KiteJan

 

To save wear and tear (and spars) on the Obsession I picked this up at the Dodd Gross flight school in August 2003. My lack of progress at trick flying was causing a degree of frustration and any number of broken Obsession bits, so I picked the Pyro up along with the Flight School DVD to return to basic flying so I can build the skills necessary to do the tricks.

The Pyro is obviously a 'cheap' trainer kite - in that both the sail and spars are made of cheaper material and it's one of the smaller dual line kites - neverless its sturdy and well made.

Purchased: August 2003

Details

Good Things

• Cheap!
• Very robust - can take a lot of abuse.
• Trickable.
• Complete package complete will quality line and handles.
• Can be flown in lower winds with a bit of work.

Bad Things

• Not the nicest design in the world (the neon colour scheme is a bit bright for me!).
• Not the best trick kite either!
• Doesn't like high winds (18mph) - kite flies to gets noisy due to the lack of a leech line and the wing tips judder.
• Instruction manual not Pyro specific (but then who ever reads the manual?).
• Rather long bag as leading edges don't break down (now doesn't fit in the boot of my car).

Final Thoughts

Good first kite and good as a 'trainer' kite for tricking. Once I've learnt the basic trick techniques the Pyro won't get a lot of flying time, but I have a way to go before that!

Update 2007

So how is the Pyro going? I must say it doesn't get any airtime these days. I flew it a lot after purchasing it to try and make some trick flying progress without breaking spars off what was then my only other trick kite, the Obsession. This succeeded and I felt happier with trick flying. However after acquiring the Gemini and MiniGem I found I made even more progress and never went back to the Pyro. I keep it around just in case my children want to learn trick (or even plain Delta) flying or indeed if someone wants to "have a go" at some event or fly in. (KiteJan 11/10/07)