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Excess Ventile (Atelier Cerf-Volant)

DESIGN/CONSTRUCTION
The Excess has a relatively low aspect ratio sail shape and two very deep standoffs, unusually the outboard stand-off is longer than the inboard one. The Icarex sail is of very high quality, the standoffs have Mylar reinforcement on the back of the sail and other reinforcements are in Dacron. The frame is a mixture of tapered G-Force and standard Avia pultruded carbon. Fittings are from APA although they are not stopped. The vents consist of three panels arranged above the standoffs.

FLIGHT TEST
The Excess came with detailed instructions in French. The turbo type bridle and stand-offs had many possible adjustments so we decided to stick with the factory settings to start with. Unfortunately the bridle was set incorrectly and had to be moved over 10cm to get the kite to fly. Once in the air the Excess was fairly quick-paced and tracked well. Tums were razor sharp and the overall feeling was one of a very nimble kite. In the occasional gust, the kite did start to pull a bit but was never uncomfortable. Tricks of all sorts. were possible and achieved easily. The lack of a trick line meant that there were some wing wraps.

FUN VALUE
The Excess was certainly a kite for individual rather than team flyers. Its speed and agility make it a real blast and tricks are the order of the day. Even in higher winds, the kite was still able to stall and trick in mid-window.

CONCLUSION
The Excess was one of the better-made kites in the test, although there was some concern about the lack of stops on the leading edge fittings. Once the bridle had been sorted out, the kite proved fast, agile and very trickable. It would need to have a trick line added.