Heres a link so you can see the wind that I was riding-
http://www.wunderground.com/history/air ... atename=NA
After setting up and self launching the ranger, I headed down wind for some better snow conditions down there. It was blowing 20-25 with gusts up to 30 or so, and where we were there was a pretty big patch of trees the made it a lot gustier than we had hoped for. I was very powered on the 12 at the time, im only about 145 pounds, but once I pulled the adjustment strap in a little bit, the kite was very managable and a lot of fun in that wind. I was playing around getting used to the feel for it, and it was a very stable kite, not too fast turning, but reminded me a lot of my 17.5 machine, but a little faster turning. After getting comfertable with the kite, I got some speed up and in a lull, just sent it back for the first jump. I wasnt expecting much because I heard it was going to be the lower aspect of the two(9m and 12m), but all the sudden i was just smoothly lifted off and brought to about 10 feet in the air, then came down again nice and slow. The thing had a lot of lift, but not in the poppy fuel kinda way, but much smoother. It also had a really lofty air, I cant wait to go try things thing off a good hill or kicker or something, you could get some really nice hang times with it. After getting used to it I started jumping more and more in the gusts and everything else and got some of the biggest, or possibly the biggest jumps ive had. And this was in conditions where really there wasnt much of an edge and I couldnt gain too much speed. In comparison with my fuels again, I sent this one a little further back in the window, and just slowly steered it back in the air. I never had any problems with it folding over or anything like while I was in the air(an experience that scared me away from riding foils when I first started jumping). Other than that, the kite looked really good in the air and had a good smooth power. It also could handle the gusts really well even in some of the more gusty winds I have ridden in.
At the end of the first session, my legs were getting pretty tired and I started to play around with the saftey system/relaunch on the kite. If you look at the bar, you attach your leash to the black line going between the two outside lines on the kite. When I went to go release the bar, immediately killed the kite and slowly went down backwards to where it was sitting there cells up ready to go. On the ground there was little or no resistence from the kite. This was really nice because you could do things like strap yourself in or get yourself ready with the kite just killed like this on the ground. Then, once I was ready again, I just pulled in the bar and it popped right back up into the air again. What really amazed me about it was the relaunch. I crashed it face down, then just pulled the black line in to about my chest, the kite just picked up into the air, and flipped over, landed sitting with the cells up on the ground, but wouldnt go until you are ready and release the black line. Once I decided to go and take a break, I was very far down wind, but after after pulling the adjustment strap in a little more, the kite went out further to the side of the windown and had great upwind. I was back at my starting spot in just 4 short tacks.
After coming in took a short break, then went back out into the consistently dying wind. I went back down wind and played around. The kite still could pull me into the air without problem and I was having some fun jumps, but then it really started to drop off. I started heading back up wind quickly, but right as I got back up the wind just completely dropped off at about 3:30.
My overall opinion of the kite is that it was a lot of fun, and instead of being a good begginer kite or up at the cabin kite, it was a really fun, super easy to set up and use, great snow and land kite that will work just as well as many of the LEIs on the snow, if not better!
Unfortuantely my camera was broken so I couldnt take any pics, but for those of you who havent seen them, heres some pics that I found off the internet.
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JN