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Today was the first flight of my new 15m Bomba. We arrived at Butser Hill to find almost
no wind at all, maybe 4 - 5 mph. Setting up the kite was pretty easy, the instruction
manuals were very thorough, better than any other kite I've bought so far. Unfortunately
in such low wind the kite doesn't inflate very well - the downwind end was fine, but the upwind
end stayed fairly empty of air.
I decided to launch anyway (call me silly, but I wanted to fly it!) It was a bit of a struggle to get it up, but walking backwards helped a lot, and the kite slowly inflated. My girlfirend had to help here a bit, because I had to put it down half inflated at one point. Once it was inflated it started to fly really well, even in such light air. It seemed extremely stable and easy to fly. Turning was quick, almost as quick my 7.3m Frenzy 03. I tried out the auto zenith a few times, just letting the bar go and the kite would stay at the zenith with out any problems. There wasn't really enough wind to try letting the bar go when the kite was down near the ground, however it did seem incredibly stable, far more than anything else I've flown so far. After a few photos the wind picked up a bit, maybe 8mph or so. I managed a few static jumps, 4 feet off the ground without any trouble . A 6 year old kid watching kept saying "do it again" which made me laugh. Eventually we decided to go, so I tried the quick release on the chicken loop, it worked fine except the bar ended up halfway down the lines and I wonder how easy it would be to restart if you had to use the safety leash at any point. Packing away was amusing, although eventually I got the knack of it. Everything fitted in to the bag nicely - the bag seems to have all the right pockets and side straps to hold the bar and folding baton. So far I can only say good things about this kite, haven't had an opportunity to try it on a board, that might have to wait a couple of days for that. But I can't wait, think it will be a wonderful kite either on land or in the water :) |
Click on the thumbnail for a larger version!
CLick here for a short video of a jump (163kb)