Contact   Imprint   Advertising   Guidelines

Found my relic Flexifoil Blade II 6.4m in the attic-looking for flying advice

Forum for snow- and landkiters
u0362565
Rare Poster
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2020 12:50 pm
Kiting since: 1997
Gear: Flexifoil
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Found my relic Flexifoil Blade II 6.4m in the attic-looking for flying advice

Postby u0362565 » Tue Sep 01, 2020 1:59 pm

I can assure you that the brakes are off or at least the top of the handles were angled towards me and the bottom of the handles could not be angled further from me. If it is still down to brake line tension then more knots need adding so i can adjust their length. The brake lines are certainly longer than the main lines. I am hodling the handles at the top with my index finger above the main lines and the rest below.

B-Roc
Medium Poster
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 3:05 am
Local Beach: Nahant, MA
Style: Kite landboarding and skiing
Gear: Gin, JOJO, Mac Para, Ozone, Flexifoil, Ground Industries, MBS
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Massachusetts
Has thanked: 106 times
Been thanked: 12 times

Re: Found my relic Flexifoil Blade II 6.4m in the attic-looking for flying advice

Postby B-Roc » Tue Sep 01, 2020 2:36 pm

I concur with Herman. Even if you are pointing the bottom of the handles towards the kite, the brake lines are still too tight. You either need to add a pigtail to the brake leader and extend the brakelines on the handle side (if they can’t be extended on the kite side – I know Blade 3s came with really long brake leaders on the kite which allowed for lots of adjusting) or shorten the power line leader on the handle. The brake lines should have slack in them when flying and yours don’t appear to. That kite should want to get to the top of the window with only a pump or two. The fact that it’s stalling like that means there is too much pressure on the trailing edge which means brake tension is being applied willingly or not.
Last edited by B-Roc on Tue Sep 01, 2020 3:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.

merl
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 760
Joined: Tue May 15, 2007 8:43 pm
Kiting since: 1999
Gear: HF
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Sweden
Has thanked: 108 times
Been thanked: 113 times

Re: Found my relic Flexifoil Blade II 6.4m in the attic-looking for flying advice

Postby merl » Tue Sep 01, 2020 2:58 pm

Search on loco4viento's posts about the blade III where he describes a depower system that he still uses. If you like to tinker maybe this could work for the blade II.

viewtopic.php?f=197&t=2406164&p=1105741#p1105741

u0362565
Rare Poster
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2020 12:50 pm
Kiting since: 1997
Gear: Flexifoil
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Found my relic Flexifoil Blade II 6.4m in the attic-looking for flying advice

Postby u0362565 » Tue Sep 01, 2020 3:02 pm

Ok thanks. Out of interest here is another video from same day where it went up well. No change at the handle end. I guess my queation is how do you distinguish lack of wind Vs brake issue?
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AgHyOXFTeO6lfHz0k8xlFh0T8I8

Herman
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 2090
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2019 7:09 pm
Style: My Own.
Gear: SLE, foils and C kites, TTs, Directionals, Landboards, Buggy.
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 218 times
Been thanked: 528 times

Re: Found my relic Flexifoil Blade II 6.4m in the attic-looking for flying advice

Postby Herman » Tue Sep 01, 2020 3:26 pm

If you cannot see a big bow in the rear lines you have too much tension. Either shorten fronts or lengthen rear or bit of each. It is not unusual to have to do this sort of things for stored kites.

If you can see a decent bow in the brakes but are still having problems it may well be not enough skill for the light wind. In time you should be able to fly it with virtually no wind if you can move quickly enough but it takes practice.

Might be a good idea to get an experienced pilot to check it out and tune it plus make sure the main bridle is ok!! Looks like a nice canopy in the vid so we’ll worth a bit of effort to sort it out. I have had a number of flexis and the main bridles normally stay in pretty good shape but flying lines do move with shrinkage etc.

PS In the second vid you can clearly see the TE is well tucked causing loads of drag and making the kite fly backwards!

Regards Herman

User avatar
RedSky
Frequent Poster
Posts: 321
Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2014 12:47 am
Kiting since: 1997
Local Beach: Camber
Gear: 8m Genetirx Hydra, 6m Slingshot RPX, 5m Switchblade
Has thanked: 111 times
Been thanked: 38 times
Contact:

Re: Found my relic Flexifoil Blade II 6.4m in the attic-looking for flying advice

Postby RedSky » Tue Sep 01, 2020 5:58 pm

In your videos there is a crease running the entire span of the kite, while this is a less obvious way to distinguish a brake issue, it is a classic sign. You can decrease the length of the top lines and/or increase the length of the brake lines.

u0362565
Rare Poster
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2020 12:50 pm
Kiting since: 1997
Gear: Flexifoil
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Found my relic Flexifoil Blade II 6.4m in the attic-looking for flying advice

Postby u0362565 » Tue Sep 01, 2020 8:00 pm

I've added a screenshot of the tuning instructions for the blade II as an attachment. I'vmconnected to the single knots thats at the end of each leader just now. According to the manual is this is the ideal light wind setting. But from the videos it seems perhaps not. So as the knot is at the end of the brake leaders already i need to add a knot to the main line leaders closer to the handles to make those lines shorter and thus the brakes will be longer. Any recommendations on how far from the first knot i should put the next? Pretty faffy thing to do in the field i guess but what else can you do.
Attachments
Screen Shot 2020-09-01 at 19.43.10.png
Screen Shot 2020-09-01 at 19.43.10.png (157.02 KiB) Viewed 4736 times

B-Roc
Medium Poster
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 3:05 am
Local Beach: Nahant, MA
Style: Kite landboarding and skiing
Gear: Gin, JOJO, Mac Para, Ozone, Flexifoil, Ground Industries, MBS
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Massachusetts
Has thanked: 106 times
Been thanked: 12 times

Re: Found my relic Flexifoil Blade II 6.4m in the attic-looking for flying advice

Postby B-Roc » Tue Sep 01, 2020 8:14 pm

It's a personal thing based on how long the handles are, their angle and how you hold them. You want to lengthen the brake leader. If your leaders have multiple knots in them like Pic 3 then the brake line would be fastened to the knot closest to the kite and the power lines fastened to the knot closest to the handle and then tune from there. If there is extra leader line on the kite end on the brake bridle (meaning the knot is not tied very close to the bitter end of the leader) then the easiest thing to do is add a knot closer to the bitter end there and experiment. The B3 series had 2-3 feet of extra brake bridle on the kite end for adjusting. If not, get some cord from a boating store, mountaineering store or kite store and add it on to your handle brake leader and extend the knots out 3-6" and then refine. When I flew mostly fixed bridle kites I think my brake leaders had knots every 1.5-2" but when I was fine tuning a new kite, I'd make larger jumps to over correct and then dial it back based on how much brake input the kite liked and whether I flew on a harness or not. There is no harm tying extra knots in handle leaders. if you don't want to buy cord just tie a new knot half way down the power leader on your handle and see how it goes and then increase/decrease as needed. once you find your sweet spot you can undo all the other knots or leave them for tuning to the wind if necessary. Best to test in low to moderate winds. If you over correct the brake length you wont' be able to backstall the kite which could be a problem in real strong winds.

Herman
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 2090
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2019 7:09 pm
Style: My Own.
Gear: SLE, foils and C kites, TTs, Directionals, Landboards, Buggy.
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 218 times
Been thanked: 528 times

Re: Found my relic Flexifoil Blade II 6.4m in the attic-looking for flying advice

Postby Herman » Tue Sep 01, 2020 9:22 pm

In your position I would start from scratch. First equalise all 4 flying lines, this is probably only undoing a Fig8 knot and sliding the sleeving as appropriate. Once you have done that set it up as per the manual. Take a stake or use a fence post to run the lines from. Make sure you don't let the bridles tangle when the flying lines are removed!

B-Roc
Medium Poster
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 3:05 am
Local Beach: Nahant, MA
Style: Kite landboarding and skiing
Gear: Gin, JOJO, Mac Para, Ozone, Flexifoil, Ground Industries, MBS
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Massachusetts
Has thanked: 106 times
Been thanked: 12 times

Re: Found my relic Flexifoil Blade II 6.4m in the attic-looking for flying advice

Postby B-Roc » Tue Sep 01, 2020 9:29 pm

I didn't consider line stretch / shrinkage. If the brake lines aren't the same length as the power lines you may not even have to untie/unstitch them. The brakes are probably 200 or 250# lines. You can likely re-equalize those by manually stretching them if the opposite side is affixed to something that won't move (like a fence post or bolt in a tree). If they are Flexi lines the sleeving will be stitched.


Return to “Snow / Land”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 144 guests