Flying Bears

My wife requested a kite with a "flying bear" design and I selected the Roller for this project. It nicely complements my kite collection in the lower wind range and the upper sail has plenty of space for appliquing.

flying bears: grounded (17K)

...and in the air (11K)

This kite was designed as an ultimate low wind kite. It is 2x2m, Icarex sail (40g sqm), carbon spars (6mm). Initially I actually had 4mm spreaders, but these turned out to be just too fragile; also, the bit of additional weight of the 6mm spreaders is offset by increased lift: they flex less, resulting in a larger effective sail area.

Its low-wind capabilities are, indeed, very good. I was a bit surprised, though, to find that my Genki is just as good; it might even have a - barely perceptible - edge over the Roller, despite having more and heavier sparring. I suppose this is due to the Genki's high aspect ratio, resulting in a more efficient lifting surface.
Surprisingly, the Roller can also be flown in moderate and even strong winds - in fact, it has the best wind range of any single-line kite I know.

The most impressive feature of a Roller is the incredible stability. It is always rock-solid in the sky and never overflies. It really is an ideal kite for flying in inner-city parks with limited space and turbulent ground wind.

A very minor quibble I still have is that the top sail's trailing edge has a bit of tendency to flutter. I might yet add a few tensioning lines connecting the upper trailing edge to the lower leading edge spreaders in the manner of a Mezger Roloplan kite.

In building this kite I mostly followed TMR's plan, which I scaled up a bit.