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Quoth
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My Phoenix Review

Fri Sep 01, 2006 5:10 pm

Hi all,

well I promised I'd come back and let you know how I got on with the kite I bought.

I acquired a phoenix and bought a set of 150Ib dyneema lines. I flew it all over last weekend with increasing success in handling and skill as the days went on. Now I'm told the kite is pretty big for a stunt kite and that the winds over last weekend were pretty firm (15mph) at the edge of the wind window I had good stunt control but in the main area the kite was taking BIG leaps and was absolutely exhilirating to fly and dragging me off my 14 stone feet when I was snap turning.

This kite isn't for kids!

I had a few teething problems.

1) One of the strings broke. Apparently 150Ib isn't enough for a wind that strong on a kite that big.
2) I tore the sail. Not a big tear about 1/2" by 1/4" I'm not sure how, but guess it coulda been one of the early lawn darts forcing the support out of its hole and possibly through the sail. Either that or my very poor attempts at belly or super starts.
3) I lost a spreader from the tail edge.

Would I recommend it for a total beginner?

A) As I found the kite quite big and when performing stalls it took quite a lot of work just to get it out, let alone perform any tricks. This could be a big minus for a novice, because I think worrying about point (B) might
cause you to be over cautious and not really get the best out of your kite.

B) Well... if you can easily afford £100 (kite, lines and postage fee) then yeah why not. BUT The size is difficult to cope with for a complete novice and high speed nose darts are likely to cause quite expensive damage. Now if the price tag doesn't worry you then go right ahead.

Overall HUGE fun even if I wasn't quite performing the tricks on the video CD. I kinda wished it had some verbal information like how to set the kite up and how to perform tricks rather than just watching some bloke doing a few flic flacs ;)

I guess I've learned that kiting can be a quite expensive hobby, and as long as when you're starting out you're not too worried about this then the phoenix is ideal as comparitively its still at the lower end of the market.
 
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Vee
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Fri Sep 01, 2006 6:00 pm

It's a full size kite, which is quite unusual for a trick kite, more normally they're 3/4 size.

As you've seen 15mph is quite high winds and about the limit for trick flying unless you're very skilled, I hope you were using the brakes provided.

As a competition flyer I have more linesets of different weights & characteristics than I have kites! It can be quite a skill choosing the right lines for the winds. Try thinking about what the kite is doing to you, if it's dragging you about, those lines are taking a large proportion of your 14st which is roughly 200lb!, if it's lifting you, then the strain is in excess of 200lb.

Your high speed lawn darts may not have cost you as much as you think, some ripstop repair tape & a pultruded spreader won't come to much & your lineset can be recycled into a shorter set (much shorter if it broke in the middle :-) )

However "if you don't break your kite youre not trying hard enough" carry on.
Love Veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Needs to fly more, now that I can.
 
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kevspilly
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Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:42 pm

Yeah agreed with what Vee said, I've got one of these and any wind over 10Mph is not good fun even with Mesh airbrake supplied.

Best wind speed for tricking is 6-8Mph with this beast IME.
All that matters in life is kite flying, love and work ….preferably in that order.

In the bag; Shhhhh... far too many to mention, don't tell the Missus!
 
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hunchermuncher
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Thu May 03, 2007 9:58 am

I bought one of these and have had nothing but trouble with it. The first time I flew it ripped in the centre and needed a new sail. The next two times some of the little plastic pieces that hold the stand-offs onto the sail broke. Now I can't find replacements as the kite has been discontinued. I was probably flying in too strong a wind, as mentioned above. Anybody recommend a more reliable stunter for a beginner (not complete novice)?
 
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Vee
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Thu May 03, 2007 10:46 am

hunchermuncher wrote:
I was probably flying in too strong a wind, as mentioned above. Anybody recommend a more reliable stunter for a beginner (not complete novice)?


There are too many important questions to answer you immediately. First of all:

What sort of winds are you going to fly in? If they're normally in excess of 15 mph perhaps you need a vented kite? (Please describe wind speed in any way you wish :) )

And importantly:
How much do you want to pay, as a forum we can suggest kites from £20 (not too good) up to £500 (IMHO for those with more money or sponsorship than sense)

As an additional question are you under 9st? (guess who's been flying with teenagers again!)

With the answers to those we may be able to recommend something in your price range, that won't fall apart as soon as you get it in the air & that will enable you to keep your feet on the ground (or near vicinity).
Love Veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
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hunchermuncher
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Sun May 20, 2007 12:13 am

Today I went to the 10th Suffolk Kite Festival and bought myself a Prism Hypnotist after Allan from Close Encounters let me try his out. It seemed a lot easier to control and much more robust. I also like the elastic attaching the sail which should protect it in nose dives. I am about 9.5 stone and so far have been flying in quite windy conditions (today at the festival it was crazy). So that kite cost me 90 quid and I'm lookng forward to playing with it. They had some amazing pilots there today.
 
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portley777
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Phoenix Supreme

Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:12 am

Yes, shame about the Phoenix! I bought a Phoenix Supreme as my first "good" kite- I treated it like a baby (beautiful sail graphics BTW)- BUT the glue and plastic compounds they used on the kite was dodgy, and all of these crappy disasters happened due to these faults. I don't think I ever nose darted the thing very hard either. This is what happened:
1) Standoff clips disintegrated in mid air and the standoffs machine-punctured the sail quite impressively (15kmh winds)
2) These clips were replaced with HQ supplied clips which caught the line and put the kite into un-recoverable snags
3) All of the dacron sail reinforcements peeled at the edges became very good at catching the line: including LE TE and on wraps across the sail.
4) The centre T (male) ferrule had (another) glue failure and slid inside the powerful T15 spreaders and lever-cracked the spar with a nice un-even ferrule alignment.
The list goes on, but it came down to dodgy glue and plastics. It's a shame because it is wonderful kite in so many ways (I still have a soft spot for this broken beast). Pulls like a truck in a gust and very fast and good at the 540s. I guess it's another story of how a bit of bad luck in the (mass) manufacture process can become a bit of an Achilles heal.

p.s. I'm so late on this thread - in fact I'm so late to this forum- I'll catch up one day. Merry Xmas all! 8)

Cheers,
Mike