Photo credit: kitegarage.de (CTC Std not XS)
The latest addition to the Cosmic TC range… It’s a small one, somewhere around 91% the size of the full size version! 2.25M wingspan.
The CTC has been really quite successful as a competition kite. Pretty good precision coupled with a comprehensive trick repertoire and a degree of presence in the sky make it stand out as a top choice for competitive fliers.
So, a smaller version – Where’s the sense in that? What’s it for?
First off, this is a pretty expensive small kite, 319 Euro for an Icone version, 349 Euro for one with Aerostuff spreaders. Of course, the craftsmanship is superb, what with it being made by Kitehouse and all, and the materials used are top end stuff. Structil Highmod and Avia sticks supporting the light weight high fangled sail material that now comes in red and blue as well as white (the stuff that the Ghost version as made from) apparently, so you can have a white one with red stripes, or a white one with blue stripes – no customs (Hmmph 
). Design features include covered leading edges, tensioning for the trailing edge decent yo-yo stops and a bit of weighting round and about. The nose construction, stitching and general build quality is great, so I suppose the hefty price tag is just about justifiable so long as it’s as sublime to play with as the full size version.
Let’s see…
The stated wind range is mightily impressive at 1-5 BFT (about 2 – 20 mph). I’d say though that the XS doesn’t really start flying on it’s own until about 4 mph, and much over 12 – 14 mph and it’s so stupid fast through the air that you’d be needing ‘go faster’ striped gloves to keep up with it. 6 – 10 mph though, and there’s enough feel on the lines to let you know what’s going on, and easily held stalls to let you trick and freestyle away to your hearts content.
Everything happens just that bit quicker, and with lesser inputs than the bigger TC. It’s really smooth with delicate commands, but manic when you really tell it what to do. This thing can be thrashed around at lightning pace, and yet tricks and freestyle combos are really accurate and defined once the timing is under control. The balance is fantastic with very little over-steer, solid tracking and pretty much all of the current whirly, whizzy, wrappy stuff perfectly accessible along with really controlled ‘Old Skool’ capability.
It is, quite simply brilliant.
To answer the question – ‘What’s it for?’ – ‘tis just a trick kite. For flicking about in a style and fashion to match your mood. I couldn’t honestly say it’s a good competition kite, other than maybe Virtual Freestyle or Head to Head Trick-Out type stuff, there’s not enough presence to make it a good ‘show’ kite and it’s a bit too tricky / twitchy for a good ballet. Just for fun then – Ah yes, and what fun! It’s not so much ‘smooth and flowing’ like some freestylers with a curve to the leading edge, more ‘Spiky Death Machine’ but it all hangs together really nicely. Sweet.
A note of caution – If the dead spot in the flare caused issues on the full size CTC, the same issues are here – well worth working around, but there none-the-less. I’ve also got a slight issue with the sail material. It is gorgeous stuff to be sure, and on the SUL ‘Ghost’ works beautifully. This however, is a ‘more or less’ standard weight kite, and it’s a bit, ermmm… delicate. Mine had sail damage after flying over some ‘slightly spiky’ grass and had to be patched up a bit. Nothing serious at all, but maybe not quite as robust as PC31.
OK, all’s well and good and this’ll be a go-to trick fest for a while yet. It’s not going to suit everyone, but if you liked the CTC range, and can keep up with the pace – the CTC XS is absolutely awesome.
Bryan
