Peter Lynn Phantom 15M

Intro
This is a little unusual, writing my first review about a kite which has since been superseeded by the Venom, but as I bought mine second hand (From Mr Dom "skypark" Moore), then I guess a good many of you may be considering the same so here are a collection of my experiences and conclusions gained from the 4 months or so that I have now had the kite.

First Impressions/Kite Quality

Well the first thing is the mighty Rucksack that the 15m comes in.. a decent quality bag with sholder padding and handy front pockets. as well as a couple of lateral straps for securing bars or other accessories.

The Bag has a zip at the bottom, so that the whole bottom can extend by about 40-50 CMs so that you can roll the kite and pack if you are in a hurry and don't want to fold it up. A handy feature if you ever decide to use the pack for travelling as i did on a recent trip to australia.. (in fact my pack is slowly making it's way back from Australia via Postal service with all my Excess baggage! 😉 )
The Kite itself it very robust and really what you would expect from a manufacturer Like PL. The Anchor points are all double stitched and fixed to internal nylon straps which run the entire length of the kite with adjustments in the middle. The lack of bridle is a welcome site on a kite this size and reduces the possibility of knitting headaches when setting up.

The bar and lines (which I bought separately) are of the same high quality, but it is definately worth taking a while to learn about the twinskins first... this is not as easy as it sounds, as you first instinct is to go and play with this monster, but you really MUST take the time to watch the excellent tutorial DVD (why don't all kites have this?) and to familiarise yourself with the safety release systems if you want to have fun without becoming a victim on a piece of string!

Flying

Setup and Launching can be a little tricky on your own if you are new to these kites... the sheer size means that it will flap about and frustrate you while you are trying to attach the lines... a stake or two is a must here!

Pre-inflation is via a centrally mounted zip which you open and lay the kite out downwind so that the wind fills the downwind half of the kite... I then zipped this up and squashed all the air to the upwind half (if anyone knows a better technique then please let me know) and then reopening the zip to inflate the rest of the kite. This slightly painful proceedure has been addressed by PL in the Venom series which has inflation zips at each end (Yay!)

a good launch is acheived by pulling on the centre lines... it is good to get the kite as high as possible quickly as I found the more turbulent winds at lower levels have a tendancy to twist and bowtie the kite (VERY FRUSTRATING!). the kite then needs to be flown high across the window for a few minutes to fully inflate via the vents at the front. It becomes VERY apparent when the kite is properly inflated as you can feel the power increase.. and the skin tightens

I was very pleasantly surprised to find that after my initial nervousness of flying a kite of this size it was quickly replaced with a sense of confidence as this kite is really surprisingly responsive and quick turning.. it turns much tighter and quicker than my Flysurfer Speedair 9.0 for example and the power, when it comes, is very smooth and confidence inspiring... after about an hour of flying in winds 10-15mph you could not wipe the smile off my face.. I was getting the best floaty jumps I have ever had with this and gentle landings which kept the smile on my face.

I am not a great land-boarder (but getting better ;-)) but have been on the board with it a few times and just love the auto-zenith function (the kite will tend to sit above your head if left alone) which is great is you are trying to concentrate on your foot placement on the board as i am.

Conclusion

Well... what can I say... i am sold!... I love PL ARC kites!.. The power is very different to other kites I have flown like my beloved Blades.. The power they deliver is like a motorbike.. brutal and very unforgiving but incredible fun... The Phantom is more like a V8 powered Monster Truck!... very smooth delivery and great in gusty conditions but huge amounts of lift and power.

I had the opportunity to try a Venom while taking some kitesurfing lessons in Australia and loved that too.. water relaunching is a little tricky, but I was ditching the ARC only half the amount that the LEIs were falling out of the sky... they are very forgiving kites and with big wind ranges you can cover alot of conditions on land or water with relatively few kites... For me the Phantom has now become the favourite kite in my quiver

By : chevytraveller