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Magnet

Magnet

It´s May, 11th and I haven`t been on a field since last year`s autumn storms. Too many other stuff and very short time. Today myself and my girlfriend visited my parents near the beach and drove over. It was the first time without a kite in the car for about the last four years or so.

When we arrived, we walked across the beach. Watching the sea, some kite-boarders and suddenly it was there: That tiny white thing on the sky, about 400 metres away. Two seconds later I knew it was that Vented Magnet prototype from Patrick, a fellow german kite flier. My hands were itching while we walked over. After a little talk he put on the Standard and let me fly. 15 minutes of pure freestyle. It felt like yesterday! I am still stoked while writing this, what a great freestyle machina!

David Rüger, Designer of the Magnet

 

David about the Magnet

  • What type of kite is this ? Freestyle or competition oriented ? “The kite is definately freestyle-oriented. I wanted it small and tricky. With as much precision as possible though. “
  • How many design iterations / prototypes did you go through ? “I built about 6 or 7 prototypes. First the all dark grey ones, then I came up with a sail design. When I thought it was done, I totally overworked it once again to make it how it flies today. I changed the graphic, the sail shape, the bridle and the frame.”
  • What was the motivation for designing your own kite ? “It was something in between. First of all I wanted to explore ‘kite-science’. I was eager to find out how different shapes, bridles and frames influence the flight characteristics. But of course I wanted something special, too. Back when I started on christmas 2010, there were no SuperFly`s, Dynamites etc. Everyone wanted to fly bigger kites. I wanted to create something very aggressive without sacrificing too much precision.”
  • What kites (if any) did you draw inspiration from ? “In the beginning, I studied different designs to get an idea of usual measurements and frame-options. There were many discussions with other kite-developers. But soon I found out that there are no certain rules and many things can be achieved in different ways so I just drew a sail-shape and started from scratch.”
  • What wind range to you consider best for the Magnet ? “The kite flies well in very low wind conditions yet, it needs a really good feel for the line-tension. It’s got quite some momentum and you need to stop it every now and then. I consider 12-20 km/h as the best range. Personally I like higher winds, because you can really slap the kite into fast cometes, nice rolling-cascades and you can even taz it.”
  • Anything else you want to mention? For questions please visit the topics on the fora (links on the plan page) or contact me by e-mail (bavidrueger AT gmail DOT com*). Please don’t use the plans commercially. Donations for the development of the kite and plans can be sent by Paypal using the email-address mentioned above. Many thanks in advance!*Ps. The ‘b’ is not a typo!