Construction:
I am not sure just how old this kite is, so any comments here are on a veteran kite. The panel lay out is nice and simple, and I guess the minimal amount of panels adds to the sails strength. The transparent mylar panel down the spine looks nice in front of a cloud-dotted sky, though I was a little surprised that this is the point of most stress: I thought stand-offs had the raw deal? The mylar has given in at the nose and tail, though was this from a freak accident? I ask because the sellotape is doing a remarkably good job of keeping it together at the points where is has torn. (Horizontally, incidentally). The rest of the kite is in eerily good condition. The frame is Avia Sport .190, which feels a little squishy, but that might be the age of the kite. I like the wing tensioners, which are strechless cords pulled over the notch twice. Easier to apply than the Gems bungie, but just as tight. In the looks department it is a bizarre hybrid of a curved and straight-leading-edge, odd with the angled leading edge, but it suits it when it is zipping around the sky. Bridle set-up is all mysterious to me, so I won’t comment other than it seems to work.
Flight:
Day 1 and 2: Not the wind this kite was made for, though I got my head around the different stand-off positions. Closer to the wingtips = less pull but smaller window, closer to the spine = more pull and bigger window. Became obvious how flicky this kite is, my first axles turned out as doubles and getting this kite into turtle is difficult on account of it spinning full yoyo all the time!
Day 3: Just the wind we’ve been waiting for. Started off fast but smooth, and within an hour it was downright vicious! I’d say the wind was around 15-23mph. I got ample opportunity to experiment more with the stand-off positions. The difference in pull is very pronounced between the four positions, and I found myself quite happily changing the stand-offs throughout the session as the wind conditions changed. Now that I think about it, it seemed very necessary to keep changing positions, as the kite’s wind tolerance at any one position was narrow.
As expected, the Alien is fast, and I was happy as larry just carving up the sky for a while. No dog even considered having a go at my warp-speed enabled kite! I haven’t messed with the leech line, but the kite is quiet and just gives out a nice WHOOSH. Occasionally in a strong gust the wingtips would hit resonant frequency and tremble, but it still felt happy. You are probably all gasping at that one!
I’m looking after it!
I’m no trickster, I'm pretty clumsy but I'm getting better... In ideal winds with my Gem my repertoire of tricks just about extends to fracturing an axel into a fade and doing some kind of lazy susan out into flight. I love ground work: tip stands and coin-tosses are my fave moves at present.
Side slides are easier on the Alien than on my Gem. I really have to concentrate with the Gem, and I often find a wingtip unpredictably and suddenly dropping (“unpredictably!”, I hear you cry!). The Alien didn’t have this characteristic, and slides in a strong wind looked great. Axels on this kite were blindingly fast, and I had great fun popping axles which must fully revolve in less than a tenth of a second, in a very tumbling-on-the-spot manner. I think axles look great like that, especially to a dead-frozen stall!
In the strong wind I found pitch-based tricks really difficult. A stable fade or turtle seemed nigh-on impossible, but on day one in a small wind I found fades to be more stable than my Gem. Yo-yo-ing is great though, unwrapping down to wingtips and axeling back into flight was dish of the day. Would more weight in the tail have helped me hold fades? It was a very strong wind though…
Groundwork was difficult in the wind I had, but the few stands and minor stabs that I nailed were not nearly as satisfying as on my Gem. Perhaps it is due to the kite’s age, but the frame just isn’t tight enough. I found most weakness was in the nose: the rest of the body of the kite seemed to rotate around the floppy nose.
Tip-wraps are obviously just a reflection of the skill of the flyer and I get into them a lot. The Alien seemed to get tangled less often than my Gem, but when it did get wrapped it was more catastrophic and sometimes couldn’t be rectified by line-jiggling. Deadlaunching seemed just as difficult as on the Gem but then I never try to deadlaunch really: it just look like I’m angry with my kite. Maybe it was all luck, but recovery in the sky I found easier than with the Gem, though don’t question me about my technique: I guess where it went wrong and give it a tug.
I don’t think I have ever cut a square corner in my life so don’t even ask me about its precision. I’d imagine it is bleedin’ awful!
All in all I really enjoyed flying the Alien, even though it is not very regal and a totally different kettle of fish to the distinguished Gemini. I can see myself flying it a lot over this winter, probably more than my Gem considering the beastly winds. Hopefully some of the reactions-testing will help me to fly my Gem better…. because, unsurprisingly, the Gemini is more beautiful and sure footed, in flight and in tricks and in looks and in its lovely proud tall tip-stands! But it’s no use when the wind gets above 14mph…
Best of all it lets me get out and fly when all the power-kiters are out, and I take perverse pleasure in watching people being dragged about a field by an airborne caterpillar.
Cheers Andy!
