I'm going to go on about Kitehouse’s Cosmic Trick Competition, designed by Christian Stahl. I’ll try to keep this short…
Construction
No need to go on about stitching, just like an Aston Martin owner doesn’t need to go on about the paintwork. It is as close to perfect as they come. A thing I didn’t like about the kite is the C-clips which prevent access to the LE ferrule without some pliers. Black tape would do. And what is that big knot over the lower-outhaul all about? It does catch lines, but if you undo it the line is larks-headed already to the fitting… odd. If you're getting hang-ups I recommend taking this knot out (and shorten the lower outhaul by an inch to keep bridle dimensions constant).
The choice of leading edge (6mm pultruded) is quite surprising for such a large kite (2.5m), but it works. The kite remains flyable in perhaps 4mph where other kites would fail. Of course this compromises the other end of the wind spectrum: (1) it flaps its wings in still-trickable range, about 13mph; (2) the leading edges are more fragile than kites which are fully framed in tapering carbon. I personally don’t mind that too much, 6mm carbon is cheap and it is easy to fix this vulnerable spar. Either way, I prefer the kite being able to fly low and be fragile than struggle in low winds and be robust.
I'm not really a fan of the panel layout, filling out the colouriser was a nightmare. Those long thin line panels are just awful. Something about it just doesn't... doesn't... tessellate. Ah well, you can't have everything.
Flight
For a kite which is called "Trick Competition", the precision is exceptional on the default bridle. I haven’t even tried moving the nose back (with the totally adjustable bridle), but I’m sure you could squeeze awesome lines out of the TC if you so wished.
Tricking the kite will not be a doddle for everyone. Naturally it isn’t like a ¾ size kite, doesn’t trick as forgivingly, and requires fairly full-on inputs. It has a deadspot in the pancake position, which can be overcome with careful slack. It has another deadspot when it is nose-towards, belly-up, lines underneath position a-la-JL, where the kite wants to be dead-level to turn back to fade quickly. Still, it’s not a major problem after a while, as long as the other aspects of the JL are sound, it’ll be fine.
Flat-spins are where it excels, and it is the first kite that I can get multiple-flat-spins out of. It’s difficult, but if your first 540 is fast then another pop as it comes around and it’ll keep going. I’ve never come across a kite which comes close to doing this. Slots are beautiful, tazs even better, though need good timing.
No need to mention lazies, fades, cometes or backspins. (Does that count as a mention?) The way that this kite transcends the turtle stability / cometeability problem is just eerie, but it does just that, both cometeing and lazying beautifully. Maybe that's something to do with the leading edge: if you look down it it is it more three straight lines, that looks like one from the front.
Anyway, that's it, erm I love this kite, it is brimming with style, made by fastidious people who really care about their kites, and just feels really mature in the sky. Not mature as in 'not fun', but that it understands the past and builds on it. Right I've gone on enough. Oh yeah it is crap at crazy copters. Never liked that trick much. Who called it a "crazy copter" anyway??!