Date:	Wed, 19 Oct 1994 14:00:36 -1000
From:	jburka@Glue.umd.edu (Jeffrey C. Burka)
Message-Id: <384bv4$pst@geog20.umd.edu>
Organization: Project Glue, University of Maryland, College Park
Subject: mini kites

Last week at Wildwood, I spent way too much money on way too little sail.
I bought a couple of new kites, both of which are based around solid
graphite, and neither of which are meant for the faint of heart.

The first kite I got is one Guildworks' Minergy Deca's.  Guildworks makes
two versions of the Minergy.  I bought the standard (almost), which I had
first flown at SunFest last year.  It's a great kite, and a blast to fly.
The Minergy's "ears" stick back at a shallower angle than the Synergy's,
and this added flatness allow the kite to slide quite easily.  I had an
awful lot of fun playing with a couple of friends, one flying a Rev II and
the other flying another Minergy.  Basically we were sliding the Minergies
through each others lines, as well as through the Rev's, lines, and seeing
how intermixed we could get our 12 lines...and then trying to unmix them.

The Minergy is 1/2oz Icarex on solid graphite spars.  It comes with
miniature wooden handles and two sets of line (6' and 15'?  or 20'?  can't
remember) on a winder for $100.  Guildworks has also started sewing some
kites out of Ty Billings' incredible tie-dye ripstop, and it's one of those
kites which I bought.  They're pricier than the Icarex kites, and more
prone to stretching and shrinking as the lower grade fabric changes from
both humidity and just use.

Guildworks also makes a Zero-Wind Minergy, which is a scaled down version
of the Zero-Wind Synergy.  More sail area and lighter sticks make for a
suprisingly good indoor kite.  I got in about 30 minutes of indoor time
with this version of the Minergy, and I enjoyed it immensely.  I'd still
rather fly a Rev, though... ;-)

----

The other kite I bought was the latest iteration of the Ion from Prism.
After enlarging the successful 6' Ion design into the 8' Macro Ion, they've
now shrunk it into the 2.5' Micron.  Typical Prism construction of clear
mylar laminate and 1/2oz Icarex is framed with solid graphite.  Again, the
kite comes with its own lines and finger straps.  As you might expect, the
Micron is *fast*.  Ridiculously fast.  It tracks very well, thanks to an
extremely deep sail tunnel, but when you put it into a spin, you just pray
that it comes out in a direction which doesn't involve the ground.  I'm not
sure what the bottom wind range is, but I made the mistake of finding out
the top of its range on Saturday, within an hour of buying the kite.  The
kite has a single long spar for the entire bottom spreader (which is the
same length as the leading edge sticks).  The t-fitting is a long, molded
plastic piece (the spreader sits an inch or so above the spine!) with a
notch at the end.  The spreader just snaps into the end of this piece.  I
was flying the kite in about 20 mph winds.  It was extremely shuddery, but
it was still flying pretty well, when the kite suddenly dropped to the
ground.  To my surprise, all of the graphite sticks were fine, but I'd
managed to shear off the end of the molded plastic!  Unfortunately, this
makes the kite unflyable until I can get a replacement piece.  :-/

In addition to the broken plastic (and I'm more than willing to acknowledge
that I might have had that rare piece with a flaw...), there's one other
problem with the Micron, and that's the attachment method for the
spreaders.  There's a hole melted through the leading edge.  The spars have
vinyl stops glued to them about .25" from the end.  You slide the spar
through the hole and then attach an end cap to stop it from sliding back
it.  If you crash the kite, the spar will pop out, and in the process the
end cap gets pushed off.  And these tiny end caps can be *hard* to find.
I'd suggest either taping the spars in place or perhaps using a piece of
thread to attach the cap to the kite so if it pops off it won't get lost.

I paid $55 for my Micron, including lines and carrying case.  I suspect
that it will retail for a bit more than this, but probably not much.

Jeff
-- 
|Jeffrey C. Burka     |  Pithy, insightful quote to be inserted    |
|                     |  when one occurs to me.  *If* one occurs   |
|jeffy@glue.umd.edu   |  to me.                                    |


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