I have noticed that the flying characteristics of kites of the same range can be incredibly different. E.g. I bought 2 (brand new) Naish Rides on special offer - the 8m is powerful, surges in gusts towards the edge of the window and is one of my favourites. The 10m is a pig. Its powerful, tries to drag you down wind all the time, stalls easily in lulls and doesn't like moving to the edge of the window making it a chore to go upwind.

I'm au fait with the principles of tuning the bar but I don't know how I might go about tuning the bridle of kite to account for stretch. Unfortunately few manufacturers are kind enough to list bridle sizes anywhere so the best I can do is make sure the bridle lengths match. This won't account for flying line - steering line imbalances though.

Has anyone seen a good/simple guide to understanding and tuning the bridles?

Ta

Interesting idea. So in my case where I want to move the kite further to the edge of the window I'd ideally want an extra (30mm say) to the steering lines so that the kite has a lower (less powered) angle to the wind and flies further out.

I assume I could go out in lower powered conditions and play with the trim strap for a similar effect to get an idea of where the kite feels balanced? i.e. If I have 60mm of trim strap to that would equate to a knot 30mm longer on the steering lines?

Are there any rule of thumb combinations? Fly at 12 in light winds say and then adjust the trim so it stops stalling with the bar pulled in full?

Cheers

Adding and subtracting from either front or rear pigtails will do nothing different to changing amount of depower at the bar, think about it you are just changing flying line length....

pedleym said..
Sound like your choking the kite
What wind speed are you flying in

15 knots (cold northern hemisphere winds) gusting 25. Could well be choking the kite.

I have tuned the bar and lines twice and the other kite I fly it with (same year and model kite) flies nicely. This one seems to want to sit deep in the wind window. Hence looking to make sure the bridle is spot on.

My problem is keeping the kite at the edge of the window. I can edge hard to fly the kite to the edge of the window but as soon as I sheet in again it drops back into the power.

15 knots is too low for a 10m to work efficiency.
Gusts make it worse for getting dragged downwind
I wouldn't think the bridal is out in a newer kite, but just compair bridle line size from left to right see if there even.
Use the depower it is for timing the kite to condition
Light wind will make an oversheeted kite worse.
The lighter the wind the better your Technic needs to be