KiteJan

Like me most visitors to any UK kite festival must have come across these beautiful Quad kites - a curved leading edge, two vertical spars, no bridle and (most strikingly) two very long tubular tails. These were the creation of David Davis, a UK kite flier and designer. A few years ago I even exchanged a few emails enquiring how much one would be (this was after seeing a variant of the Skydancer fly in very little wind at the Sheffield Kite Festival) but for one reason or another I never followed it up. That is until January 2009 when one appeared for sale on the Fractured Axel forum - it didn't take much thinking about and so I am now a proud owner of a Skydancer!

First off it's a very simple design - a four section leading edge with two vertical spars and the flying lines connecting directly to the top and bottom of the verticals. Everything is simplicity itself. It's a very well constructed kite - all the seams are very well stitched, with reinforcement where you would expect it. The Skydancers come with a straight pair of handles - important for keeping tension in all the lines, although I have found my straightened 'extended' Revolution handles work pretty well (I'm very lazy regarding changing line and handles - I try and use the same lines & handles across all the quad line kites if I can......).

In flight the shape changes: the faster the Skydancer flies, the more 'bowed' it gets, whereas stationary it flattens out decreasing it's stability (and therefore making it easier to turn) - or so the theory goes! It certainly is impressive (and a little worrying) to see the kite almost bent in double when it's going at full speed.

Purchased: January 2009

Details

Width	Height	Depth	Weight	Spars	Sail	Windrange
255 cm	94 cm	n/a	300g	Carbon & Glass fibre	Ripstop Nylon	4-18 mph
Cost
Second hand: £75

Good Things

• The rainbow seven panel design is extremely beautiful in the sky (especially grey Sheffield winter days).
• Good wind range, especially at the lower end (without the tails of course).
• Good precision and stable in flight.
• The tails add a beautiful extra dimension - and a crowd pleaser!
• Robust construction.

Bad Things

• Assembling the leading edge can be a little difficult.
• As the Skydancer has obvious similarities to the Peter Lynn C-Quad it shares some issues. Most notably flying too close the edge of the wind window does sometimes cause the Skydancer to flutter down to the ground (but unlike the C-Quad this is almost always recoverable).
• You can forget axels and flic-flacs - they might possible (although I doubt it) but the kite hasn't been designed for these.
• Sideways flight difficult.
• With the tails you need a lot of space - the tails add about 14 m (so keep away from those trees.....).

Final Thoughts

Although at the time of writing (1st February 2009) I have only flown the Skydancer a handful of times I have learnt that it is a lovely kite to fly. The technique appears to be a mixture of Revolution (obviously!) and C-Quad - you really do need tension on all four lines for the Skydancer to be happy.

Although I doubt the Skydancer can compete with the Revolution in accurate precision, it is a precise kite. And one which is very much one of a kind. With the tails attached you get lovely slow flowing movements across the sky, take the tails off you get a playful fun kite that can match most of the antics of a Revolution. 

Sadly the creator of these wonderful kites, David Davies, died at the end of 2008.