Andy Preston/Flexifoil's new kite: The Psycho
Andy Wardley
back, and I thought it was time I told you about it.
Like the Stranger, it's manufactured by Flexifoil and available in
three colour combinations: Red/Blue/Black, Maroon/Yellow/Black and
Butt-Ugly-Every-Colour. Can't even remember what the colours are in
the last one, but there's at least 5 of them and they just don't go,
IMHO. There's also a rather large, silver "PSYCHO" logo covering about
half of one wing. Doesn't do much for me, I have to say.
Now if you're the sort of person who likes sensible, dependable kites,
you had better change channels now. You're not going to like what you
hear. If, on the other hand, you fancy flying something totally radical,
almost uncontrollable and a serious blast, then try it out.
The kite has a similar shape to a Stranger, but is about half the size.
Although they claim the kite flies down in the 3-5 mph range, I have my
doubts. I haven't tested it that low, so I'll reserve judgement.
Certainly the last time I spoke to Andy, he said the kite was very much
designed as a higher wind kite. I've flown it in winds between about 10
and 25. It seems to take a short while to get going, but when it does,
it is very fast. Turns exceptionally fast, axels are trivial and it's
very recoverable. With flat spins, I found it had a similar problem
to the Stranger where the tips tend to get caught around the lines.
Where the kite really shone was in doing Yo-Yo's and other tricks
where you're rolling the kite towards/away from you. In a few hours
I was doing some really bizarre tricks involving kick turns, yo-yo's
and flic-flaks.
The choice of name for the kite is a good one. It is a totally manic
beast that does all sorts of crazy shit. The downside to that is that
it is almost uncontrollable. Or maybe it just felt like it.
Overall, a good kite to fly if you're into some seriously extreme
tricks. Not as dependable as a Box of Tricks or Reflex and that
is both good and bad, depending on your point of view. Don't think
much of the graphics or overall look of the kite, and I had some
trouble with spreaders snapping in the T-Piece (solution, fill ends
with carbon or hot-glu) and I lost a stand-off because the hole in
the sail was a bit too large for the grabber.
Generally though, a well made kite at a reasonable price. Very good
fun to fly, but not for the faint-hearted.
Cheers
Andy
Andy Wardley is the man from a...@peritas.demon.co.uk. Thricefold decorated
in the winky wars, he loves each and every one of you. No really, he does.
Harry "FM" Teazly: "I'm honored and all that crap, but does this mean we're
starting another round of quoting each other with the names munged?"
-Sean Willyhard" -Andy Wardly
Andy Wardley
[...]
>Where the kite really shone was in doing Yo-Yo's and other tricks
>where you're rolling the kite towards/away from you. In a few hours
>I was doing some really bizarre tricks involving kick turns, yo-yo's
>and flic-flaks.
I've been asked to explain these tricks. I think they've all been
mentioned on the group in the last week or so, but that might have
been in email. My memory ain't so good these days....
A kick turn is as follows: Fly right to left, let some slack into
the upper wing (right hand) and then pop an axel with the same hand.
Instead of giving slack with the left had, hold tight, and as the
kite's nose turns away from you, the kite should stand up, with the
nose pointing up and the back of the kite towards you. Another tug
with the same hand should bring the kite nose back down and now heading
back towards the right. In a good kick turn, you change direction
and come out of the turn at the same height you went in.
One of the variations I was trying with the Psycho is to put the
kite into the kick turn but instead of tugging with one hand to
bring it out of the turn, you tug with both and then give slack.
The result is that the kite flips downwards and rolls around the
lines that you feed. Having got the lines wrapped around the wings
several times, you pull again to unwrap the kite the other way.
This is essentiallay a yo-yo.
The other variation is to let the kite wrap only once, and then
tug it out and let it wrap the other way. If you think of a
cascade where you axel left, axel right, axel left, etc., this
is kind of the same but with the kite rolling towards you, away
from you, towards you, etc., as it falls down the window. You
can also do this across the window, as you see Andy Preston do
in the Psycho video. Known (by me, at least) as a flic-flac.
Peter Peter's Home Page
(www.win.tue.nl/win/cs/fm/Kites/basics/flying.html) describes
some of these and others following some of our recent email
discussions. I think the other names he has for the flic-flac
are the cuckoo clock and/or poison ivy.
Zoe Salloom
positive and negative, view about a kite.
Keep the wind at your back
ZOE