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Written by EWF
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Wednesday, 03 October 2007 |
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Page 1 of 2 Now this is getting regular. Which is great, isn't it. A new review almost each week! All hail Mr oldflyer for his quality articles.
The Sweety - An Overview The Sweety is not a new kite. I think it has been on the market for a few years now. However, you hardly ever see them being flown. This could be due to the fact that they are made to order and sold by the maker in Germany. I think it’s a great shame that this kite has not been more widely accepted. It is my favourite no wind kite and the price is very reasonable. The Sweety is quite a small kite with a 1.8Metre wingspan, but it weighs hardly anything – just 108 grammes! Flight performanceThe Sweety is a beautiful no wind kite. It’s not good in anything over 5mph but in no wind or very gentle breezes it is an amazing performer. It flies with graceful ease in minimal winds and has a lovely floaty feel to it. To me, it is the perfect no wind kite and it outperforms every other no wind kite I have flown! The kite is exceptionally light so it is not great at the pitch based tricks. You could add weights to it but that would then detract from the main reason for owning the kite – its perfect no wind / low wind graceful flying style. The Swety does lovely floaty axels and if you can persuade it to go into a Fade (tricky) it holds rock solid fades for as long as you like. The sail is extremely deep and I guess that this helps the stable fades Build qualityThe workmanship / build quality is first class. The sail is made from Icarex and the frame is Avia micro carbon. The stitching is faultless and it is a beautifully put together package. The kite comes with a bag and a set of short Spectra lines, a winder and some finger straps to fly it – a complete package! Choice
The beuty of ordering a hand made kite from the manufacturer is that you can choose your own colour scheme at no extra cost. The maker of the Sweety goes one step further. You can choose between a number of different graphics and you can even go for a mylar version. Some examples of the choices you coudld make are shown in the photos below.
PriceThe kite retails for 74 Euros. At today’s exghange rate, that comes in at just over £50. That seems like good value to me. The mylar version is slightly more expensive at 81.5 Euros. AvailabilityIt is a bit of a hassle to order a Sweety. You need to email the maker and then arrange for your bank to make a bank transfer in Euros to his account in Germany. It’s a hassle, but it only took me about half an hour to exchange emails, agree a colour scheme for the kite and make the bank transfer. It was time well spent! You can read more about the Sweety and order one through the maker’s website at www.drachenkiste.de/en/27-Sweety.html A final noteI hope this has been a helpful review – I promise you won’t be disappointed if you order one of these!
Views: 1151
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 03 October 2007 )
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