All Charged Up about Chargers Pt.1

Okay I know I've been slacking off on this blog nonsense.  What can I say? All this Holiday Cheer business sucks up a lot of time and on top of that we've been trying to get out and ride every chance we get.  The last thing I want to do some nights after riding is come home and do this blog stuff.

Okay maybe that's not entirely true.  I have to admit on the rare occasion I see something or think of something I want to put in the blog and can't wait to get home and write about it.  But by the time I get home one of two things usually occurs. One, I'm too tired to start writing or two, I completely forget what I wanted to write about.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Okay enough of that, this is a blog about kiting and kites so let's get to it.  

In this blog entry I'll try to describe my first impressions of the new Peter Lynn Chargers that I just recieved.  I'm not going to go into too much technical detail because I'm going to be covering a pretty broad size range, and on the surface I've found that all the Chargers regardless of size share the same flying characteristics.

Before we go further let me first say that I am NOT a water rider. I've never kited on water and what I look for in a kite may be totally different that what a water rider looks for.  I'm on snow and ice therefore I have a lot less drag.  I ride in cold winter winds which are a lot denser than warm winds. 

As you can see form Seth Merriam's pics the surface conditions were PRIMO for speed runs.  Just the kind of surface I dream of for going fast.

Unfortunately my edges weren't up to the to my regular standards (see the "How to screw yourself" blog entry) so I couldn't get the best grip.  But it was enough. And with the other rides I've gotten on the Charger it was enough to get a good "all around" feel for the kites.

First a brief look at the Navigator bar system. 

This is a new bar design for Peter Lynn and the current replacement for the old '07 bar system. They did away with the trim strap and replaced it with a clam cleat. It has a Centrix Chicken loop release (similar to what you'd find on Oz***s) and a safety line set up that seems to work really well. Flags off the front line on the kite when you cut the chicken loop loose.  Speaking of the chicken loop the Navigator spins so you don't have crossed lines anymore.

And the best part.  It has a stopper ball for setting the bar postition.  The bar has a lot more throw that the '07 bar and the stopper is awesome for adjusting the throw or for loading the bar up and putting it on "cruisecontrol".  The stopper can be set up to fully stop the bar or to have some "push through" so you can depower the kite like an LEI. 

This thing s light years ahead of the '07 bar.  It has some things I haven't figured out, like how to deal with inverts but it's an awesome bar.

So here's the skinny.  The first thing I noticed with the Chargers is the low end (Light wind) performance is miles away from the previous series of twin skins.  Peter Lynns have had a reputation for having a less than stellar low end performance.  The Venom 2 series was probably the best in the low end area.  Then Synergy in my opinion was a small step backward low end wise but you could compensate with the Syn's turn rate.

No need on the Charger.  I'm not sure exactly what Pepijn did to make the Charger so much better in low wind but it works AWESOME.  I had the 15m out with the long bar in what I would estimate to be about 10mph on smooth surface and it pulled like a 19m V2.  I couldn't believe it.  Mike was on his 12m Syn cruising around and I was on the verge of being over powered but the 15m Charger.  I even trimmed it (depowered) a little once in a while which is something I rarely do. It was great! And the whole time I kept looking at the trees and couldn't believe that they weren't moving at all. That Charger generates some stout apparent wind when you work  and edge hard against it.

The turn rate is awesome.  On the long bar the 15m turned almost as fast a 10m V2.  You had to muscle it to turn like that, especially in the low winds but the fact remains that it's capable of very fast turns for it's size.  A handy feature when trying to build power in low winds.

It also pays off in the jumping department.  As I've said before I'm not a jumper but this kite gives me strong incentive to learn.  The Charger has a ton of lift compared to the other twinskins.  Mike and I were just cruising slow and low and I decided to snap the wing overhead (made easy with the fast turning) and pull the bar in a bit. Bam!  20' in the air and wondring what to do next!  3-4" of soft snow on boiler plate doesn't make for crash worthy surface so I really focused on getting down softly.

I redirected and came down suprisingly smooth.  Mike was flying by behind me just shaking his head. Either he was impressed by my bad ass jumping abilty or  I just barely made it without some crippling injury.  It's a different thing when the kite turns so fast that even in light winds you can jump high because it doesn't loose speed in the turn when you snap it overhead.

I didn't jump much the rest of the day.

Stay tuned for part 2 when I'll go over the 10m and as promised, tell you about Randy and the Purple Cobra.