"Pre"-view, 07 Fuel

[Greg]

Some of you may already have seen the new Fuel's in action but I missed the first shipment by a few days so I figured I'd wouldnt see any of them tell spring. Thankfully, yesterday my girl "smuggled" (she had a business trip state side) me in a 15. Here is my first observations:
For starters, this is a pure C-kite, it's curvature is a PERFECT WIDE "C". The basic bar is a similar to last years, 5th line, on-fly throttle controll knob, numerous depower options from Grab Handles to extended de-power chicken loop to Wave Bomb/5th line. This bar is complex with options, every type of tuning option is now available at your finger tips for on-the-fly tuning!
The kite it'self is radically morphed, the wingtips are way beefed up and the stuts have changed positions too. The trailing edge is deeply scalloped between stuts and the struts have changed sizes also. THe 5th line re-enforcment extends from tip to tail of the center stut and all the "puffy padding" found on previos years wear points are now smooth and flowing, this kite is super sleek.
Starting at the wing tips you can see major change. The tips are quite fat from the "elbow" to the strut tip, the tip strut is also very long. The pig tail adjustment points fit into folds at the tips and self-rescue handles are built into the tips. THe material around the tips is super beefy extending into and tappering at the second strut. The second strut is very close to the tip and seems beefed up in scale also, a deep scallop connects both tips at the trailing edge. THe next strut appears to have moved outword as well with the scallop somewhat reduced as well as the stuts diameter. THe center stut is quite long and thicker in diameter then the older generation kites super thin struts. The trailing edge scallops are pretty slight in the mid-points. The kites airframe was very stiff and rigid with only 6 psi, I suspect this was due to the mid-size diameters of major structural members.
Looking at the Fuel on the ground the new adjustments seem to make sence. Added weight, stiffness and foil at the tips for tight turning and reduced tip stalling and stop hinderburges (better ballance!), extra cloth at the areas where turning begins without adding "flappers" or excessive coning, remove stiffness near the center but retain stiff form at the exact center to reduce over-rolling on the water, move mid-point struts outword to allow greater depower by flattening the foil in the real "power-zone" of the kite.
When I took the kite out for it's first fly (ON THE BEACH ONLY) the wind was very mild and smooth, averaging about 8mph. To launch the kite I simply moved upwind and pulled a grab handle immeaditly rolling the kite and taking off. Unhooked and flying at or past the xenith the kite seemed to fly with some power, it flew what appeared past overhead in little pulses but seemed very stable and never over-flew to hindenburge. I tryed multipal times to cause the kite to tip forward but the kite seemed to remain stable/stationary prefering to back up rather then roll forward.
The next thing I did was lots and lots of turns. Fully powered, the kite turned very sharply without any appearent slid, side slip or sound, there was ZERO FLAPPING! The kite made very smooth down loops pulling throughout. THe pull was solid and smooth but not excessive for the size, I think this kite pulls like a 15 should pull. The controll range seems "reasonable" but with lots of depower turning slows to a halt, my guess is this kite will have a sweet spot of about 12-18mph for my weight. I expect to eventually have and want all sizes between 15 and 9m.
Playing with the kite on the beach in such mild conditions I did tons of little pops and loops both unhooked and hooked in. S-bends and hopping handle passes were super easy with the steady pull and mild bar pressure. Minor tweaking of tuning was made easy by the clam-cleats on the chicken loop bail and its very reassuring using a 5th line total depower again. The only downside I found was all the gadgets on the bar could become a real mind bender under pressure or in the hands of a newbie. In conclusion, I'll say that SlingShot got it right marketing this kite to advanced kiters, its sweet but not simple...
My review of actual on the water flying and relaunch should be forthcoming becouse our local forcast for the next few days seems straight-up 15m stuff.
Have fun!!!
L.M.G.

[windhorny]

Sweet. Nice review G.

Maybe she can smuggle a turbo 2 your way for review next time as that I am REALLY curious about.

[Greg]

no chance of that, I'll be home in about 45 days..
The Fuel is probably not your bag of tea, no way you'd get away with a one kite quiver there.
L.M.G.