kHiTe - Lynx Pilot

Lynx Pilot Feature
Review
Video
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Introduction

The Lynx Pilot is 6ft freestyle kite from the French company L'Atelier. It is designed to be an accessible entrance to the full range of tricks being flown in Europe today, with Yo-Yo stoppers and a bridle designed by Mathieu Mayet.

Construction

The Lynx Pilot is framed in a mixture of Hi-Mod 6mm and 5mm carbon. The fittings are APA. The curved sail layout is stuck and zig zag stitched, being polyester with two Mylar panels and heavy Mylar reinforcement at the the two deep standoff points.

The trailing edge is tight despite the lack of leach line, and the top spreader area is well reinforced on the spine. The curved leading edges are tensioned with neat internally tied bungee cords.

Surprisingly the APA fittings are not stopped, or protected in any way, and the Yo-Yo stoppers are quite loose. Also surprising is the triangular cut of the thick nose dacron, rather than the square cut often used today to prevent snags.

The tail has L'Atelier's excellent weighting system (15g) which is easily removable. The Mathieu Mayet designed three point bridle is made of fine line and is not easily adjustable compared to some modern kites. The instructions with the review kite were in French. For those few who don't read basic French the diagrams are very clear.

Style

The Lynx looks great with its curved sail layout and has a good range of colour schemes. The Leading edges are curved, and come off the ground when the kite is on its belly. This looks and feels a very different sort of kite to some other French kites, and it is a look and feel I certainly like.

Lynx Pilot Color Schemes

Flight

Tipping the scales at 207g with weight the Lynx Pilot requires very little wind to fly. The trailing edge, normally silent vibrates in stronger wings to keep the kite controllable. In general the Pilot doesn't feel like a precise kite, although it is quite capable. I found over steer not to be a problem. Removing the weight makes the kite a lot less 'pitchy' but also slightly crisper in light winds.

Axel's, half axel's and axel cascades/fountains are very flat and smooth with the Lynx. The comete is easy too. The kite spins flat on its belly far better than some modern kites and helicopters and 540 flat spins are a joy to watch. The kite flic-flac's very well, and very controllably, it is fantastically easy to reverse flic-flac (French style). The Lynx Pilot requires minimal hand movements compared to larger kites, in light winds wrist movements are enough. If you like to fly with your hands in front then this kite is ideal.

The Lynx Pilot fades and holds a fade nicely. Backspins are not hard to get hold of, although not as easy as some kites. However there is a lot of control, a simple rolling motion with the pulling hand, and not too much slack on the other produces great semi rolling backspins with lots of control.

Pop the kite on its back and the lazy susan style tricks are there. The Lynx Pilot will roll up very easily, and most of the time the yo-yo stoppers will catch the lines. Unless of course they have moved, which seems to happen quite a lot. The Lynx Pilot will single and multiple wrap and recover with style. I did find that in lighter winds the kite didn't always have enough drive to fly wrapped up, but in stronger winds the kite would fly about and unwrap from flares, lazy susan's and 540's.

Groundwork is good, the Lynx is easy to coin toss, pop up, unwrap from the ground and dead launch. Generally tip wraps and caught lines are recoverable from the ground without problem, but here I come to the main complaint with this kite. I found the lines would frequently catch on the exposed fittings, nose and the yo-yo stoppers which moved quite a lot. This tended to result in a tip-wrap and a ground recovery. Even without the line catching I found tip-wraps a common problem with this kite. Despite being generally recoverable the Lynx Pilot is not that forgiving of subtle mistakes on the fliers, or the winds behalf.

If you want to see the Lynx Pilot pushed to the limit by a top flyer, check out L'Atelier's showcase video. You know I am not a fan of these things but this one is okay.

Conclusion

The Lynx is a great intermediate freestyle kite. It flys well in wide wind range, 1-6 Bft, and is capable of more than most recreational fliers will ask of it. However, a bit more care could have been taken with the fittings. Even a recreational flier will find themselves sticking bits of Carbon Fibre, Tape and such to the kite to prevent the lines getting snagged. Because of this the Lynx Pilot just misses out on a kHiTe Star.

Overall the L'Atelier Lynx Pilot is a fantastic kite that is ideal for intermediate and expert fliers alike.