I caved, and bought myself that used kite I found on TradeMe.co.nz to celebrate my megameter. It arrived in the mail today so I knocked off work early and went to the beach to test fly it. Its a 3m Flexifoil BladeII which has been in the carefull ownership of Scottish mountain-boarder in Dunedin. She gave me a great price (because she needed the money) and I was pleased to see what great condition it was in when it arrived. I always spend a few hours flying a new power kite on the beach, before getting into a buggy with it. This kite, being a ram-air foil, this kite needs a very different flying style than my c-quad or deltas but with a little practice, I soon had it dragging me all over the beach. I was impressed by its speed and incredible acceleration. Its still going to take a while to master flying this little pocket rocket, but I can tell already it'll be worth the effort!
This is the top-side...
...and this is the under-side. Its wingspan is 4 meters and the total area is 3 square meters. It packs alot of punch for its size! The skid marks you can see on the beach were made by my feet as it dragged me around. In this shot you can see the vents along the leading edge that allow the kite to inflate and hold its shape without any spars.
I had a quick go in the buggy with it just before the wind dropped off and got an easy 40kph out of it right away. Can't wait to try it in a big wind on Rabbit Island Beach!
10:58:30 AM 
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