Flexifoil Bullet 3.5M

Fantastic web site, really useful to us newbies. Thought that some personal experience of the 3.5m might assist any other newbies thinking of using/buying one.

I started out on a power kite day course at Watergate beach, had soooo much fun even though the weather was crap that I had to buy a big kite of my own. The excellent instructors at Extreme Acadamy suggested a Bullet 3.5m so that's what I bought.

Full marks to Flexifoil for making things easy for people with no idea of what they are doing. The rigging instructions were pretty clear, although I had the luxury of doing it on my living room floor. Better to battle with it in here than with the wind making life difficult. I had to run the lines all the way through the house and out the back door to the bottom of the garden mind so if you try this make sure you've got some space.

First flight was in reasonably good winds - tops of trees moving but not swaying ie force 4 ish 13-18mph. Having been taught to sand the kite to launch I took some smooth pebbles to weigh it down until lift off. This seems to work very well and I keep them in the sexy rucksac now. First launch gave me quite a shock as the kite races off when in the middle of the window. I weigh around 13stone and it pulled me all over the park! Having said that it was so easy to fly that you can quickly get control of it and fly it off to the side or park it overhead if things get too hairy.

Now that I am used to its explosive launch things are fine, it wont really fly for me in winds less than 10mph, but that maybe me rather than the kite. Generally speaking if the kite is still things are quiet, but once you start to move it around the power really kicks in and the smiles get bigger.

I have manged a few jumps (very small so far as I am a chicken) but with a force 5 I have no doubt it will get me off the ground easily. It flies easily and smoothly, it does occasionally luff or just sort of collapse but I am fairly sure that is a combination of my poor skills and the wind just dieing.

People have said it is hard to land but I just fly it out to the side low to the ground and apply full break , it normally slumps easily to the ground but you do have to be wary of re- launces if the wind shifts a bit.

I must confess to not being a big fan of the kite killers. No doubt a very very good idea, but when on they seem to be permanently applying a bit of break to the kite making it hard to fly -- have I attached them wrong? I am thinking of adding some extra line to them so that there is no tension at all on the break lines. Also, as I am still learning I sometimes spin the kite into the ground. The kite killers mean you cant just untwist the lines by spinning the handles and even if you take them off your wrists it is still a receipe for tangles.

Conclusion
It is a superb kite. I love it more every time I fly it. No beginner should be flying a traction kite unsupervised for the very first time so I would have no hesitation in recommending this to other beginners assuming they have at least flown something similar once and know what they are in for.

By : Ian Barrett