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Samuraï (The BlackBird Company)

A warrior of modern times

The Samuraï is a full size, full on freestyle kite with a high-spec sail and frame and a radical shape and continues the new range of kites from the BlackBird team.

CONSTRUCTION
In its familiar, but no less striking black and red "Black-Bird" livery, first impressions of the Samurai are its impressive size and the radical curve of the leading edges. The sail is full and deep and the trailing edge is held taut with no less than three sets of standoffs. At the wing-tips, the sail has a miniature winglet held in place with a tiny GRP tip-stretcher. The Icarex sail is mainly black but the leading edges are highlighted in red, accentuating the curve of the kite itself. The seams are all rolled and very well sewn. Dacron is used for reinforcements at all the salient points and a stick-on patch is provided in the bag - presumably to cover the top spreader

spine area. The kite has both leech and trick lines, the latter to prevent fouling. The frame features Avia G-Force UL spars in both lower spreaders and lower leading edges with Exel pultruded carbon in the rest of the frame. This reflects a growing trend of more sophisticated frame selection, where tapered spars are used for specific jobs in the frame. The fittings are all top quality, in APA and the overall standard of finish was very high.

FLIGHT TEST
The Samuraï will take off in very light wind and cuts a graceful figure in the sky. The dark colours make the kite appear big and give it lots of presence. The kite's forward drive was positive and it tracked straight and smoothly across the window, remaining silent at all times. Angular turns were crisp although the kite is fairly sensitive to control and it is consequently easy to "overcook". Snap stalls were a doddle with the kite stopping dead and staying

motionless with very little control effort. Landings were equally easy right across the window, and the kite would happily balance on a wing-tip for any amount of time. Round turns were nicely carved and evenly paced whereas tight spins were fast, with the pivot point around the lower spreader joint. The Samuraï had a tendency to lose height in a spin, but would recover without too much oversteer.

The design of the Samurai makes the pilot immediately think of freestyle with its curvy shape and taut trailing edge and... guess what, it's pretty good at pretty much everything! Standard axels are very easy and the kite can either be hustled around or you can make them longer and floatier by moving forward. Fast axels and half-axels make the kite dip its nose as it turns, but it would still recover without any help. Double axels were again made slow and graceful by moving forward through the trick. 540 flat spins were again simple for this big, deep-sailed kite as it would belly out very flat and seemingly stay out there for ages. Despite being very good at all in the belly down family of tricks, the Samurai was again very able in turtle or with more aggressive flic flac moves. The one thing that the kite was not so good at was a poison ivy which it would often refuse to do.

Despite some very rough treatment, the frame of the kite would still get tangled on the winglet despite the trick line, but it was not a common occurrence.

CONCLUSION
The Samurai is a large, imposing and graceful kite which has a fine quality finish and is constructed from top materials. It is more of a fun and freestyle combination than a precision kite and is certainly able to perform almost every trick in the book. This may not be the most radical of all the new Black-Birds, but it will certainly be a favourite for many.