I have as most of you will know i have lusted after the Hellfire for some time now. I love the Furio the smaller brother to the Hellfire but it can at times be well... furious. I wanted a kite that had a familiar feel at the end of the lines and similar inputs but just wanted to slow thing down a touch and gain a but of stability but without having to go to the Nirvana end of the spectrum where you need to fight tricks out of the kite. After e mailing Jean Paul Conne the designer of the STX series at Cavaliers du Ciel and asking for his advice he (and half of GWTW) agreed that the Hellfire was ideal. All i can say is, in the words of Dell trotter, "Oi Jean Paul, mange tout my son, mang tout"
The Hellfire is a freestyle kite with a 2.1 metre wingspan, the sail is a 14 pannel icarex PC31 and constructed with the glue and zigzag stitch method. Upon inspection all the seams are immaculate, straight and with no dropped stitches.
The Hellfire is framed in Avia sport .230 with G-force SUL wrapped tapered lower spreaderd and APA fittings throughout, bridle is an active with an extra line to prevent spine wraps.
The Flight.... Wind 8 to 13 mph westerly.
I flew the Hellfire on 100ft ( yes i know that DID say 100ft
) laser pro gold lines with 10 grams of weight on the tail.
The kite felt fantastic from the start, my first thought was it aint that much bigger than the furio... then i remembered the Debray sized line set....
first the boring stuff, carved a few arcs, cut a few 90 degree corners, the Hellfire seemed to have a little more promenant oversteer than the Furio, not much but it was there, this could be down to my sloppy precision rather than the kite.. but the Hellfire bridle is very tweakable and i am sure with a minor adjustment the precision would be perfect (if you really wanted it to be.), the kite tracked well tracing ruler straight lines right across the window.
What about tricks ???
Well the Hellfire axeled really nicelly, and after a few attempts to adjust the input i was popping then nearly as flat as they are on a Gemini half axels were moderately fast but crisp and neat.
Slot and taz machines were just as much of a cinch as with the Furio althouth the kite did require a little more slack than the Furio to complete the rotation, 540's need work (on my part) but were there for the taking to someone with more talent.
The Hellfire holds a beautifully stable fade which can easily be made to rise and fall at will with subtle inputs,flick flacks can be excecuted slow and floaty or fast and manic, backspins were sewn in at the factory and again could be slow or fast depending on the style and mood of the pilot.
Pitch based tricks were there (come on this is a french kite) but i found them to work better for me with 15 grams on the tail, with the extra 5 grams the Hellfire would lazy, multilazy/combo on demand with no effort at all. Jacobs ladders were smooth and steady and VERY stable.
I managed my first cometes with the Hellfire also, after getting advice in the chat box (cheers Juha) i gave it a twirl, and there it was, rough and ugly but they were cometes, the best i managed was 2 1/2 rotations and my hit rate was pants but it is a foundation...
The Hellfire appears to roll up extremely well but as it does not come with yoyo stops fitted as standard i found it hard to make a fair judgment.
The Hellfire for me is a joy to fly i walked away from the field grinning like a looney, the Furio would have been getting to the point where it was too fast to enjoy flying it but not the Hellfire, it fufilled my critera of feeling and performing similarly to the Furio whilst slowing things down and offering more stability. Yet it feels sufficiently different to still feel "new" and exciting.
So, who would i reccomend the Hellfire to ? Well if you are after that french style of flying but dont care much for the fly from the shoulder Nirvana flavor, the Hellfire could be the very kite, it flys from the wrist like a gemini with small snappy inputs but delivers wonderful pitchbased freestyle fused with excellent precision.
I think this could be the start of a beautiful freindship...
PM me if you may be interested....