Turbine 19 vs 17 vs Flite 17 On The Ground Comparison

[Greenturtle]

See pictures below

I picked up a 2017 Turbine 19m for tandem riding and figured I would lay it out and see how it compares to my 2014 17m Turbine. I had the opportunity to throw a Flite 17m on top as well...

Noted differences between the two Turbines 17/19:
-The 19m LE in wingtip area is disproportionately larger than on the 2014 17m. In the center however, they are similar. See pics
-The 19m struts, most so the center strut, are THINNER than the 2014 17m model.
-Overall the 19 does look about two meters bigger than the 17, as it should.

Noted differences between the Flite 17 and Turbine 17:
-The Turbine is hugely, massively, totally, bigger.
(I have compared my rrd emotion 17 with this Flite 17 and they are roughly the same size. So the Flite is not small. The Turbine is just huge. I was pretty generous to the Flite for the pics when aligning them.
-The Flite is much less swept back in the wingtips, and is just a teensy bit longer on wingtip overhang on the Turbine, but way smaller measurement from LE to TE through most of the body of the kite. This is the kind of difference I would expect to see from a wide quiver step, not two kites marked 17.
-This, to me, more than explains the weight difference between these two much compared kites. Slingshots construction is also very light, the kite is just plain bigger. (makes me want to say to Ocean Rodeo, please come out with a 21m Flite)

Sorry that this is not an in the air riding review, its just on the ground flat observation that I thought would interest people.

[Greenturtle]

[Greenturtle]

[Greenturtle]

[SolarSet]

Interesting comparison, mackite compares contra vs turbine and they claim that contra has better low end as turbine is heavier 5-struts construction. I was considering buying turbine 17, as it's cheaper on sell but better low end of contra makes me go for contra. In the end low end is most important in LW kite!
Have you flown contra 17m?

[Greenturtle]

I have not flown the contra.
I think what mackite is saying in their comparison is that the contra will fly in less wind, but when there is enough wind for the turbine to fly, it will have more power.
In my experience, the turbine does fly in very light conditions, maybe not as light as my strutless 17, but pretty darn light.
Granted my 17 Turbine is not the current model and may be lighter due to old school valves and thinner le.

I would be interested to hear from those with other slingshot kites such as rally, are they also way bigger than brand x of same size?

[grigorib]

...
I would be interested to hear from those with other slingshot kites such as rally, are they also way bigger than brand x of same size?

Even Rallys sometime differ in sizes. 2012 year appears to be about 1sq.m smaller than later models but those are amamazingly light, have perfect lowend and make great foiling kites.

[grigorib]

Interesting comparison, mackite compares contra vs turbine and they claim that contra has better low end as turbine is heavier 5-struts construction. I was considering buying turbine 17, as it's cheaper on sell but better low end of contra makes me go for contra. In the end low end is most important in LW kite!
Have you flown contra 17m?

I’ve flown my 19m Speed3 Deluxe in 3.5 knots but I could squeeeze more power from 17m Core XR four years ago. 17m Turbine felt heavy and slow but I could ride my 15m Turbine when a friend was struggling with 17m Turbine. 13m Contra didn’t have enough power for my 200 lbs. and neither 13m Turbine did when we was debating going smaller size than my 15m.

Overall, for my weight, the 15m Turbine in combination with door board and 30m lines (37m for lightest of the winds) turned out to be my best lightwind gear combination for Great Lakes, OBX and SPI.

Now it’s 633 Moses wing which entertains my lightwind needs.

[SolarSet]

17m Turbine felt heavy and slow but I could ride my 15m Turbine when a friend was struggling with 17m Turbine. 13m Contra didn’t have enough power for my 200 lbs. and neither 13m Turbine did when we was debating going smaller size than my 15m.

Your friend had different board/weight? I wouldn't consider even smaller sizer of Contra like 13/15 as they must be dedicated to lighter person. I'm 200lbs hence I ride switchblade 14m when other people would fly 12m. If i'm happy with contra 17m and it will overlap my sb 14 range I would consider selling sb 10 & 14 and getting 11m instead. My sb10 let me ride from 18-28kts.

[grigorib]

17m Turbine felt heavy and slow but I could ride my 15m Turbine when a friend was struggling with 17m Turbine. 13m Contra didn’t have enough power for my 200 lbs. and neither 13m Turbine did when we was debating going smaller size than my 15m.

Your friend had different board/weight? I wouldn't consider even smaller sizer of Contra like 13/15 as they must be dedicated to lighter person. I'm 200lbs hence I ride switchblade 14m when other people would fly 12m. If i'm happy with contra 17m and it will overlap my sb 14 range I would consider selling sb 10 & 14 and getting 11m instead. My sb10 let me ride from 18-28kts.

He had 27m lines vs mine 30m, he was lighter than me a had a smaller board. The hassle to turn a 17m/19m Zamboni in the skies is killing lots of wing performance. I’m (mostly) a Slingshot guy and I tried to step down to 14m Rally as to my ligtwind kite. While it flew in less wind than heavier 15m Turbine it didn’t have nearly as much pull as the Turbine. I’d assume the Switchblade and Contra would be similar to Rally/Turbine Slingshot models.

15m Turbine was my magic for a large twintip board. I owned 19m Speed3 Deluxe, through 16m NRG to 15m Turbine.
On that path, I tried so many of the LW kites and I landed my choice on the 15m Turbine:
Flysurfer 19m Speed 3 Deluxe, 16m/14m Liquid Force NRG, 17m Best TS, Airush Lithium Zero 18m, 17m Slingshot Turbine (slow), 15.5m Liquid Force Solo, 17m Core XR LW, 15m Flysurfer Sonic FR, 15m Naish Fly, 15m Ozone Chrono R1, 18m Cabrinha Velocity, 13m Ozone Edge, 13m Cabrinha Contra, BRM Cloud 17m

Eventually I tried 14m Rally and 13m Turbine and 14m was far less powerful, not enough for LW door riding.

9m is my best jumping kite as a reference point
Any 12m I ever tried felt slow, 10m wasn’t big enough so I settled to 11m for “regular” size but I’d rather foil in 11m/14m conditions. Way more fun and play and speed and I’d be foiling on a 7m/9m in those winds.
For high winds the 7m works well and for 40+ knots twintip or 25-30 knots foiling I got a 5m recently.

I’d say 5/7/9/11 is a nice line and I’d add 15m if I ever ended up riding door in shallows a lot