The traditional Flexifoil power kite is the 6 foot “Stacker” and its bigger brothers the 8 foot “Proteam” and the 10 foot “Super 10”. They use two flying lines with wrist straps. The only real disadvantages with this type of kite are launching and landing (see below). They are fast and accelerate quickly which is why they are often used for jumping and scudding (being dragged down the beach !!) They can be used for buggying, however they do not pull very well at the edge of the wind and therefore the flier has to ensure that they are kept moving in a series of sweeping up and down arcs (like a sine wave in the air). This can be quite tiring at times and if they do crash you are back to square one with another launching operation. When two or more “flexys” are stacked together they look very impressive and the pull increases.
I make use of Peter Lynn safety handles – basically each flying line is connected to a loop of 4mm rope which is held in the handle as long as you grasp the grip. If you let go of either grip the flying line shoots out and the kites eventually fall to the ground. My handles are linked with a webbing strap around my back. Overall they are very comfortable and I feel they are much better than straps which tend to tighten and crush the wrists.
4 line kites on the other hand use two main or top lines which take the kite’s pull and two lower or brake lines. Most 4 line kites can be steered by pulling on the top lines as you would with a 2 line kite, however the response from the kite depends on the make of kite !! The earlier rectangular shaped kites respond very slowly to this technique and appear to slide left or right rather than execute a nice turn (eg: Spider Modulus). The newer designs such as the Blade and Mosquito Pro respond very well to “2 line flying”. Generally however a 4 line kite can be turned faster and more precisely using the brake lines. The other major advantages of a 4 line kite are the ability to be accurately positioned in the sky, stopped quickly, launched and landed easily. Essentially a 4 line kite offers more control but it has to be learnt.