It is essentially a scaled down (I wonder if it’s x0.909 a la SkyMax), heavily framed Cosmic TC Ghost with a few bits of colour. It shares the same funky sail material and even has the same lightweight LE tunnel material which, given that it sports Aerostuff Gold S lower spreaders, seems an odd match up. A super light sail and build combined with a hard-as-nails frame – curious.
Now these LE cutouts look a bit suspect to me on an SUL like the Ghost. On a standard weight kite intended to be hammered about madly… they look misguided. And while it’s an exceptionally trivial point, for a kite commanding a £260 price tag I don’t expect to see any building faults like a misapplied stick on reinforcement beneath a yoyo stopper.
Considerably less trivial is the sail tension. The sail is drum tight everywhere but at the inner standoffs the sail practically screams. I really don’t like the look of these in terms of longevity. I’ve taken a close look and, frankly, the sail looks stretched already with the inboard straight seams looking distorted even when the kite is disassembled. It’s been a long time since I’ve worried about putting a kite together and taking it apart (probably the Prism Illusion was the last) but this concerns me.
I was thinking about this whilst at work. I concluded that Kitehouse were too good to make such a schoolboy error that We would have flayed, for example, Prism for making.
They put the standoffs in the wrong way around on the right side of the kite 
. There’s only 1cm difference and I’m a bit sick at myself for not noticing it (shows what a delicate feel on the lines I have) but I once I swapped them around the tension is better. I still reckon that the sail has suffered because of this though but I’m not sure if it’s really up to it anyway.
Frankly… disappointing doesn’t quite cover it for a £260 kite.
Now as far as I’m concerned the money this kite cost was spent several years ago and on other kites so I take a moderately relaxed view on this at the moment. If I had had to reach into my own pocket and pull out new funds then I’d be far less sanguine.
But let’s give it a a whirl anyway….
Bryan has described it as “quite simply brilliant” and if you’re in the mood, he’s spot on. That mood might be more easily entered if you’ve recently necked a Red Bull or three. This is one fast kite. You can provoke (or demand) multiple rotations in any plane with a single input. The only kite that exceeds it in pull forward yoyos is the parallel universe Element.
That said if you do wish to move it to another place in the sky from where it is you’re better off Backspinning it over there anyway. As delivered it had heroic oversteer, bordering on the design fault. I’ve ended up with the bridle set as wide as it can go and it’ll still spin within its own wingspan. This is a trick kite; so trick it and stop faffing about with “figures”.
As some other people have noted it might well have been better fitted with Rollbars as it yoyos insanely well. The stoppers do work fine but the extra security that ‘bars would have offered might have been welcome.
That said I enjoy the kite so much that I am going to try to keep it airworthy as long as I can. A difficult kite not to enjoy the experience of but ownership might come with a heartache or two.
Well I’ve been putting the hours in on this kite. Much like my experience with the Element I found Tab A and located Slot B but had a bugger of a time getting them together on a regular basis. But when I did 
very nice indeed. 
You don’t so much pop and yank the lines as simply ping them back at the appropriate moment and then get out of the way. Very small and quick movements. When the wind gods smiled (or more likely were looking the other way) this little bugger was about as much fun as I can imagine ever wanting from a trick kite. Epic and lovely. Yes, the FlicFlac is a bit… curious… but just work around it. There are plenty of options available.
And then the wind would change microscopically and…. it didn’t fall apart so much as wander off . The various tabs ‘n’ slots suddenly didn’t fit and it was all very disjointed. If ever a kite presented a more compelling case for moving to the coast then I’ve not come across it.
I think I can offer a reason why it behaves this way: mental stiff frame combined with a drum tight sail means it’s very responsive to the wind. A little change in the wind speed and you need to make a different input for your flying. Unless you have a divine touch on the lines (and I don’t) then variable winds just mess things up. At one point I had trouble getting Fractured Axels into a Fade to work at all and that’s really pretty basic.
So who is this kite for ? What is it meant to be ?
Frankly… I dunno. The choice of materials is truly surreal. I simply cannot see these beasts reaching a ripe old age. They beg to be flown in a way that is almost certainly going to damage them. It’s a bloody entertaining ride, I just don’t expect it to be an especially long one. The same kite with an Icarex sail and some beefed up (not slimmed down) reinforcement makes a lot more sense to me.
Do I like the kite ? At times I frickin’ love it. When the stars align it goes to 11 and proceeds directly towards 12. I can live with the crappiness as long as I get some of the good stuff now and then. That’s not to say it can’t be unbelievably frustrating.
Is it worth £260 ? Ooooh. Difficult. In many respects; no, not by a long shot. In others; yeah, why not ? Can’t take it with you.
Could it be better ? Yes. Ditch the Ghost material, stick with Nitro LSs, fit rollbars as standard, drop the price. That would be a borderline essential purchase.
Continuing kudos to the FA Shop for making this sort of highly specialised toy available. 
Mike.
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