Tessa Gambassi is becoming a name that Is being heard more and more In association with the kite competition circuit. Designer, flier and provider of trophies for various championships, our friend Roger Is present on all fronts the Most design from his camp, the Cyrius, completes a range that Is already very established. The other news Is that he has left his small workshop to have his kites produced by Cavaliers du Ciel

DESIGN/CONSTRUCTION
The Dacron leading edges of the Cyrius are well cambered, the keel is wide and heavy on the short spine. The trailing edge, fitted with a leech line, traces a nice curve and finishes on fine wing tips. The tips, bottom of the tail, part of the asymmetrical paneling, and the stand-off reinforcements on the back of the sail are made of light Mylar laminate. All the rest is in P38 polyester ripstop.

The frame is a clever mix of G-Force and regular 6mm carbon tubing, in order to marry flexibility and stiffness. The top spreader and the spine are 6mm carbon whereas the leading edges and the lower spreader are in G-Force. The leading edges bend to give a nice curve. Connectors are a mix of APA and Jaco.

The bridling is dynamic and relayed to a fourth bridle leg that goes from the flying line attachment point to the adjustment of incidence. Adjustments are made using a series of knots on the connectors linking the top spreader/leading edges. This system has been named ABS A movable (detachable) Bridle System - by its designer. It enables numerous settings and good all round precision/freestyle.

The overall quality of manufacture is good. On the other hand the finishing and quality control need attention. One of the panels of our test kite, that did not use French seams, had not been well cut and had started fraying. One of the stand-off reinforcements had not been sewn in the right area and had been unpicked and re-sewn leaving the needle holes of the initial positioning. The endcaps of the stand-offs are not glued and one of them had already come off and was found at the bottom of the bag the first time the kite was assembled.

Adhesive letters have been used on the Mylar as opposed to screen-printing.

FLIGHT TEST
Despite a slight instability in its trajectories, which demand very

precise and constant control, the Cyrius reveals itself to be very precise in a little as Lymph of wind. No overturn was noticed; the angles were sharp provided one carefully controlled the exit. It did not pull in a fight to medium wind and it's speed was medium.

On the precision side the Cyrius carried itself well, but it's really in freestyle that the kite really made itself known and truly excelled. When handling the kite you can feel the beast that just wants to play.

In freestyle mode it's better to disable the ABS by putting it on the last knot, therefore the bridle should be slack.

The axel rotation is effected very much around the tail, for sure thanks to (or because of) the weight that this contains. If this weight is taken out, the difference is not very noticeable, except with yo-yos and pancakes. Without this ballast, the Cyrius is actually more precise, notably when exiting a corner as there is less inertia.

For cascades it's necessary to work to find the right timing: as it flips very much on its rear, if you don't whip it at the right time you'll either kill the cascade or hang up the tips. As for the stall it's very clear and easily maintained as long as one wants without too much work. Wing tip landings are excellent and you have the feeling that you're planting the kite into the ground.

Successive coin tosses are a little difficult for the same reasons as the cascade. Control must always be maintained during rotations. Going into a fade is also a little bit delicate at the start and one must well analyse the way it happens, or does not happen. Once this manoeuvre is understood the fade holds well but you must always keep control if you don't want the kite to immediately set off again. One can obtain the best control of this figure by very precise adjustment of the ABS settings.

CONCLUSION
The Cyrius is not really a kite for beginners. Roger Tessa Gambassi has made a real competition beast, sized to win, which asks several hours of practise of its (experienced) flier to discover all the subtleties of flying and (numerous) settings. We imagine it to be initially aimed at individuals

To finish we'll give you a few restrictions as for the settings. These are certainly numerous and have distinct effects on the kite's behaviour, they are most often made to the detriment of another configuration. Adjusted for a given figure, the kite is less efficient for another. Therefore it will be necessary to define a range of in-between settings that would allow the execution of a greater number of tricks or to have the best behaviour in precision.