Sport, Trick and Freestyle Kite Flying Forum

Moderators: Craig, Andy S

 
User avatar
oldflyer
FA Supporter
FA Supporter
Topic Author
Posts: 978
Joined: Wed May 25, 2005 1:33 pm
Location: Bristol, England

The Sweety

Wed Sep 19, 2007 1:09 pm

The Sweety

I hope this little review is of interest.

The Sweety - An Overview

The Sweety is not a new kite. I think it has been on the market for a few years now. However, you hardly ever see them being flown. This could be due to the fact that they are made to order and sold by the maker in Germany. I think it’s a great shame that this kite has not been more widely accepted. It is my favourite no wind kite and the price is very reasonable. The Sweety is quite a small kite with a 1.8Metre wingspan, but it weighs hardly anything – just 108 grammes!

Flight performance

The Sweety is a beautiful no wind kite. It’s not good in anything over 5mph but in no wind or very gentle breezes it is an amazing performer. It flies with graceful ease in minimal winds and has a lovely floaty feel to it. To me, it is the perfect no wind kite and it outperforms every other no wind kite I have flown! The kite is exceptionally light so it is not great at the pitch based tricks. You could add weights to it but that would then detract from the main reason for owning the kite – its perfect no wind / low wind graceful flying style. The Swety does lovely floaty axels and if you can persuade it to go into a Fade (tricky) it holds rock solid fades for as long as you like. The sail is extremely deep and I guess that this helps the stable fades

Build quality

The workmanship / build quality is first class. The sail is made from Icarex and the frame is Avia micro carbon. The stitching is faultless and it is a beautifully put together package. The kite comes with a bag and a set of short Spectra lines, a winder and some finger straps to fly it – a complete package!

Choice

The beuty of ordering a hand made kite from the manufacturer is that you can choose your own colour scheme at no extra cost. The maker of the Sweety goes one step further. You can choose between a number of different graphics and you can even go for a mylar version. Some examples of the choices you coudld make are shown in the photos below.

Price

The kite retails for 74 Euros. At today’s exghange rate, that comes in at just over £50. That seems like good value to me. The mylar version is slightly more expensive at 81.5 Euros.

Availability

It is a bit of a hassle to order a Sweety. You need to email the maker and then arrange for your bank to make a bank transfer in Euros to his account in Germany. It’s a hassle, but it only took me about half an hour to exchange emails, agree a colour scheme for the kite and make the bank transfer. It was time well spent! You can read more about the Sweety and order one through the maker’s website at http://www.drachenkiste.de/en/27-Sweety.html

A final note

I hope this has been a helpful review – I promise you won’t be disappointed if you order one of these!

:cool:
Last edited by oldflyer on Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
User avatar
Zippy8
Posts: 4865
Joined: Mon Sep 29, 2003 8:43 pm
Location: Vihtavuori, Finland
Contact:

Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:38 pm

You don't have to go via the maker (although I suspect he would prefer it). I bought mine from Pegasusin Germany, fr'instance.

The Sweety is/was meant as a purely indoor or zero-wind outdoor kite. It's really set up for short lines. If you slap out something more "normal" (ie; 10m+) I for one didn't think much of it.

As an indoor kite it was fine but a bit swift in the way that Skinny/2PT kites usually aren't. As a first/occasional indoor kite, it's spot on.

YMMV

Now..... who has "my" kite now ? That'd be Jess I think.

Mike.
 
kaasplank
Posts: 138
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2005 9:28 am
Contact:

Tue Oct 02, 2007 10:28 am

The Sweety was my first indoor kite. It's a great kite to learn indoor flying because you can keep it in the air with easily. It's very light and not a real trick monster.

Great little kite! And good value for money.