Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:28 pm
A few more thoughts on the 'Pulsar'.
It's a while since the Pulsar came out and while it's a very nice kite at a good price there don't seem to be that many people flying them. Not much on the web, not many videos on Youtube and quite often a kite that seems not to get flown too much which is a shame.
I've had mine for a few months now and I thought I'd pass on a few observations I've made.
In his excellent review, Bryan Beasley mentions the kite is " twitchy and needs careful tending" - It is quite oversteery with the standard bridle, if fact the first time I flew it I couldn't do a thing with it and this seems to be a problem others have experienced too.
I've played around with the bridle and come up with a 3 point which seems to tame the kite and make tricks much more accessable. If you are having problems with your Pulsar try retying or make a new bridle to these measurements :-
Uphaul 53cm (middle knot)
Outhaul 57cm
Inhaul 63cm
all +/- 1cm according to your preference along with the removal of the standard 14grm tail weight.
This makes a big difference and the measurements have also been independently reached by another Pulsar flier I've been talking to.
The second thing is that the kite is very light on the lines, almost to the point at times of lacking drive. While developing this bridle I've noticed that the kite likes to fly with the nose set a long way back - if it seems to lack drive instead of shortening the uphaul to catch more wind, try backing it off a knot or two and more often than not you'll get much better drive.
Tip wraps can still be a problem with 540's & Tazs/ Slots but with practise and LOTS of slack you can get them most of the time.
With the mods it's a really nice kite and a good step up from the 'off the peg' midrange kites.
Current Bag:- HQ Shadow, Spiderkites Zodarion, Flying Wings Soul, Old blue HQ Jive , 'PAW' modded HQ Maestro II, Delta Hawk,