And it was phun phun phun - The Movie

Wind was up today so we went down to Maisaka Beach after brunch. Forecast was for easterlies at 12 knots which would have meant slightly cross offshore winds. Er, nope - clean cross onshore wind about 12 knots when we got there and over the afternoon it built up to about 17 or so. Nuts, I had left my board and Synergies at home in Shiga cos I thought the weather would be shite.

Unrolled the new (to me) Phantom 12 and Zero 7 bar and lines on the sand for my first flight with it. Lovely, still crispy, bright and bold!



Filled from the center zipper no worries once I closed the deflate zip :D
There's no Launch Assistant tab on the Phantoms so I carefully laid out the downwind lines across the top of the kite and went back to the bar. By now, the wife has her birthday camera running (Sanyo Xacti CG11) so I even got a clip of me launching the Phantom. Textbook, if I do say so myself :D the only reason why I dawdled around with the launch - I was making sure I hadn't crossed the lines. I do that sometimes. Up she goes no worries.



I spent the next 4 hours or so having great fun scudding around and trying to jump. Thought I had some real crackers until I checked the video the wife took and realized - the jumps were lame like a one-legged donkey and the camera adds about a hundred pounds ... poor Phantom having to drag my fat arse around.
Scudding was awesome, and as the wind picked up the kite was giving more lift to the drag downwind and I was flying along with my feet just skimming the sand. No more pumice rubbing my soles - I got sand-blasted beautiful feet now!

Tried to remember the Arc Setup FAQ details about bar settings and backstalling etc so fiddled with that for a bit too. Seems I got it about right though - have moved the front line leader at the bar end to the next knot, shortening the front lines IIRC - and now I can fly with the trim strap right out. Pulling the bar all the way in and holding it there stalls the kite when it's at the zenith but gives a mighty blast of speed and power when flying through the window WOOHOO.



Landing the kite, I didn't feel I could attempt Carl's method safely so I made up my own :D
Flew the Phantom out to the edge of the wind window on the LHS, then pulled the bar right in and let it fly backstalling to as far downwind as it would go, say 5 o'clock, just off then ground then popped the safety. Kite went down, I walked forward and it flagged beautifully. I then made the mistake of trying to fun downwind to sand the edge, but it went flapping away. Hmm, will have to work on that. Got the wife to hold the self landing handle while I sorted it out.

Great phun with the Fantom!