TEK III from Leading Edge Productions - A Review When I met fellow rec.kiter Michael Graves, he showed me a kite that he and Ilene Atkins made called the TEK III. (There is a TEK I but no TEK II...I'll leave that story for Michael) He was doing so many amazing moves that I had to give it a try. In the light breeze (2 - 4 mph) he was flying it in, I tended to over muscle it and pull it out of the sky. This was a finesse kite, I decided, like the Little Sister. When I tried it again, the wind was gusting around 20 mph and he was flying it on 40 foot lines. A definite reflex tester, the kite was lightening fast but still could do all the tricks. (Well, most anyway...I can't imagine a wing jab with a finnese kite with an AFC 1960 frame.) The TEK III is a small delta kite with a wingspan of 71 inches (almost 6 feet, Michael) With the standoffs in the span from wing to wing becomes 69 inches. (I'm not sure which way they should be measured.) The spine length is 30 inches. The ones being made now have an Avia 1960 frame and a Carrington sail. Some sort of wire ties seems to be used as stoppers. Reinforced vinyls are used. The sewing on mine is impeccable but is a custom sewn by Ilene. There is a good size opening at the T connector allowing for a little traveling by the T. I believe it is offered in various three color combinations. I have not altered the tuning from the way Michael originally set it. There is quite a bit of oversteer, but the kite still tracks pretty well. This is, IMHO, not a beginner's kite. Once the winds hit the teens, this becomes a very fast kite. It requires small arm movements. It spins very tight, and spin stalls are easy. It can also snap stall, but the push - pull movement I sometimes use to stall a kite will cause it to turn sideways backwards, then fowards in a quick flip. I have only seen this done by Mike Simmons and Dodd Gross with Trixters or Trackers. Turtles (or feathers for you alternate nomenclature folks) are very easy...with a much higher success rate than I have with any other kite. It comes out of a turtle on its own but it can also be manually ended. It works best (for me at least) if the wind is strong (in the teens) and smooth. I have trouble finessing it into a leading edge launch but it can be easily flipped around into a launch position. It is generally recoverable from most situations. Lee Heatherington, upon trying it at BASKC, noted that it seems to want to recover no matter what position you put it into in the air. (Or at least it tries) Lee put it through a succession of axels but even I can axel this kite occasionally. I just heard that Michael has axeled a stack of three. My only criticism, and something Lee noted, was that the standoffs extend beyond the sail by the length of an endcap and can be hooked during a recovery. This happens ocassionally during the course of the gymnastics the kite goes through, or more commonly, a wing wrap which usually can be undone unless the standoff end gets hooked in the process. Lee and I both thought that there are probably new maneuvers waiting to be discovered in this kite. While I watched Michael fly it in Verdun he executed a Turtle Flip. (Where the kite flips on its back in the air and the lines get wrapped around it, and the kite is then flipped out of the turtle.) I can say that this kite is a lot of fun (and I haven't had it a week yet) and tends to draw onlookers who can't believe what you're doing. (This does not happen to me often) I actually had onlookers who asked when I was going to fly my ballet and were a little disappointed when I said that I wouldn't be flying the TEK III. Mark Virgilio (uspehmev@ibmmail.com) For additional information and ordering contact Michael Graves (mgraves@leadingedg.win.net) I felt the price was very reasonable for such a quality made kite.