Freevol LX

Freevol LX

Another strange Quad line kite!.This was spotted for sale on the Flexifoil forums at a reasonable cost - and as it was somewhat different (i.e. strange) I wanted to give it a go. The Freevol LX is (or so I'm led to believe) a French design from around 1999 and is no longer in production.

The 4 sails, or blades, rotate independently - pull back on the top of a handle the top blade is pulled towards you, the bottom blade away from you - it's very obvious watching it! All done from a very complicated bridle arrangement. Flight direction is simply controlled by the angle of each of the blades.

Purchased: August 2004

Details

Width : 150 cm Height : 150 cm Depth : n/a Weight : 200 g

Spars : 4& 8 mm Carbon Fibre Sail : Ripstop Nylon

Wind Range : Medium

Cost : £40 second hand - no longer made and as far as I can tell there is no other Internet information.

Good Things

Very very nice design.
Extremely controllable - flies in any direction equally well.
Fast!
Appears to be very precise.
Spins are very fast and on the spot.

Bad Things

Can be confusing working out which way is 'up' (especially after one of it's fast spins!)
Not too happy with gusty winds.
A somewhat limited wind range, it certainly needs a fair breeze to get it air born, but too much and it is uncontrollable.
The dive-stop manoeuvre doesn't seem to work as well as with other quad line kites.
Putting it away on a windy field makes the Synergy Deca look easy (all that bridle line).

Final Thoughts

A very nice kite - more controllable than the Papillon, especially in sideways flight, but does struggle with gusty winds. If a gust gets behind a blade knocks it forward then there is a tendency for the whole kite to fall face down. It doesn't do Revolution style things - the spin is to the Freevol is as the dive-stop is to the Revolution.

This is one of those kites that it just pure enjoyment to fly - it's great to fly at festival - or simply when you want to fly something different.

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