A couple of weeks ago I had a chance to teach a group of people how to get into the powerkiting world. I also thought it would be a good time to do a review of the scout II 4m kite.

I went camping with a good friend of mine in Missouri and he talked me into bring all of my kite gear with me. I didn't think there would be very much wind considering it was one of the last weekends of July and you all know how bad wind conditions are this time of the year.

Fortunatly a weather front was moving in and we had a solid day of wind. It started at 17mph and built all day to 30mph.

I took the scout II 4m out of the bag for the first time to teach some friends with.

Bag--
First thing you notice is solid construction with good zippers.

Kite--
Red and white fabric. It is very solid ripstop sail, and it has a very simple bridle system with numbered bridles to match the three line bar set up. Every piece was easy to set up and sturdy so newbees can bash it into the ground without damaging it.

Flying behavior--
wow, where to start. Launching the kite is very easy since it is an open cell wing. A quick tug and it is up and flying. It has good pull for being so small of a kite. Itt is very stable considering it is an open foil. it is fast through the window and will go close to the edge of the wind window. It has an extremely fast turning ratio. No problems at all.

I set up my friend on it and within five minutes he was flying the kite for the first time like he'd be doing it for years. He crashed it leading edge down and he just pulled the center line in a bit and it relaunched with no difficulty at all. He is 240 pounds and the kite had enough power to learn how to scud around the field without any issues.

One thing that I noticed was the he could get the kite to fly to the edge of the window so close to the ground and the kite never had any tip tuck. After a few minutes he had learned figuer 8's and loops with the kite. With the wind in the lower 20s we had no problems getting rolling on the ground. I was very impressed.

if you are looking for a kite that is small and packs a punch this kite is it. Very stable and predictable behavior. It is on a three line bar with a harness strap so you can hook in. It is not a depower kite however.

I was happy to see how easily the kite launches, and relaunches without any issues.

I don't know if this kite is designed to be a trainer kite or not, but I know beginners will not have any trouble learning how to fly this wing.

Overall it was a nice piece of kit