Hi!
I stumbled upon a good deal for a Sonic 2 that according to the previous owner wasn't preforming as new anymore. He had tried tuning it but had given up on it and decided to sell it as a project. I'm fairly new to kiting and thought this would be an excellent opportunity to learn how these monstrosities work. I watched several videos about trimming FS-kites before purchasing, and the fact that line plans are available made me go through with the deal.
The previous owner told me the following: "Suddenly collapsing in stronger wind. And unable to hold its shape unless the bar is close to fully powered."
So I started checking the bridle first, previous owner had added pig-tails that had dimensions way off according to the line plan. There was a lot of shrinkage in the bridle lines. But as I've understood, shrinkage is normal and can be compensated with correctly measured pig-tails.
I replaced and corrected all the pig-tails on the right side of the kite and took it out for a go.
My experience was the following: When the right side was pointing downwards, the kite would fly nicely(00:20). When the left side was pointing downwards(the one i didn't correct or alter in any way) the kite and wingtips would collapse and stall. (See beginning of video attached below).
My hypothesis is that this is because the pig-tails on the left side probably also has dimensions way off. I'm open for suggestions.
Footage of issues:
(Unfortunately I had my gopro settings to Medium-frame and not Wide, so its not always possible to see the bar position.)
So, let's say I fix the bridle issue and correct the lengths of br,c,b and a lines.
On to the next problem: The bar has to be close to fully powered for the kite to maintain its correct shape(02:20). However that gives me about 20 cm to go before the bar is fully powered. When I pulled it fully down, the kite would backstall. So I thought this had something to do with the mixer. I did a mixertest and the result was a mess. Z line too short, and C and B also off. Some of the pulley-lines had been replaced, other lines of the mixer had not. So, given the low price I've paid for it, I ordered replacement lines from FS and intend to rebuild the mixer. The pulleys themselves also had some play, so I ordered replacement of those too.
So my question to you experienced people out there, have I approached this correctly?
Any tips/advice/previous experiences and smart ideas is greatly appreciated.
Edit: My bar also probably needs some adjustments too, but I have not had any problems with it previously. Anyway, I guess it all adds up.