What is the difference between a power kite and a sports kite?

Answer 1

Power kites are designed purely to give power this power could either be primarily lift in a kitesurfing kite or as traction in a kite buggying kite. Many power kites are either four or three lined, the bottom lines are for depowering the kite the top two for controlling its direction. Most traction kites are inflatable and have closed tubular sections which the wind enters from the front leading edge of the kite. The air pressure in the tubes maintains the kites shape and gives it the ridgidity it needs. Kite Surfing kites usually have a closed inflatable leading edge which is inflated with a foot pump or similar. The closed inflatable section means that the tube cannot fill with water if the kite comes down in the water. The width of the sail is determined by the wind conditions and skill of the owner. The depth of the sail is determined by the use, deeper kites are less manourerable but give more lift (kitesurfing) shallower kites are better for buggying as they can be manouvered more easily. The NASA wing is an early example of a power kite.

Sports kites are designed for manoverability. They are generally spared kites with panelled sails high quality sports kites use spiral wrapped carbon fibre spars. Commonly sports kites are delta (triangle) shapped and have two lines however, four line kites such as the Revolution also count as sports kites. These kites are used in competitions such as those organised by S.T.A.C.K. The kites are designed to perform sharp turns. Ideally competition kites should be slow flying, have little pull, be easy to stall but give the flyer plenty of feed back and make a great impression in the sky. In reality they tend to have around an 8ft wing span and long centre spine, this achieves the impression in the sky, sharp turns and slow flying speed but means the kites have rather too much pull to be ideal. Smaller versions of these kites are avalible which are more suited to solo flying for fun as they have less pull but they are generally too fast flying to perform well when flying as a team. More recently shorter spined kites have become popular for trick flying which invovles stalling kites and performing manouvers other than flat flying.

Power kiting tends to involve more equipment than sports kiting. A power kiter may want a harness or two some safety equipment (helmet,pads), suitable clothing (wet suits, waterproofs or dirthy clothes for beach buggying) a buggy and/or board. A sports kite flyer is generally happy with a kite, a tent peg and a comfy pair of shoes. Both require a range of kites for different wind speeds, lines and handles.

The controls are very similar for both styles of kite and a skilled sports kite flyer can easily control a power kite. However, power kites are less responsive and the feed back given by the kite tends to be lost with the amount of force being delivered down the lines so it is harder for a power kite flyer to pick up a sports kite and perform well. There is also the matter of safety for yourself and those around you. Poor turning techniques with a power kite can lead to serious injury to the flyer and rapidly moving line under heavy tension can cut like cheese wire and cause injury to bystanders and property. Sports kites are sparred and so crashing kites can cause injury and damage to property but serious injuries when flying sports kites are far more rare. Insurance companys for most flying clubs do not cover power kites for this reason so you must get extra insurance before flying.