Awhile back on the Washington Monument grounds, I flew into Paul
Dugard who proceeded to pull a Black Rainbow kite out of his
bag. From a distance he seemed to be consumed with great
expectations. With a delightfully wicked smile on his face (he
appeared to be in a trance) he fiddled with Super-G skinnies and
bridle lines. I watched him lay out about 100 feet of #50
spectra and attach the kite's bridle loops.
That was too much. I landed my Pro Dancer SUL (yes, the
wind was very scarce . . . about 0-3 mph) and walked over
to find out what was going on.
The Kite was a Black Rainbow ZDX made by Reed Richards.
It was just another kite until Paul handed me the straps.
The first thing I noticed (more like felt) was the
control response of the kite. Very smooth! With the wind still
in the 0-3 mph range the ZDX flew without effort. The response
was very precise. I could feel the kite at the end of the lines
as I put it through a series of maneuvers. The tracking was
consistently on line whether I pulled loops or pushed corners.
My next test was to determine how the kite would handle in a
slide. Going from right to left the kite rocked a little, but
that was me getting a feel for the kite. Halfway across the
window I raised the left wing slightly and axled in the same
direction. This test was done from both sides of the window and
the ZDX again exceeded my expectations. The kite can give
several variations of an axle (slow, moderate and fast),
depending on the amount tug you use in the release/pop. The ZDX
offers additional forward flight maneuvers at the end of a spin
axle . . . a real bonus for ballet . . . some very original
stuff. The stalls are very nice. The ZDX flight is silent
(leech line). The ZDX offered me the option of going beyond
standard flight (with control) in ballet, precision and team
flight.
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I've since purchased an EZDX (standard version) with .5 Icarex
sail, .2300 frame, 3-18 mph to continue with my exploration of
the ZDX. I have yet to reach he limits of it's performance.
Reed offers some great graphics along with several wind ranges
for this kite.
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Charles Lucas
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