Finally took delivery of my new 13m toy on Friday. Rolled it out in the backyard, it's one of the black, blue and white ones and doesn't look all that flash lying on the lawn I must admit. My bright orange Pulse definitely is a better looking kite.
Aesthetics aside, it's a much higher profile than the Pulse, has 5 air intakes and all the other standard (5 line) Flysurfer fare.
First thing i did was take 3m out of the lines as I like mine running on 18m lines, next thing was wait for the right wind.
Down to the beach Sunday arvo and it's a crappy 10 knot SE on a run out tide, not ideal, but worth a go. A bit a pre-inflation and a hot launch dead downwind and up she goes. Certainly looks better in the sky than in my backyard. I read a bit about tip collapse during bedding in but i had no such issues. As light as the wind was the kite flew nicely and the steering was so much quicker than my old 13m extacy.
I only had about 6 runs and was struggling to stay upwind so decided to call it a day. I had someone land it for me as I'm not a fan of landing these newer Flysurfers on the 5th line, only for emergencies in my opinion. With a week of noreasters forecast it should get a real workout during the week.
The reach to the bar was a bit much for my liking so I shortened the chicken loop by 2 inches and extended the centre lines by a similar amount. I guess this will cost me a bit of depower but as I couldn't reach the bar when fully de-powered I don't think it'll be an issue.
I will add more in the coming weeks.
My second session was in a 12/15 knot noreaster, nicely powered up on a 122TT. Once again I did a hot launch which is super easy given the additional air intakes near the wingtips and the huge depower range. I initially had the trim strap almost fully out and the kite tended to have considerable downwind pull which I didn’t like. Once I pulled in some trim this disappeared totally as the kite tended to fly more forward in the window.
The depower range is excellent and especially noticeable when downlooping as the moment I felt a bit overpowered I’d sheet out and all was fine again. Steering is almost as quick as the 10m Pulse, but the Pulse inspires more confidence given its ease of relaunch. I haven’t had to water relaunch the Psycho yet but I would think it’d be slightly more difficult given the higher profile of the kite.
The Psycho seems to be even more stable than the Pulse and never looked like collapsing even after a couple of dodgy jumps. I found timing of the jumps more difficult than the Pulse but once I’m used to it I’m sure I’ll be up there scaring myself.
One thing that annoyed me at first with the 5 line flysurfers was the fact that the centre lines would tangle thereby compromising the safety. Now if I get any tangles I either do some flips on the other tack or a succession of downloops to untangle. Its something to be aware of as I have heard of the 5th line safety not deploying properly if the lines are tangled.
The other thing that annoys me is the new deflation zip position – I think its in the worst possible position as I’m always getting sand inside the kite. The previous position of two zippers on the leading edge prevented this.
As one of the only people in Sydney (southside) using Flysurfers I do get a lot of interested looks and questions from people. I’d love to get a couple of the better kiters to have a test ride and show me what they’re capable of, it would make for an interesting comparison.
I took delivery of a 10m Psycho III .
My 1st impressions aren’t favorable compared to my Speed 13m.
Robbo, I think u were there helping me untangle.
Issues after 1st session:
1.- The damn MF got tangled after hitting the water when I was some 1.5kms out. A line was wrapped over the left side of the kite. I don’t know how that happened, but it pinched the kite in 2 and wouldn't fly properly. I wasn’t able to get it untangled even after re-launching and landing some 10-15 times. Andrew on his Xbow came out to give me some assistance, and then the damn wind went from 22kt – 0kt. We both had to swim back (thanks for coming out Andrew). Any kite that tangles itself has a major issue.
2.- If you forget to close the zipper on the back (EZ 2 do), the kite doesn’t fly properly and will tangle it’s self.
3.- The 5th line. This kite has too many lines. I might remove it and attach the safety to the green steering line. FS wtf was wrong with the Speed safety?
4.- The tips do tuck, I think this is a problem with smaller kites < 13m. It makes it difficult to launch… as soon as it’s in the air the left & right come together and it falls down again possibly turning around and even inside out. I hope robbo is right and it’s just a breakin issue.
Pro’s after 1st session:
1.- Fast turning.
2.- EZ flying, very stable.
3.- Bar has good depower. Pulling the bar in and out with the Speed doesn’t have too much immediate effect, but with the Psycho the effect is immediate and very noticeable… so it’s good in varying winds and winding up for a boost.
The generated power is like a 9-12m C kite imo.
All the good newness of the kite went in around 1.5 hrs of use and it’s in a grubby tangled mess in my garage right now.
Interesting.
FlySurfer, lots of guys have reported the tips folding at first but settling in after 3 or 4 sessions. I hope yours is the same. You won't forget to close that zipper after the first time. I did it with the Pulse too. I also had to find a new way to roll up the kite, folded in half rather than from each wingtip.
Be careful changing the safety set up, I think Armin has said the kite isn't built to take a safety on one of the steering lines, check foilzone.
"FS wtf was wrong with the Speed safety?"
A lot of kiters were complaining about excessive pull, hence the FDS fifth line thing. I'm not sure how much I like it either, self landing on the old system was so easy, but only in normal powered conditions. I like not having the big blue line through the bar though.
Don't spose you want to sell that grubby tangled mess in your garage?
