I’ve been patient, soooo very patient waiting for the Nirvanas to arrive, and come May, the long cardboard box knocked on my door. Finally the kites were here! As you all know, when a new kite arrives, something happens with the weather. If your new kite happens to be an UL, the gale winds blow. If your new beauty is a vented one, it’s dead calm. In my case far too much wind and buckets of rain has kept me away from quality flying with my Nirvana. But now I’ve managed to squeeze a couple of flying hours in between the rain showers and the strong winds. Here are my first impressions.
First some information about the flying conditions. These impressions are based on flying the N on 25m/50kg lines in winds at about 1,5-3m/sec (4-7mph) for about two and a half hours. Not much, but enough to get a feel for the kite. I have used the standard turbo bridle, the smallest of the weights (16g?).
OK, let’s get started. The take off is clean and straight forward, and the first thing you notice is a significant buzz. Yes, the N is not silent. Its trailing edge (especially the part closer to the wingtips) starts buzzing even in light winds and the sound gets pretty loud in tight turns and – off course – when the wind pichs up a bit. Whether you like this buzz or not is a matter of personal taste. It’s not my favourite sound but can live with it. The loose trailing edge makes a good break and the kite is not picking up much speed when you fly it acrozz the power zone. That’s good!
General ”feel”
If you’re used to a kite like the Gemini or the L21C or similars, it takes a bit of time to get used to the larger and slower N. The Gem and L21C are kite that you can flic around with tiny(?) hand motions. The N needs more work and larger input motions.
It’ a relatively large kite and it feels big too! …and quite different to the two other kites I use to fly, the Gemini and the Level 21st Century. Being bigger it’s also significantly slower and that can be exploited to do graceful looking tricks. The N also is very good at presicion. Much better than the Gem/L21C. It pulls a bit but perhaps not as much as I had anticipated. It feels stable in presicion like flying and it’s picth based trickability doesn’t shine through untill the lines go slack.
In my opinion the N is not a kite you whack about right out of the bag. The N is a kite that needs a bit of time to explore and get used to. If you are willing to spend this time you will be rewarded with memorable moments on the field!
Presicion
The N does very good presicion! Better than its little brother (?) the Opium. 25m lines is a bit short to really exploit its presicion capabilities, but plenty enough to get a good feel for it. Straight trajectories are easy to fly and with its reluctancy to speed up flying across the power zone you can control its speed pretty easily too. Big circles are fun to fly because you feel you are in control! Snap turns likewise. However they require a little timing and you shouldn’t overdo the input. Too much and the kite will fall over into a Turtle. Nice, but not what’s intended. When you get the timing right, the angled turns are clean.
Tip stabs and two point landings are a treat! From a power dive do a snap stall and with a bit of timing the kite will stab its tip explosively into the ground. With a more exaggregated snap stall input you have a dramatic two point landing. Yes, the tip staps on the Nirvana video are real!
The N sits pretty stable in a slide and ending a dive with an inwards turn and a well timed exit you can slide the kite all across the window with not too much input.
Pull
When you take a first look at the N you would imagine that the kite pulls quite a lot. OK, it does pull, but perhaps not as much as anticipated. That certainly helps when you’re about to trick the kite all around the place. I felt I didn’t have to work as much as I had imagined. (Please note that this impression comes from flying the kite in close to perfect winds. It might change a bit when the wind picks up.)
Tricking
Can a good presicion kite do tricks? The answer is YES! The Nirvana delivers! …and it really excels in quite a few of them. All kinds of YoYo ”stuff” seems built into this kite. Backward and forward yoyos are easy and when you get used to the YoYo stoppers, flying with the lines wrapped up around the kite works fine. With some practice you should get the flying lines resting on the YoYo stoppers and the kite flies almost as normal. (Well…. 😉 Multiple YoYos to go!
Flap Jacks are also very easy to do with the N. You can even do rising multiple ones when you get the hang of it. …and Superstarts. Overdo a Flap Jack and pull a line. There it goes. The Superstart itself is not too difficult to do on any kite. It’s getting in the starting position that can be tricky. Not with the N.
I’ve seen the jaw dropping N videos made by the R-Sky team. flying outta this world! How about me? Can I do some of those tricks too? The first one to go was a wrapped up 540 to unwrap. YES!!! OK, not on my first try, and not very consistently but I made a few!. The trick is to get the lines resting on the YoYo stoppers and the unwrap thing. When you get that right, the rest is – believe it or not – not that difficult!
How about the YoYo takeoff! Yup! Nailed that one too! Let the kite start to fall towards the ground, pull both lines and then give slack. The kite launches directly into a YoYo and – if you get the timing right – it takes off with the lines resting on the YoYo stoppers! Cool!
Another cool variation is to fly the kite horizontally across the wind window. Then you do an exaggregated snap stall – and the kite will do a Snap Turtle – followed by a sharp pull on one of the lines – which will rotate the kite in a Lazy Susan – and recover. Very predictable.
OK, I’ll go more in details in a more thorough review, but here’s a short recap of the trickability.
Easy as pie!
All kind of YoYo and Turtle stuff – Axels – Half Axels – Slot Machines – Tip Staps – 2 pt. landings – Lazy Susans – Multilazies – Raising Cascades – Flip Flops – Pancakes
Works well!
In the parking lot Backspins – 540’ies – Cascades – Cointosses – Reversed Cointosses – Jacob’s Ladders – Fades – Cartwheels – Headspring –
Practice required!
Axel Take Offs – FlicFlacs – Sleeping Beauty –
Couldn’t do them … yet!
Cometes (can’t do them on any kite … yet;-)
The Weight
I haven’t flown the kite much without the weight but I know it have an impact. There are some differencs in flight characteristics with and without the weight. YoYo stuff off course becomes a bit more difficult, but I really need more time to go further into details about this.
Downsides
Wow! Is this the ultimate kite? Doesn’t it have any down sides at all? Well, I don’t think there is (or will ever be) an absolutely perfect kite. IMHO the Nirvana is close, but here are a few notes that might be regarded as downsides.
Buzz
The N is far from silent. Especially when the wind picks up a bit, it really buzzes. Whether you like this or not, is off course a matter of personal preferences, but some see this buzzing as ”noise pollution”.
Spine wraps
I have also experienced a few spine wraps. The bridle leg running fromthe center tee is prone to get wrapped around the tail end of the spine. Some times you can shake it loose, some times not.
I’ve heard that this is not the case if you change to the Richard Debray Static Bridle, and it’s also easy to remedy with an ”anti snag line” on the bridle.
YoYo stopper snags
The YoYo stoppers also snag the lines from time to time. These are easyer to shake loose than the spine wraps, but kind of annoying. I’ve never flown kites with YoYo stoppers before, so this might become a minor thing with more practice.
Loosing the weight
When you clip on the weight to the spine, make sure to put some (electrician’s) tape around it. The clip can come loose and it’s pretty darn hard to find it on the ground. (Yes, it happened to me.)
C-clips
You won’t find many c-clips on this kite. I’m not sure if it matters, but on other kites of mine the frame sometimes kind of distorts if the c-clips are missing. The fittings are sligtly moving on the LEs. I haven’t experienced this in the N yet though.
Availability
It’s not easy to get your hands on a N. That’s too bad, but hopefullt it’s going to be better!
Conclusion
I know I shouldn’t jump to conclusions after just a few hours on the field, but some things are pretty certain. Can I reccommend the Nirvana? YES! It’s a wonderful kite that will do some amazing things. It’s not a kite you whack about right out of the bag, but if you are prepared to spend time with it and learn how to exploit it’s full potential you’re in for a treat! If you can… GET ONE!
SvenA
May 20th, 2003
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Updates – June 3rd 2003
WOW! I’m just back from a kiteflying weekend in Denmark, and I must admit….. the NIRVANA RULES! At least for me and that’s what counts!
Finally I had the chance to fly it for hours in absoulutely perfect conditions. You know, a rock steady and glass smooth onshore breeze at 5mph. This kite can do it all. Period!
I don’t say all the tricks are easy to do, but they are there.
We all know that the N. is a great tool for those new (French) tricks, but it’s pretty darn good for the more classic ones too. What perhaps impressed me the most is it’s ability to do FlipFlops. In that smooth breeze I could keep them going forever. (Yes, almost litterally!) 50 no problems.
Another super gracious combination is the Fade to 540. Sooooo sloooooow. The fade is very stable, and with a gentle tug on the lines it rolls out of it. Wait for the perfect moment and gently pop a line while giving slack to the other. Then watch the kite do a super slow 540!
Previously I found it kind of difficult to do proper FlicFlacs. Not anymore. It was me, not the kite. A slight adjustment of my input and the kite was happily flic-flac-ing all over the place.
You can’t talk about the Nirvana without mentioning its ability to YoYo. In a gentle breeze YoYo takeoffs are a pie! And Flap Jacks are built in feature. So are doubles and triples.
I still get some spine wraps, but with more time on the kite they don’t happen so often anymore. Practice makes perfect they say. 😉
Am I bitten? …….. Definetely! Did I mention the kite was absolutely silent in the 5mph wind? 😉
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Two videos from that Danish weekend back in 2003…
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This article was first published at AERIALIS-DOT-COM on May 20th 2003
