Finally got to try the Buster I bought for my g/f for christmas, it's a nice kite for her but.....

On takeoff it lifts about 1- 1.5 meters and then just sits there, if you are lucky enough to get a quick turn in it will fly away if no turn it will just float back to mother earth.

Yes the brake lines are completly slack during takeoff, kite is in the center of the window and a decent wind, are we doing something wrong. My flexifoil bullet dosent do this weird takeoff manuver

How much wind do you figure you're flying in. Usually a step back and a good yank do the trick, if it looks like the kite's not going to climb out then turn it to a side to get it full.

well I dont know about the 2m, but my 5.5 buster has AOA (adjustable Angle Of Attack) bridles so yours might too. If it does, check to make sure it's not on the "highest" setting. Pablo is the PKD guy here so he can tell you whether it does.

And on the subject of PKD's, I've noticed my 5.5 buster tends to overfly the zenith sometimes. My largest foil before this was a 3.6 so I dont know if it's me or do bigger foils do this? Any suggestions Pablo? Was thinking it might have to do with the AOA.

I will recheck the AOA connection but am pretty sure it's where it should be.

Wind speed, hmmm lets guess between 6 and 10 mph, enough so the kite tugs Penny around a bit.

Turning the kite is what we find works but..... because the kite appears to stall so early in fligh,t you can't alllways beg a turn out of it. I thought the kite was supposed to be directly downwind of you for launches? Maybe this one should be off to one side and try to start in in a turn.

I don't want Penny getting frustrated early in the game.

Bake, 6mph is very close to the bottom end of the wind range, at that wind speed they just don't make enough power to go straight up until they're filled and flying efficiently. Best bet, 2-3 steps back and a good snap to get it off the ground, then turn right away and fly towards the side. Once it fills somewhat it'll have no problem climbing. Try the same kite in 10-15mph yourself and see if it behaves better, this will tell you if it's a setup problem or just low wind.

Kiteboarder, couple questions, is the wind pretty gusty, when flying overhead is there any slack in the brake lines? Gusty winds will cause the kite to overfly. The gust hits, the kite speeds up, the wind dies and the kite's too far into the wind to keep flying so it luffs. If this is the case, you can tap the brakes when you feel a gust hitting the kite to keep it a little back in the window. One other problem is that it seems the 5.5m and larger Buster I's suffered from tight brake lines. Easiest fix is to add about a 2-3 inch pigtail to the brake lines at the handles.

Ok, lets talk AOA for a second then because the kite leaps off the ground full for the first meter before it dies.

Right now the bridal is connected at the lowest position, which in m mind would make the kite as nose up as possible? Now from my hanggliding days a higher AOA meant a slower flight as you lower your AOA the speed increases but we were not teathered, I am wondering if I should lower the nose by moving the bridle up to the middle position? Or am I way off base here.

Kent explained it to me yesterday, and although I understood it pretty clearly, probably best to let him or Pablo take this one.

Higher AOA will indeed make the kite fly slower, it'll also produce more lift, down side, you need more wind to push the kite with the nose up that high. If you lower the AOA, the kite will fly faster in lower winds. The low AOA will allow the kite to fly out of the launch easier in low winds, funny thing is with the low AOA, the kite will fly faster, experience more apparent wind and pull harder around the whole window as long as you keep the kite moving and don't park it. With a high AOA, the kite will indeed make more power at the centre of the window, it'll lift more in high winds, but in low winds the kite will have a bad tendancy to stall and fall backwards. If you do get it off the ground in low winds, you'll find a high AOA will also give you a way smaller window.

We just spent the better part of yesterday evening messing around with settings to see first hand how much it changed the kite. We found that in low wind, you will indeed get a way better flight and more pull by lowering the AOA and keeping the nose down, keep the kite moving. High AOA in low winds will give you a decent power stroke, but the kite will be finicky, you have to really fight to keep it moving with the added drag and made mostly downwind pull, very hard to stay upwind.

Hope that helps a little.

Another point n setting up the PKD's adjustable bridle system is to make sure that two of the knots are used when attaching the flying line, this stops any chance of the larks head knot moving in either direction.

@Pablo, you have a quiver of all PKD kites. In your opinion, which is the sweetest of the Brooza's sizes. (most kites have a sweet size, where going smaller or larger and the kite is not as nice)

Is there a marked improvement from the Cent 4.5 to the Com 4.8?

For the Brooza's, hands down the 5.5m kite, I only pull out something smaller when the winds getting over 20mph. Stable, fast, rock solid. the 4 and smaller have less grunt, the 7.5m is more bus like and loses the ability to throw it around the sky. 7.5m is the lift/float kite to have though if you're looking to go big.

As for the Combat vs Century:

The Combat kills the Century all the way around, flies in less wind, way faster, way stronger, hangs out at the edge of the window no problem, turns faster, feels more solid. The Combat seems to be pretty good at upwind/cross and downwind. it's speeds are fast and faster. The Century is more user freindly though. You can throw it around with your eyes closed and still get solid performance out of it. The Combat is a pilots kite, if you can fly an advanced kite you'll love it, if you can't then you'll hate it.

Down at NABX, I was cruising quite a bit with the 4.8m Combat while Jesse was on my 4.5m Century. I'm 250lbs and he's around 180lbs, He's a new buggier though. I found the Combat to be a way better kite, he loved the Century, he had troubles keeping ahead of the Combat while the Century would make it through his occasional mistake.

Put it this way though, I was at a dead stop, kite overhead talking to someone when a fellow blew past me with a 5m RM, kite low and locked in. Dropped the hammer and within 30 sec or so, I was passing him no problem with the 4.8m Combat. I think with the right pilot it could hang with the Yakuzas no problem, I'm just not that pilot(yet)