New Tech Grasshopper comments?

Hello all,

I recently moved from what I though was the kite desert into the real kite desert. There's no kite stores around Bangor, Maine. The closest one is nearly three hours away. I was walking around downtown Bangor and wandered into a store that accidentally sells kites. They're mostly the cheap kites that give dual line kites a bad name, but they do have one kite that's $30 with dacron lines and looks like a pretty good beginner kite. The kite is a New Tech Grasshopper. It's about 4.5 feet in wingspan, framed with graphite rods, and made of ripstop nylon. Looks pretty nice, and I thought it would make a good kite to have in the bag when beginners want to try flying, but I don't have any clue how well it flies. Anyone tried one out? How's it compare to other inexpensive similarly constructed kites (Beetle et al)?

-Kent : Maine Kite Outcast

Hi Kent Williams ,

you told us on 24 Aug 00:

Ain't that the place where author Stephen King lives or at least, where some of his stories use to take place? Poor comrade, all of us kitefliers shall have you in mind when doing their evening's prayer Sorry, no info on the Grasshopper, I just hope the local kite supplier isn't known by the name of 'Needful Things'...

Best of luck anyway,

Hola.

I bought a pair of New Tech Grasshoppers to make a mini stack. I had intended to buy 4 or 5 more, but out local kite shop (I use that term very loosely) never got anymore in stock. I've only flow them stacked. They worked fairly well. I was flying the pair on spectra lines (75 ft) in about 5 mph winds. I don't know how they will behave in single kite on dacron. I'd mail order in a beetle with the optional spectra (Dynema??) lines. The line will make a big difference and the Beetle is such a cool entry level kite. All that my other under $50.00 kites ever did for me is inspire me to drop more money on better kites. The beetle still gets an occasional rip in the sky, even with much more expensive kites in the bag. One of the New Techs is scrap (I needed a replacement standoff for my Illusion, Grasshopper frames work well). The other one is almost forgotten at the in the bag.

Jonathan Dellmar

Member: AKA Route 66 Kite Club

On Thu, 24 Aug 2000 18:27:26 -0400, Kent Williams