Hi Kitehard,
can you tell me where did you get span 43/53 from, CORE spec.57/45 , quite a diffrence.
Cheers

Tried one on Monday night. Was impressed with the build quality, responsiveness and speed across the window, range of depower system. 9m was well powered in conditions I would have ridden my old 12 in (depowered). Need to have another session to really see how it performs on boosts for me.

Only thing I'm a bit dubious on is the microloop, twice got this accidentally locked in with full power. Not sure how safe this is can someone explain, seeing as Core is supposed to be about "safety and performance".

From another forum:

that hook, and the coresponding loop attached to the bar form a "micro-loop"

if you hook in, the kite is locked off on full power even if you let go of the bar, lets you do a deadman

I *like* being able to depower by letting go of the bar...

yeah, I can see the advantages of the miniloop, long rides back upwind, unhooking, etc
guess i've been so used to being overpowered on my 12m in perth's winds that the idea of locking on at full power is a bit strange
From what I can see, I presume that if you are riding unhooked and drop the bar the pseudo-5th line safety still activates, cool.
Also on that note, from the core website corekites.com/us

Thanks to the "Short 5th-Line" which is connected to the top of the Adjuster the Combat is the first real 4-Line kite with increased safety. The "Short 5th-Line" can be replaced by an optional "Long 5th-Line". This way the COMBAT is even safer than traditional Delta-Kites. Totally save!

This statement is a bit confusing/contradictory, how can the "short 5th line" have increased safety, but the option to replace with the "long 5th line" make it "even safer than traditional delta-kites", so which is safer and/or easier to use if you have to hit the release, the short or the long fifth line?

So I bit the bullet and bought two GTs, 10.5 and 7m. I still haven't ridden the 10.5m but had the 7m up on Wed at Pinnas when it was blowing 27+ knots. I had the kite fully powered up and it had massive grunt to launch me (95kg) out of the water several meters when I tried my first waterstart, oops. The kite is super responsive to arm movements in and out, so much so that it almost self handles gusts... when a gust comes it naturally pulls your arms a further couple of inches away from your body and that is normally enough to reduce power enough to handle it. The kite is so fast through the air, its just a joy to fly. I didn't feel the need to take the option to reduce the bar width, would there be much of a reason to??

Mates have commented on my riding that I am "lucky my kite floats", well when you put this this down it doesn't even float but seems to do an anti-gravity thing about a metre or two above the water at the edge of the window.

Love the push out quick release on the bar and also on the safety harness, both very easy to find in an emergency. I don't know how I did it but I did manage to accidentially operate the chicken loop release...

Kitehard said...

Hi rescueme,

You've posted a fair question, allow me to try and answer it for you.

The mini 5th line is a short safety line that runs within the chicken loop stem, up past the trim strap and connects to the bottom of the "Y" of the front lines. The front lines start from the trim strap as a single line and split into two about 7 or so metres up away from the bar.

When you release the bar by activating the chicken loop release, the mini 5th line is pulled and all tension is then transferred to the "Y" of the front lines. Due to the pulley setup on the kites bridle, it allows the kite to fall flat on it's leading edge with all pull from near the centre of the leading edge, sort of like a 5th line works on a normal long 5th.

I've tested the safety system intentionally and inadvertantly a few times and each time the kite has dropped immediately onto it's leading edge into the wind with almost no pull, a very effective safety system!

I must agree the safety system is bloody effective. I was a bit miffed to have accidentilly activated it about 500m out near mushroom rock in 27 knots, with my previous kite this would have involved all sorts of dramas trying to drag tangled lines in around my bar and self-rescue in choppy, strong windy conditions, from a long way out. (Not to mention an hour untangling the mess on the beach later) In fact to be honest I would have shat myself. But with the GT, after about 5-10 minutes of f-ing around sussing out what to do (now I know I could reduce this to a couple of minutes I reckon) I was able to pull myself back up to the bar, reset the safety and relaunch the kite, with no tangled lines.

The feeling of confidence this gives me as a relative novice (knowing I can hit the quickrelease to kill all power and reset and relaunch from in the water) is amazing, I now have no fear to hit some 30+ knot winter fronts, bring it on!!!!

I did also deactive the miniloop, by tying it to the bar with some insulating tape, but I could see how it would be useful to lock the bar in for long rides upwind, I just need to be a bit more practised learning how to *not* accidentially hook it in, and to quickly unhook it if I do.

LOVE this kite, love those German designers, bring on some winter fronts

Hi Rescueme,

I'll start by answrring the second part first as I'm still trying to understand the first question

The inside and outside setting on the bar steering attach lines will reduce or increase the steering input by varying the amount the lines that will be moved towards or away from the kite in a hard turn.

If you ride with the outside (widest settings) the kite will turn and loop tighter and faster. If you put the steering lines on the inside (narrowest) setting, then you'll have less input to steering and will subsequently turn a bit slower and possibly a slightly wider arc. The way I see it, unless you are having issues controling your kite, leave it on the outside settings. Fast is good once you get usd to it.

Second First question. If you mean you are hooked in to the chicken loop and also are hooked into the micro loop, when you fall, you will fall hard and the kite will not depower, it will remain powered up and stay that way until you either unhook the micro loop or fire the chicken loop quick release. As you hit the water, the sudden line loading will force the kite to neutral so it will depower some anyways.

Not sure what you mean by dropping the bar?? Do you mean you are unhooked and physically drop the bar? Or do you mean you are hooked in and letting go of the bar?? If you are unhooked, there is no need to use the micro loop as the bar will be at full power anyway.

The Micro loop is set on an angle away from the hook on the chicken loop so as you don't accidentally hook into the micro loop. It is usually necessary to pull the bar in, use your thumb or forfinger to "flick" the micro loop in behind the CL hook and then ease the bar away allowing the hook to catch and rest in the micro loop. This holds the bar at almost full power.

If you wish to disengage the micro loop, all you need to do is pull in on the bar to full power for a split second! As the micro loop is offset to be out of the way of the hook, as soon as you release the pressure of the loop on the hook and the loop clears the end of the hook, it will release it and you'll need to pull the loop back into engage the hook again. You need to sheet all the way in to enter or exit the micro loop and must guide the hook into the loop for entry. Exiting the loop is automatic with sheeting to full power.

If you ride with the safety on the stainless ring of the mini 5th, then all you have to do is push the quick release ring away to deploy the flagging safety system. Simple, safe & functional.

If I'm on the wrong track, let me know and I'll try and help further.

Good winds and glad you are enjoying the kites