After reading about so many of your good experiences with the Pansh kites, I bought a Legend 3.0 today at $99 USD to get my feet wet with quad line power kiting.

I'm wondering however, after reading the PKF and RK reviews, if a few of you more experienced kiters with the Panshes could comment here on any changes that may be required to get the kites in flying condition. :puzzled:

A step by step walkthrough with a few pictures might prove invaluable. (It sounds like the Pansh kites do not come with setup instructions or videos...)

Possible topics I imagine could include checking / changing bridle knots, attaching lines, setting initial brake line lengths, choosing the correct brake line attaching point, and what to watch out for and how to correct it during first flight.

Thanks in advance for your willingness to help!

Oh, and if any of you live in the Houston, TX area and would be willing to help me get this kite in the air, I would welcome the help!

I am in the area, just look me up when it come in..............aj

Hey Sandeater,
Just received a Legend 3.0 in the mail Thursday
have not flown it yet----maybe Sunday
I am in the Tomball area
under a year doing the power kite thing
but get along alright in the gulf coast sand
with a homemade buggy
been trying to hook up with Aj and the S. Texas buggy
gang---but has not happened yet ---but keep in touch

Thanks AJ and Treb...I should get the kite this week if all goes well with the shipping. Maybe we could try to hook up in Galveston or Surfside this coming weekend. I'd love to see your buggy too, Treble.

So I got the Legend 3.0 in early this week. I didn't see any tears or loose threads to speak of. I found the manufacturer had larksheaded down the bridles (to prevent tangling perhaps), so I will need to release them before flying.

Last night I staked the lines and found the two lead lines are the same length, and the two brake lines are the same length; however, the brake lines are a couple of inches longer than the lead lines. This raises a question.

Does it matter that the brake lines are longer than the lead lines? How much brake tension/slack should I start with on the maiden voyage?

I find that at Surfside... past the old pier, I can find enough room to ride sometimes. But San Luis pass is just a little bit farther and has a whole lot more room. In the winter, East Beach is usually wide open and closer.

I'm south of Conroe, near the Woodlands Mall. If it will ever STOP RAINING I'm going to head to the coast to try out some new-used toys, a homemade kite that will be seeing it's first flight, and the wife's new flexifoil kite

I'm easy to spot... almost always put up a red flowform with a red tail as my "truck marker" so I know how far I've gone.

Depending on the kite and how long the brake bridles are, you'll need the brake lines a few inches longer than the top/power lines.

There's no real right or wrong length, but as a rule of thumb you want the brake lines slack enough so that when you fly the kite straight up it will go straight up to the top (zenith) and sit there almost directly over your head. If it only goes up like to a 50 degree angle and never gets up to the top then the brake lines are to short. Adjust them and try again.

To make sure the brake lines are not too slack you want to be able to pull in the brake lines (pushing top of handle forward, bottom of handle pulling back) so that they give some input to the kite. You should be able to apply both brakes and get the kite to fly backwards back towards the ground and then sit there. You should also be able to stake the handles in the loops on the back of the brake lines and have the kite sit on the deck without taking off, even in a strong wind.

Another thing you'll find is that even with prestetched lines over time they will stretch, so make sure you check your setup once in a while and readjust if necessary.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for that, khooke. I'll play with the knots on the brake bridles (if that's the correct terminology) and see what I get.

I'm still hoping to get this bird in the air this weekend, but the weather is still questionable. :flaming:

The Pansh Legend 3.0 had its maiden voyage this weekend in 5-10 mph conditions. This was also my maiden voyage on a quadline power kite! I'm placing this post here rather than the review section as it does have to do with Pansh setup.

I used the lines and handles it came with. I made no modifications, other than releasing the bridles since they had been tied down for shipment from the company.

The Pansh kites do not come with kite killers, so I made one out of a velcro strap and an old cord (e.g. shoe lace).

After laying out the control lines and kite on the beach, I followed Taper123's example and used beach sand to weigh down the trailing edge while attaching the lines (Thanks for being there, Taper!). I attached the brake lines to the longest bridle position to have the most slack. I walked back to the controls, took up the slack on the lines to lift the leading edge up off the beach. The kite stayed put, slightly inflated. So, I braced myself (:o) and pulled on the lines.

The Legend launched smoothly straight up the power zone and parked at about 10 degrees from zenith. It had nice pull through the power window, but not enough to pull me off my feet with wind conditions as they were. Turns were fast and accurate...a real blast to control. The brakes weren't very responsive with so much slack, but I was able to back it down to the ground using both brakes as Khooke described.

I shortened the brake lines by about 10 cm using existing knots (i.e. tied by Pansh) and this seemed to add a lot of response to the brakes--albeit I'm still learning how to use them! :saint: The kite still launched straight to the zenith and parked with these shorter brakelines, so I don't think I made them too short.

I did a couple of loops with the kite and still found I had decent control of the kite despite the twisted lines. Some reviews have complained of lessened control after winding up the Pansh lines several times. Now, I didn't wind it up more than 2 times, but this beginner was happy to still control the kite and unwind it!

The stock controls could use more padding. With the pull that 3.0m was giving, my hands were red and sore within about 15 minutes of flying, and I was longing for more cushion on the grips.

All in all I'd say thumbs-up on the Pansh 3.0m Legend as my first quad line kite. The equipment it came with may not be the best, but it was certainly adequate for flying as-is. Thanks for the input I've received from people on this forum. It's nice to be flying.

Flew the Legend 3.0 again this weekend at San Luis Pass (Galveston, TX) and had a blast. While Houston was raining (again!!) the beach was perfect. Winds were about double what they were on my first time out...about 10-12 mph this time. The increased wind made quite a difference on pull and lift, but the kite still flew easily with good control.

I was able to get some 2 meter scuds in these conditions which was nice.

I had a little difficulty getting the kite to brake to the deck, down the power zone with these winds; the ends wanted to curl in and then the kite would start spinning, winding up the lines. B1ofdfew and I shortened the brake lines about a couple of centimeters at the controls which helped some...but it also made the controls that much more sensitive. Is braking to the deck in stronger winds simply more challenging, or does this sound like a setup problem?

Yes, braking to bring the kite down gets harder with bigger wind + with bigger kites. I often have to change my grip from one finger above the lines to both hands at the bottom of the handles. Bringing in down is a finesse thing that will get better with practice. Both with bringing it down and with reverse launching try to find the sweet spot not too much brake or it'll curl. Too little and it won't reverse completely.

There's also a fine line with some kites, hard braking will cause a jelly fish type of thing, same when reverse launching, the kite will reverse, then fold in and start to flop around, if this is what's happening, try a little less brake, the kite should keep it's shape better and reverse in a controlled manner, it'll have more power in the sail, but more control. After a few tries you should get a feel for how much brake you can put in before it collapses.

Thanks guys, I'll try paying more attention to finessing it down.

I also noticed while reverse launching that once off the deck a few feet, it would want to spin to leading side up. I handled this simply by smoothly transitioning tension from brake to lead lines during the spin, and up it would go.

Is this the right technique, or should you be able to reverse launch it all the way up on the brake lines?

Well, after seeing people on multiple forums complaining of not having instructions for setting up the Pansh lines, I drew up an illustration based on the Pansh Legend.

Hopefully this helps future Pansh users. Cheers all!

Gulfsandeater,

It sounds like you have the reverse launch pegged. It's most common for the KITE to decide what way it wants to flop. If it shows a tendancy to either side ( and it's safe ) I just go with it as you describe.

I wonder why Pansh hasn't gotten around to including a basic set-up manual at least ? Even just pictures and Chinglish. Maybe it has to do with the pretence they ship it under to avoid Customs ?

It's either a very smart or it's a big mistake !

Yeah, it also amazes me that they don't do a better job marketing their different designs on the web page. They really don't draw much distinction between Blaze, Legend, ACE, AirLink, etc. "It will bring you honor" doesn't tell me much when I'm wondering about the characteristics of the kite. All discussion about lift / pull / AR / etc is done by users on the forums.

Or maybe honor is all that matters here...<ponder>

Yet the price point is so low, we're willing to buy a kite with very little marketing, no instructions, low quality lines/handles/bag...and things don't turn out half bad in the end! If nothing else, Pansh is sure making it easy for new people to fall in love with the sport. :singing:

Incidentally, I saw a pair of Pansh handles on Ebay earlier this week. I asked the seller if they were Pansh handles and he didn't reply. Same cheesy rope and "padding". They were going for about $17 plus pricey shipping. I could order a new set of HQ handles from Angus for that. IIRC