dan.

HQ's Beamer II is a great little kite for beginners and intermediate fliers, it's competitively priced, and comes as a full package with lines, handles, a ground stake, a pair of kite killers and an SVCD. All packaged in a nice-looking rucksack. The overall build quality seems to be excellent. The foil itself appears to be well made, the black pre-stretched bridle is attached securely, and kept tidy by virtue of being packed attached to two small loops on the trailing edge. The entire top of the foil is a bright yellow, with the underside being white with a yellow swipe on one side with a black bar down each side, and a small 'Beamer' logo on one cell. The light colour of the foil means you can see the patter of the fabric inside the cells when it's in the air - it looks pretty good, but maybe not as stylishly designed as some other foils. The handles are very good quality. Made of aluminium with a rough textured rubbery coating that grips well no matter how much you sweat on it. However I've read forum posts from people having problems with the lines rubbing against the bare aluminium holes in the handles and fraying, however I don't seem to be having this problem (maybe it's down to some handles having holes that aren't properly finished leaving sharp edges. It's probably wise to check this before your first flight) The leader lines are nice and chunky, and colour coordinated so you can tell your left handle from your right (repeat after me: red is right ) There is a 'pony tail' behind the power leader at the top of each handle for attaching a harness, and a loop behind the brake leader for staking the kite down. The Beamer's lines come on a plastic double winder with elastic straps to hold it in place, the power lines are prestretched white Dyneema 220kg with colour coded sleeving, and the brake lines are the same but 100kg. The difference in thickness is easily noticable, but they're not coloured as with some kites so make sure you get them the right way around! As with all dyneema lines these are very thin for their strength and have little friction when twisted. The lines on my Beamer were all well within 1cm of each other in length, meaning it's pretty much ready to fly out of the bag. After flying the lines are also pretty stiff, so they parapack well without tangles. The Beamer comes with a handy ground stake, which is of surprisingly high quality. A round tipped steel shaft, approximately 10 inches long with a big bright orange knob on top. It comes in a sleeve with a convenient belt loop and pushes easily into the ground and holds the kite firmly in position. The Kite Killers that come in the package are very chunky and comfortable. A large rubbery pad with a velcro strap that secures around a plastic 'D' ring. They have a thin but strong line to attach to the brake leader line. They're not as well designed as some others, but are comfortable enough. Unfortunately the line is attached to the Killer wrist strap by means of a thin nylon strap that the line is knotted to. On my third flight, whilst testing the killers this nylon strap snapped, and fired my left handle directly towards the kite at high velocity. This is a very dangerous fault on the part of HQ, and potentially worse than not wearing killers at all. I have contacted HQ directly, hopefully they'll revise this dangerous design flaw. In flight the Beamer is lots of fun, it's very deliberate and controllable in it's movement across the sky, doesn't give too much lift, and can be coaxed into creating some amazing pull while smoothing out the gusts. Launches are very easy, the foils inflates well with a litte tug, however the corners are prone to folding over if the wind is lighter, which is, i assume, caused by a combination of the leading edge being reasonably straight with square corners (rather than curved like a Bullet) and there being no vents on the outermost two or three cells. But this is only really a problem in lighter winds. The kite recovers from crashes well, pulling the brakes causes it to flip over easily, and i've had some big crashes with no damage. The kite produces lots and lots of pull when you want it to, it's very easy to control and the brakes deflate the foil effectively if you get out of your depth. It doesn't produce masses of lift (although it's managed to haul me off the ground for some good jumps) so is better suited to recreational flying, scudding, etc and traction activities such as boarding or buggying. Packing the kite away is very straigtforward. Personally I parapack it by collecting the bridle onto the white underside of the kite, then folding it into thirds to keep the bridle seperate from the lines and pulling the lines onto the center of the folded foil in large loops, then folding into thirds again, wrapping the killers around the handles, placing the handles at one end of the folded foil and rolling it up around the handles. But there's plenty fo space in the rucksack for packing the kite away however you see fit. In conclusion, it's a very nice package. It's very cheap, has everything you're going to need to get started, fun to fly, but not too twitchy for beginners, and can deliver strong pull to keep intermediate flyers interested. The only real downside are the killers. I simply cannot recommend them after seeing mine fail so spectacularly. However, this is still a very competitively priced package and a great kite. Just replace the killers - or even don't use them at all. I'm going to have a go at modifying my killers tomorrow to see if I can come up with a better (safer!) way to attach the killer lines. By : dan.