New Tech Kites

Huffheinz

Hello everyone! I'm a complete newbie to sport kiting and I bought one of the $15 Texsport dual line kites off of ebay about a month ago. It was big and heavy, needing strong winds to fly, and I managed to poke the spine through the nose and shatter the center tee on my second flight. I patched her up...but knew I needed to find something better.

I did a lot of research on the internet and set a $50 budget. I had it narrowed down to the Cherry Bomb, the Beetle, or the Bolero. So I went to the kitelife forums and asked for some opinions. A lot of people responded with what they started out with, but could not tell me specifics about each one. So I found an ebay store (North Coast Windpower), that had all three with free shipping. I emailed them and they recommended the Cherry Bomb as durable and the "most capable". So I ordered my CB and it only cost me $42.80 delivered.

I received it earlier this week but mother nature and a visit from my mother-in-law prevented me from taking it out to the field for the first couple of days. I finally got a chance for the maiden voyage last night.

The winds were pretty low (I'm guessing 5 gusting to 8mph) but I was able to launch her and keep her in the air without any problems. It took me a little while to get used to where the wind window was and how it would grow and shrink with the strength of the wind.

Since I'm a newbie I stuck to flying large circles, figure 8s, and squares (per Dodd's advice in the video). I was really concentrating on flying straight lines and using small and slow controlled inputs. I found that my hands kept creeping up to shoulder height, a habit that I want to nip in the bud. I also found myself wanting to cross one hand over the other when flying push turn squares....talk about getting your wires crossed! I put the lines into several wraps just to convince myself that the kite will remain in control, even with 10 wraps in it.

I crashed it a couple of times when it stalled out near the edge of the window so they were nice and soft. One major lesson I learned: When you're in a stall on the edge of the window, pulling with the inside line only spins the kite out of control, it doesn't steer it back in. I practiced a few controlled stalls in the middle of the window, just to get a feel for how the kite reacts to different inputs. A couple of those landed in the grass too, but it didn't seem to hurt the kite at all...not even when I panicked and smacked it into the ground by pulling on the lines instead of pushing.

The kite really flew like a dream...MUUUUCCCCHHHH better than the el-cheapo Texsport kite I started out on. It was easy to set up and I didn't have to make any adjustments to it at all. It is sewn together beautifully and everything just seemed to fit.

I was surprised to see that, instead of using a molded center tee, the upper and lower spreaders were held to the spine with an o-ring. It seemed to hold it in position but I wasn't sure exactly where the center of the spreaders were because there is no mark (something I will remedy before the next flight) so I just eyeballed it based on the shape of the kite.

(Photo courtesy of Kite Life Cherry Bomb Review)

It was completely silent and it seemed to move nice and slow in the light winds. I only heard the slightest flap of the sail during some particularly strong gusts thanks to the leach lines on the trailing edge. And I have to say that the CB looks awesome in the air...the colors are really vivid...the pictures on the internet do not do it justice (it reminds me of a red-eyed cicada). I'm extremely happy with my $43 investment in this entry-level kite. It has been a joy to fly so far and I am confident that it will keep me entertained for many hours while I hone my skilllzzzz....
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Chris · Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:52 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the post Huffheinz. Glad you are enjoying the Cherry Bomb. interestingly enough, that kite is capable of advanced slack-line tricks, although they will happen fast (tough for beginners) due to the size of the wing. I've watched Dodd on the controls and he can perform almost everything on it.

Cheers!

Chris
_________________
"Fly a kite for a child and you entertain them for the day. Teach a child to fly a kite and you entertain them for life."

Huffheinz · Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 4:27 pm Post subject:

rboerth · Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 12:28 pm Post subject:

Welcome to the sport.

I started flying on the Beetle: It's a terrific and quite forgiving kite, but in terms of overall capabilities, the Cherry Bomb has it beat. With the Cherry Bomb, you can learn the basics of control and then, when you're wanting to branch out into tricks, it will do those as well. Sounds like you have Dodd's video, which is a great teacher. And keep your eyes out for kite festivals in your area. If you attend one, you will probably run into some stunt kite flyers who can help you out. The American Kitefliers Association website keeps a regularly updated calendar of events.

TGunn · Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 12:14 pm Post subject:

Huffheinz,
Welcome to the exciting world of sport kite flying! You obviously do your research very well before venturing into a new activity or hobby, because your knowledge of sport kite terminology is way above most newbies to our hobby/sport (wind window, bottom spreaders, center "t", etc...).

Just like others have already stated, you made a good choice with buying the NTK Cherry Bomb!

In regards to the lack of a center "t" that secures the bottom spreader to the spine, and where NTK uses an o-ring instead, most people use a silver sharpie marker to mark the center point of the bottom spreader, so that when you assemble the kite each time, you can be sure that the bottom spreader is perfectly centered under the o-ring.
While you have the silver marker out, re-mark the bridle adjustment marks on the bridle line, so that they are easier to see. The marks should be located on the main adjustment line, just under the larks head knot. This is something all kite sport kite flyers need to do occassionally, as normal maintenance. If the bridle adjustmentmarks disappear, adjusting the bridle equally on both the left and right sides becomes very difficult.
In light wind, you can adjust the bridle so that your kite performs more efficiently in light wind, by sliding the adjustment marks thru the larkshead knot so that the marks move in the direction of the tail/bottom of the kite. Adjusting the bridle marks toward the kite's tail, gives the kite more lift, and leans the kite slightly more forward toward the flyer. Usually 1/4 inch adjustments at a time are best. You may have to adjust the bridle one time, test, then adjust again until you find the sweet spot. The downside of leaning the kite forward more, is a slight decrease in turning performance, and less pull from the kite, because leaning the kite forward more, dumps more wind off of the trailing edge (bottom of sail) of the kite. Where as, if you adjust the bridle marks more toward the top/nose of the kite away from the larks head knot, the kite is less efficient in light wind and will be more difficult to launch from the ground, and will turn faster, and pull harder.
Usually the factory (medium) bridle adjustment mark setting, is where the adjustment mark is dead center inside the larkshead knot. Most of the time the factory setting works great for most winds, but in light wind, when the kite just won't launch off the ground or stay in forward motion once in the sky, a bridle mark adjustment is necessary. Like I stated earlier, always keep the adjustment marks on the bridle freshly marked, so they don't disappear over time (same with the bottom spreader mark too).

Just in case you didn't already know, there's a large, very active kite club in the Kansas City area. Here is their website:

http://www.kckiteclub.org/index.html

One of my sport kite team (Team TKO) mates (Shane Snowden) is originally from the KC area. One of our other team members lives in Wichita, KS., our other member Chris Shultz lves in Austin, TX and is GM of NTK, and is the one who first replied to your first posting.

Once again, welcome!

Regards,
_________________
Troy Gunn - TKO Sport Kite Team member: http://tko.sportkite.team.tripod.com/home.htm

New Tech Kites:
https://newtechkites.com

Kitelife E-Zine: http://kitelife.com

Huffheinz · Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:55 am Post subject:

Chris · Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 1:34 pm Post subject:

Hi Huff,

Your diagram is correct! (nice work btw) Truth is you won't really need to adjust the bridle on the Cherry Bomb. But it is good to know where the factory setting lies just in case the bridle slips.

Now go practice your square turns

Smooth winds to you,
Chris
_________________
"Fly a kite for a child and you entertain them for the day. Teach a child to fly a kite and you entertain them for life."

TGunn · Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 5:12 pm Post subject:

Huffheinz,
Nice bridle illustration! If you ever need to adjust your kite's bridle, the place you have marked in your illustration is the place to adjust the bridle.

There is a large festival not far from you this coming weekend (June 9-10) in Topeka, KS. It's the only sport kite competition in your area. It also has lots of fun flying space too. You should check it out, and meet some of the Kansas City Kite Club (KCKC) members. Here is the link to the KCKC, which also has info and links to all of the kiting activities in your area.

http://www.kckiteclub.org/

BTW - In my previous post I mentioned marking your Bottom spreader (BS) at the very center point, with a silver sharpie (in your case silver glitter pen ; ), well there's another trick to keep the silver mark from fading or being worn off. After making the mark on the BS, use some scotch style tape to wrap around the silver mark, and the tape will prevent the mark from being worn off from when the O-ring slides across it. The same thing can be done with kites that also use an O-ring at the Top spreader (TS). If the spreader is not centered, the sail will be pushed tighter on one side and the kite will turn tighter in one direction than the other. Your kite will respond unevenly in flight, in a way, kind of like the front end of your car being out of alignment.

Fly High, Fly Safe, have fun!
_________________
Troy Gunn - TKO Sport Kite Team member: http://tko.sportkite.team.tripod.com/home.htm

New Tech Kites:
https://newtechkites.com

Kitelife E-Zine: http://kitelife.com

Huffheinz · Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:13 pm Post subject:

Glad to hear that I marked the bridle in the correct place. I'd be pretty embarrassed if I ran across an experienced flyer and he saw that I had the wrong place marked on the bridle. I don't intend to make any adjustments to the bridle until I get a really good feel for this kite and how it should respond in different wind conditions. I'm sure that when/if I do make an adjustment, it will be on a low wind day when I'm trying to eke out some flying time.

Funny you should mention using tape to protect my center mark on the spreaders (the Cherry Bomb has both upper and lower spreaders). I used my daughter's sparkly gel pen to mark all the way around the centers and then put a couple of coats of my wife's clear nail polish over them. We'll see how long they hold up.

Actually, I figured out a pretty easy way to find center in the field before I marked them. I used some flying line to measure off the distance between the spreader connectors then just doubled it up to find the center o-ring location.

I actually attended a Kansas City Kite Club festival about a month ago. They seemed like really nice folks. I frequent their site for wind speed info. I'm going to head out to their Friday night flight site this evening to check it out. Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it to Topeka this weekend for their event. That's unfortunate, because I'd really like to check out the competition. Oh well, maybe next year.

Thanks for all of your comments, advice and words of encouragement.
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TGunn · Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 11:42 pm Post subject:

Huffheinz,
You're welcome, it's my pleasure! I remember when I first started into this sport in 1985. It was always great to get help and and question from those that had started before me, and I try to remember my roots, and help any way I can.

Although I live in North Texas, I've been to Topeka many times for their event. You would enjoy it!

BTW - I maintain the AKA region 7 & 8 kite events calendar webpage, where you can see most all of the events. Here's the link, which is also listed on the KCKC events page:

http://members.tripod.com/~TKOGunn1/kitecalender.htm
_________________
Troy Gunn - TKO Sport Kite Team member: http://tko.sportkite.team.tripod.com/home.htm

New Tech Kites:
https://newtechkites.com

Kitelife E-Zine: http://kitelife.com