Skyraker!

In a recent post, I tried to shake the tree to see if a Skyraker fell out. Well, I didn't have long to wait! A fellow kite flyer contacted me, saying he had a Skyraker that he wouldn't mind letting go. We quickly agreed on a price, and a few days later, my Skyraker was in an airplane crossing the Atlantic.

So here it is!

As far as I'm aware, this was the first dual-line delta produced by the American arm of Peter Powell Kites. To me, it really does look like a (small) diamond Stunter, to which a pair of wings is added.

Next question is, of course, how does it fly? First flight was in 7-14mph wind, and that shows that the Skyraker really needs a bit of wind pressure on the sail; it was happiest when the wind speed went into double figures.

Reasonably responsive, but not overly quick to react to input. Also a rather large turning circle for its size. I tried to axel it, but only succeeded once (and then only if you really squinted and sort of looked the other way ...). Essentially, it flies as you would expect a small-ish dual-line delta from the 1980s to fly.

I say small-ish: its wing span is 1.70m. Now that's interesting, because the ads from when it was marketed talk about a 76" = 1.93m wing span .... did the Skyraker come in different sizes? If anyone knows more about this, please get in touch!

And I mentioned in my earlier post that the Skyraker came with several different sails: 3-panel, 11-panel, and with 'Illusion' graphics. The one I got my hands on is the 3-panel version, and my bag is always open to an 11-panel and 'Illusion' Skyraker joining the collection ...