Fractured Axel

First chance the fly this kite for any proper length of time to be able to get a feel for it. Tech spec is all on the l'atelier website
http://www.atelierkites.com/atelier/com ... elier.html

Wind was about 0 to 3 mph, sun was out, and straight into my eyes, not so good.

The kite is apckaged in a typically French nylon sleeve a la Nirvana, and has a non sealable fold over flap (like a pillowcase) to keep the kite in the bag, so be careful of losing little pieces. Speaking of which, you must remember to keep the plastic caps that are fitted over the centre T conector where the lower spreaders attach. These are the protect the sail when the kite is folded up, lose them and you might find a hole in it next time you take it out of its bag.

Stanard of construction seems pretty good, the stand offs have long caps likew the NIrvana making them more difficult to become separated and therefore lost as say with the Dot matrix.
The bridle fitted is a Turbo variety, with supposedly clear instructions for adjustment. There are some helpful green marks that are the ultimate tricky position, couldnt understand why that is not the default facory setting if it is as described the optimum position...

So to flight, using approx 20m on fairly heavy (too heavy for this kite) Dyneema (its all i had with me)

As you would expect in low winds, main characteristics are that of a graceful slow precision, this kite is easy to fly precisely with a reasonable amount of feedback on the lines. In the stall/hover, its also easy to maintain nose up, although not quite as easily as a Nirvana, its a different world to the playfulness of the gemini. Its prtedictable in its turns with not much oversteer, and glides smoothly and controllably in to the flare, where 540's are there to be had even for me. Easily controllable, nice and flat slow rotation.
Found it a bit mopre difficult to get it on its back for lazy susan, probably as much my inability to get a consistently deep backflip doesnt help, but here both the Gem and the Nirvana are much easier.
Axel I also found harder than usual, the kite needs to be really stalled, and the upper wing to be really set back before the rotation otherwise it just does an ugly spin....
I only manged a couple of fades, and found it hard to get it into one, again compared the the gem/vana/dot matrix. Didnt even get close the trycing a backspin, but then thats down to the pilot and not the kite maybe.
Ground recovery is a delight wioth this kite, this is one of the easiest kites to cartwheel, tip wraps are not that common, and are easy to unsnag on the ground. Its also easy to launch with the french toast pop, and also the sleeping beauty launch from the prism DVD. Deadlaunches are an unknown quantity, personbally I would rather walk than snap spars, and since these are 3pt super skinnys they are probably not cheap to replace; but since I dont deadlaunch any of my kites (except the E2 but that doesnt count) this is not an issue for me personally.

The only other low wind kite I have flown is the Amazing, which is very different (it is an indoor kite after all) although there are some similarities between them. Personally, I much prefer low winds so I find the Impact great fun in that respect.

In summary, its easy to fly, easy to recover on the ground.
Im sure its not the last word in UL trickable kites, but nonetheles its very good, far more capable than I am, but its also forgiving so its a good one to develop on.
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http://www.fracturedaxel.co.uk/phpBB2/v ... .php?t=594

Think this is a kite Ive developed with. My original impressions still mostly valid, particularly with respect to tip wraps, and snags on the ground. I reckon you will hardly ever have to do the walk of shame with this kite.

The critiscism of flat rotations appears to have been addressed with tail weights. Ive used a piece of weighted velcro (thanks Jim!) which had a huge effect. Im going to get some pukka slide-on l'atelier weights.