all the time just to ensure all lines have a bit of tension....and get off the beach fast into some cleaner air.

grtlakes
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Re: Soul 12M in low wind behaviour

Postby grtlakes » Sun Aug 26, 2018 6:01 pm

I just discovered a minor tangle-twist in the bridal. It looked OK until I had a close look. One of the flat braided lines was twisted. That combined with the mechanical turbulence off the houses is most likely the main issue.

Chuck. Injury was a minor muscle tear all healed up. Thanks. As far as the bar I was having a great session the other day but a little more length wouldn’t be a bad thing. Enjoying Hatteras. Hoping for more wind to sort out this foil board and foil kite thing.


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