PKD Buster 4M

Having got into 4 liners with a Rev stunt kite, I and a friend were both keen to find something that "pulled".

The inevitable happened, and my mate bought a couple of Busters before I could raise the funds. Off he went and learned to fly them, then bought a buggy to use the power with. Muggins here eventually turns up on a day when the wind sat at about 20-25mph with his pride and joy new toy, a 4m Buster.

My buddies first words when we arrived at the flying field were "Don't get your 4 out, it's too windy. Have a go with my 2m instead".

What? No way! I've got a new toy, and I'm going to play! So I left him and his girlfriend setting up their kites and got the 4m out. Oops! No sooner was the kite off the ground than I was on it. That was the day I learned some new tricks. Bum-scudding, chest-scudding, chin-scudding, and even at one stage on-the back-of my-neck-scudding! *LOL* Hell, I learned to do just about everthing except stand upright and fly the damned kite. Lesson no.1.. These kites pull like a train. The Busters are not designed to give lift, they are traction kites, but at one stage during a good gust (Probably about 30 to 35mph) I found that the 4m gave enough lift to pull my 14 stone self well clear of the ground before lowering me gently back down exactly where I had taken off from.

A quick learning curve saw me being persuaded into my mates buggy that day, and flying his 2m Buster I took off across the turf like a scalded cat. I even managed to almost make it back to my start point after a while. The seed was set, and grew like Jacks beanstalk. Now, between my girlfriend and I we have Busters in 1.4m, 2m, 3m, 4m, and 7m, a Flexdeck board and a Peter Lynn Competion XR buggy.

The little 1.4m is too fast to sensibly use for traction in my opinion. It whizzes through the air so quickly that you cannot afford to take your eyes off for a second (i.e to see where you are going) It pulls well enough to teach you where the power zone is when there's a fair breeze blowing though and is great fun to fly. In winds over 20mph the 2m sees you whipping down the field on the buggy, although it will pull you along at a fair speed in wind a slight as 10mph.

The 4m is my most "universal" kite for buggying with. It seems to handle winds from 7 or 8 mph right through to 25mph plus (If you're as daft as us and are willing to launch it in those winds) Initially the 7m seemed too sluggish to use for buggying. This was my big mistake... I was trying to use it when there was not enough wind for the 4m. I thought that the bigger kite would catch more wind and therefore provide power from a light breeze. It does, but only if you try and stand there holding the thing back (or for scudding).

Try buggying with it in too light a wind and you soon outrun the kite, only to see it fall behind you and/or luff out and collapse onto the ground. More experience (and not an incosiderable increase in bottle / stupidity) now sees us getting the 7's out in winds of up to 25mph, strapping the harnesses on and going like the clappers! For light wind scudding the 7m is a great buy.

On the Saturday of the Weymouth Kite Festival earlier this year my buddy and I were scudding down the beach with our very new 7's when other power kite flyers could not get any cloth in the air due to the light wind.

One thing that we have done to all our Busters is to change the lines and handles on them. The lines fitted when you buy the kite are 25m long (I think) and are quite thick, soft dyneema(?) They seem to drag in the air and visibly hold the kite back. On the smaller kites they also seem too short, the kites whip through the wind window too quickly on their short leash. All our kites are now flown on 30m lines. (The yellow and red ones sold seperately at kite shops) These are not only longer, but much thinner and they seem to be just about perfect as far as we can tell, allowing more time in the power zone due to the greater arc, without being too cumbersome. Handles are nice big Flexifoil jobs with neoprene tops for comfort.

All in all, I'd recommend the Busters to anyone starting out on power kites. They fly well in even light winds and pull for all their worth. I can't compare them to other kites as they are the only power kites I have, but I think that alone says enough. They are all I've felt the need for so far, (Thats a lie.. I'm thinking I might treat myself to a PKD Century soon *S*) but the Busters are great fun, easy to use and are far from expensive when compared to other kites.

By : Ian A-R