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T2 (Airdynamics)

A playful team kite for modern flying

The T2 Is not just one kite, but a whole range of team/individual competition standard sport kites developed by Peter Taylor of Airdynamics over the winter.

CONSTRUCTION
Designed for the up-to-date precision and ballet flyers who are looking to add tricks to their routines. The kite on test was the Competition Light, for a low to medium (3 to 18mph) wind range. It has a 20 panel Carrington K42 sail which has a large centre panel and more detailing towards each leading edge. The sails of all the versions have the same layout with gauze replacing the coloured panels in the high wind vented models.

The standard of sewing was very good with rolled seams lying nicely flat and clean Dacron reinforcement at T-joint, top spreader/spine area and at the tail. The leading edges are virtually straight, the single stand-off set wide and there is a winglet which is kept taut with a long curved tip stretcher. The frame of the kite on test was Avia Sport 0-Force ultra light tapered wrapped graphite and it had a carbon Kevlar top spreader. The fittings were made from APA and the centre T is a simple internal ferrule held in place with a rubber 0-ring.

The bridle is a standard three point made from paraglider type Dyneema cored Dacron which felt strong and secure.

FLIGHT TEST
As the T2 is a team kite, I took out a set of 150lb, 130 feet of Spectra lines for the test and set up the kite. The big black outline of the sail gave it an impressive look even at this relatively long distance and the bat wing double scalloped trailing edge gave a stream-lined outline to the kite. Once flying, I was immediately struck by the slow and positive nature of its tracking, the sure footed feeling of rolls and carved turns and the nice punchy way it negotiated angles. The kite's window is large and it remains eerily silent as it criss-crossed the field. Speed control was good and the kite's slow pace made one feel in control at all times. The ~J2 will certainly perform all the figures in the compulsory book with grace and style and the feeling of security in flight gives the pilot confidence. As the wind got a little stronger, the kite started to pull a little more but remained well within the bounds of acceptability. The kite's speed did not seem to increase that much, the only thing noticeable was a slight buzz during fight angular tuns. My only gripe with the kite was getting it to stop cleanly. Snap stalls always seemed to turn into side slides and it was difficult to cleanly 'kill' the kite and get it to sit in a stalled p0sition. Landings had the same problem and I always seemed to end up using the wing-tip to get the kite to sit down, but I did get six or seven landings straight off from a nose dive, so its not a big problem...

Turning to the tricks, for a big, slow kite the T2 will still axel fairly easily and it does axel nice and flat. The kite will also belly out and flat spin but again, given the kite's area you have to give it plenty of welly! I would say that 540s are possible but I wouldn't have risked putting one into a competition routine. On the ground, the T2 will stand on a wing-tip all day if required and coin toss from one side of the window to the other. The 0-Force spars with tapering wing-tips gave me confidence to try a fair few ground maneuvers. As the test kite did not have a trick line, recovery from the occasional cock up was slightly risky and I did get a few wing wraps from rollovers. If I was flying this kite in competition an anti-foul line would be a must.

CONCLUSION
The T2 is the third, world class team kite to come out of the UK this year, following the Matrix and the Shuriken Omega. Perhaps we will see three UK teams at the top of the tree this year flying kites made in the UK?