Orbit problem

[POACHER]

North kites are so over rated, I'm sick of hearing about them.

Is that you Liam???

[Surf58]

Yes they flutter in loops, both the 2021 and 2022 models, and yes its worst when they are brand new

[skyte]

Kite flutter is always worse when underpowered.

Brands sometimes add those trailing edge battens to reduce flutter. They can also do many rounds of prototyping, tweaking the seams and the AoA across the canopy to get the trailing edge tension perfect: too tight and it creates drag, not tight enough and you get flutter. Bridling effects flutter too because it effects how the kite twists when you turn it which has an effect on the trailing edge tension.

The Orbit I flew did have a noticeable flutter during loops but it didn't seem to effect the power of the loop or the speed through the loop. I imagine the flutter will get less and less with each year of design iteration as they refine the design.

[SolarSet]

Funny enough I was testing Reach ‘21 and during jumps felt kite vibrating through rear lines. This kite was used as it was tested at the end of season. I was told by someone that kite wasn’t inflated enough but I do always use gauge to test pressure. Never experienced anything like this on any other kite

[Blackened]

Spent some time playing with the kite over the weekend during loops. The only time I could get it to flutter on purpose was looping with the bar out or letting the bar out right after initiation of the loop. It fluttered a few other times mid loop, but I think that was me being overly aggressive rather than a design issue. Otherwise it was very quiet in the 30kn+ conditions

[sarc]

Funny enough I was testing Reach ‘21 and during jumps felt kite vibrating through rear lines. This kite was used as it was tested at the end of season. I was told by someone that kite wasn’t inflated enough but I do always use gauge to test pressure. Never experienced anything like this on any other kite

Read my review of the reach in this forum. I found it to be sensitive to inflation pressure. Carve too, but to a lesser extent.

[Pokitren]

Kite flutter is always worse when underpowered.

Brands sometimes add those trailing edge battens to reduce flutter. They can also do many rounds of prototyping, tweaking the seams and the AoA across the canopy to get the trailing edge tension perfect: too tight and it creates drag, not tight enough and you get flutter. Bridling effects flutter too because it effects how the kite twists when you turn it which has an effect on the trailing edge tension.

The Orbit I flew did have a noticeable flutter during loops but it didn't seem to effect the power of the loop or the speed through the loop. I imagine the flutter will get less and less with each year of design iteration as they refine the design.

A legitimate question arises - why wait years if the problem is known now? It seems that it can be eliminated by changing the design.

[skyte]

A legitimate question arises - why wait years if the problem is known now? It seems that it can be eliminated by changing the design.

It's more a fine tuning issue... so the software can get the kite so close to perfect but to just eliminate that last little bit of trailing edge flutter might take a few extra prototype rounds. It can literally be a millimeter off a seam allowance... too much and you can create too much drag, not enough and there's trailing edge flutter. Or tweaking the Angle of Attack of the profile across the kite. Tiny changes can have a big effect. Bridle plays a part too. It's not as simple as just changing a design; it's balancing many parameters to give a number of desired characteristics and the design leadtime isn't long enough to make loads of prototypes.

TE battens help. That's why they're there!

[sarc]

Had an intermediate kiter doing megaloops on 7m Orbit 2022, 25-30kn wind, very near to me today
No buzzing or flutter that I could hear, and the mofo was sending like it was going out of fashion.

Kite seemed mighty fine to me

[knotwindy]

If he’s throwing mega loops he’s not an intermediate, just sayin’.