Low Speed and High Tech Pt.2

Kitestorm 2010 by Susan Staples

Peter Lynns are phenomenal kites. Admittedly there’s a little learning curve when it comes to flying them but I challenge you to find anything that has such fine flight qualities. A lot of people like to spout off about how great their “XYZ” kite is compared to a Peter Lynn but usually when you ask them you find they’ve never flown one, only flown one briefly or only seen someone with minimal kiting skill fly one.

At the same time people think I lack objectivity because I’m a Peter Lynn team member. My response to this is I ride for Peter Lynn because I ride arcs, I don’t ride arcs because I ride for Peter Lynn. Peter Lynns became my kites of choice well before I was asked to join the Peter Lynn team. I really believe they’re the most underrated performance kites out there and I really think the current incarnation, the Charger, in the right hands, can go head to head with anything.

At least on snow I’ve found this to be the case.

Moore Rez.

But with all the great flying qualities, gust absorption, speed, lift, auto-zenith (the ability to hover overhead, without pilot control, with very little power. Handy in a crash) and huge depower there is one category that Peter Lynn Arc kites are not stellar performers.

Low wind.

They aren’t known for low wind ability. With some technique, awareness and muscle you can squeeze a little more low wind performance out of an Arc but not what you would see in a 19 Flysurfer Silver Arrow. The Silver Arrow seems to be the standard by which most low wind kite ability is compared.

One of the caveats of producing a light wind kite is there is a tipping point where the efficiency of the big wing is wiped out by the weight of the amount of fabric needed to produce a big kite. Often what happens is you don’t end up with a light wind kite but more of a “fat kid’s” kite. A kite that a “Clydesdale” size kiter can use in normal winds.

My fat butt just gets me into that “Clydesdale” category.

Mike and Big Blue

This being said there are anomalies in the Peter Lynn lineage. Last fall I went up to Minnesota to visit Peter Lynn Team Rider Aaron Saude, and did a “dirty kite deal” in giving him my 8m Venom 2 for a few odd ball kites that he had acquired. One was a big blue prototype, another a long thin 16m F-Arc prototype and a 12m F-Arc. Peter Lynn has produced some big 24m Arcs not so much for light wind as for use for sailing Kitecats. As the name implies, they’re kite-powered catamarans. Usually the largest recent production kite size in the Peter Lynn line up is 19m. There are larger special offerings but most people buy the 19m if they want a big Arc.

We own a 19m Flysurfer Psycho 4 Silver Arrow and it is awesome in light wind. Most people go for the Flysurfer Speed SA but the Psycho is a faster turner and a little more fun to throw around in my opinion so we went that route.

Big Blue and my 19m Charger

As I mention in the December post (about 10000 yrs ago) Molly and I were messing around to determine the light wind ability of the 24m Big Blue and the 16m F-Arc that I got in the dirty kite deal with the Saude. This is what we’ve found.

On clean ice with the least amount of resistance Big Blue seems to actually have the edge on our Psycho 4 19m. Big Blue builds a lot of apparent wind and flies as stable as any Arc I’ve ever flown. On the day we were testing Molly actually had to sine the Psycho while I just put Big Blue on edge and cruised. Sure I was bolt upright and only going about 12mph but if I had the room I could have cruised, without my hands on the kite, for hours. It was amazing and I was really excited about Big Blue’s performance. It’s a great kite but it has limitations, which I’ll go into later.

Then there’s the F-Arc 1600 (16m). I’ve heard all kinds of rumors and horror stories about these kites. For one thing they’re fairly high aspect ratio (meaning thin and long), which makes them extremely efficient but also very difficult to manage if things aren’t absolutely perfect. In the air it’s extremely stable. Turns surprisingly fast on my large Navi bar and when you jump it the glide is, for lack of a better word, retarded. It jumps and glides like the Psycho 19m SA.

F-Arc 12m (red) 16m (orange)

The most stunning thing I found about this wing is the high AR (The A/R of the F is 7. The new Speed 3 SA by Flysurfer is 6) is the kite’s ability to go damn near straight up wind. The Charger goes upwind great but the F-Arc is unreal. Mike and I rode Umbagog a few weeks back and he put on almost 10 more miles than I did for the day because he had to tack while I went straight up wind. I tacked once on the way up and once on the way back because I had to give my edging leg a break. It was sick and I felt like a damn rock star on that kite.

Upwind tracks of F-Arc 16m

In the few times I’ve ridden it with Paul Morse and the other Flysurfer riders and their Speed 3 15m SA the F-Arcs have proven to be almost unbeatable. The key word here is ALMOST.

First test flight on 12m

The F-Arc has a very interesting wind range. It’s great until you get to the upper end then it becomes unmanageable. On the low end (we’re talking really low) it will smoke a FS Speed 3 SA 15m upwind but on the cross wind it falls way short and downwind it damn near falls out of the sky all a result of the high A/R.

In the races at this year's Kitestorm we had another miserable low wind situation, even worse than last year if you can believe it. I decided to use this as an opportunity to put the F-Arc, Big Blue and the Charger 19m up against the FS Speed 3 SA 15m in real world conditions. I learned a lot in the process and even though I didn’t take 1st place this year and Paul Morse beat me with the Speed 3 I really appreciate the learning experience.

Each kite had it’s own advantages and disadvantages. The F-Arc allowed me to go to the upwind marker in two tacks while Morse had to do at least 4. In the first heat there was some confusion and the only person to start was Paul. He had about a 15 second head start on everyone and I still smoked him to the first marker. But there was almost zero wind and the snow was deep and it proved too much for the F-Arc. He caught me on the downwind leg and dusted me on the crosswind. It was a brutal crawl to 2nd place.

Next I tried the Charger 19m. Pretty good off the line, and close to the Speed 3’s upwind but in the deep snow I was out gunned on the downwind and the crosswind again. It was a closer finish than on the F-Arc. What it lacked in low end I was able to make up with turn rate and sinning but in the deeper snow and less wind this year I still couldn’t keep up with Paul with his bigger kite and lighter build.

If I had 5mph more wind maybe it would have been a different story.

Big Blue test flight

I recently took Big Blue out in some moderate winds and found myself easily overpowered. She has a lot of trim but once trimmed the steering all but disappears and you’re almost better off just keeping the kite directly overhead and skimming the surface. At least then if there’s a lull you can make use of some steering action. She’s a great kite but with limitations.

So what have I learned about the light wind capabilities of all these kites?  I’ve learned that the F-Arc and Big Blue have pretty limited wind ranges. They both have amazing low end and worthwhile qualities but still fall short of matching the versatility of the Charger. Given that the F-arc is nearly 12yrs old and Big Blue is at least 9yrs old I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise.

They’re still a hell of a lot of fun to fly.

Stay tuned for my entry on the Girlstorm and Kitestorm events, my 70mph Sebago session and The Mille Lacs Snowkite Crossing.