Revolution 1.5 SUL (Custom)

My original Revolution 1.5 SUL kite was beginning to look and feel old - the vent fabric was slowly falling to pieces (in that way Revolution kites do), the sail fabric was becoming softer and baggier. So it was time to get some lightweight fabric and make a new sail. Whilst looking at suppliers I found I could get Dacron (used for the leading edge tunnel) in other colours - I thought a blue leading edge would look good against the blue sail - but as you possibly can see from the photos you don't notice in flight!

Anyway the kite was made, it flies well enough (with some "issues" - see below) and is an important part of my kite bag. It seems that 2004 has either had zero wind (therefore a SUL kite is required) or a high wind day (and therefore a vented kite). So my Custom Revolution 1.5 SUL has seen a fair amount of air time.

Made: June 2004

Details

Width : 231 cm Height : 104 cm Depth : - Weight : - g

Spars : 2 wrap graphite (Revolution) Sail : Ventex

Wind Range : 0 - 5mph

Cost : About £20 for the fabric & other parts (I used Ventex which was about half the price of Icarex). The spars I used from the official Revolution 1.5 SUL - which are currently about £8 each.

Good Things

All the usual Revolution things. plus...
Lower wind range than the EXP/1.5 SLE.
Blue leading edge fabric (not that you can see it when flying - but it looks nice close up!).

Bad Things

Not unsurprisingly it's not a kite for either strong wind, or gusty wind (unless you like snapped spars).
Due to some mistakes made in the stitching (and/or cutting) the sail is somewhat baggy in the middle. And this means....
... Poorer very low wind (i.e. zero) performance.
... It's not so hot doing reverse flying.
.... And it's slightly noisy in flight as the trailing edge tends to flap about in the wind.

Final Thoughts

I like this kite - even though the zero wind flying perhaps isn't as good as the official one, it's still possible. I find problems reverse flying, especially in the very low wind conditions. I keep thinking about repairing it - but that would mean opening up some of the seams and re-stitching - and that could very well leave me with a non-flying kite. So for the moment it stays as it is!

Revolution 1.5 SUL (Custom)

Details

Good Things

Bad Things

Final Thoughts

Links