The Sweety
The Sweety was my first development in the kiting scene. The base design and shape for that kite was already done by Mr. Wolfgang Siebert, the owner of the kite shop www.Drachenkiste.de . The former goal for the kite was to build a light wind kite in a good quality and for a real good price. So the first prototype I got and used for my developments already flow outdoor at the kiting fields at light wind, but it wasn’t capable to fly indoor in any way.
With the help of several members of the indoor kite group in Velbert (Germany) the Sweety got more and more indoor flying performance. After we had a first milestone done, I continued working on the Sweety prototypes on my own. Of course the kite was already capable to fly indoor, but my personal goal was to balance out the kite far more. At that time the Sweety was a nice kite to fly indoor, but the outdoor performance dropped dramatically, because of some constructions issues with the sail and stand-off layout.
At that point the kite was already changed in nearly every aspect from the former prototype made by Mr. Siebert. The spars, sail-layout, bridle and stand-off’s has been changed completely. Luckily I started my own indoor group in Dortmund, which helped me to have more indoor training hours per week, allowed me to fine tune the kite even more.
The Sweety got the capability to fly very very easy indoor and if the wind drops outdoor to near zero conditions, the Sweety still performs very well.
The aspect that the Sweety fly even outdoor very well was very important, because many indoor kites were flown outdoor. Many kite fliers don’t find the time and places to fly indoor and so the most time for these indoor kites is still the outdoor kite field. Many customers confirmed that later.
Another important thing was the trick capability. Most new tricks which came up in 2002 were based on the back flip trick and this was a must for the Sweety. While modifying the prototype, I always double-checked the gliding capabilities, so that helicopters and other gliding tricks will be still working well.
In the last quarter of 2002 the Sweety design was accepted by Mr. Siebert and the official production starts. Some minor changes have been done in the meantime, but the Sweety has already satisfied so many fliers all over the world and it’s nice to see that so many people like that kite.
Sometimes I’m hearing questions if there are new inventions or other variants of the Sweety ongoing or even available.
Of course I’m always flying my Sweeties and when I have new ideas or customers have additional wishes, the kite will get minor changes. Anybody who knows me, know that I’m always playing around with new ideas and so, stay tuned for new inventions on this.
On my pages you will also find some Sweety mods made by me, which are not build in the standard Sweety, because they we not useful for the most pilots. But eventually you will find a nice thing you like to have on your own Sweety.
If you are an owner of the Sweety and you have some questions on the details, just contact me. I’m always happy to hear what the kite fliers are thinking about it.