The Buster - a new high quality, inexpensive kite from PKD.
There are 7 sizes of Buster in the range: 0.7m, 1.4m, 2m, 3m, 4m, 5.5m and 7.0m Each kite includes lines and handles.

PKD are well known for their excellent "Century" buggy race kites which have proven to be powerful with predictable handling, well built and competitively priced against other "race" kites such as Ozone's Razor, the Airea Raptor II and Libre Bora.

Many times I've seen people question the cost of kites. There aren't many kites on the market that are inexpensive yet offer solid construction and good performance. The two that spring to mind are the Firebee and Peter Lynn C-Quad. Personally I'm not sure about the Firebee - get a good one and they fly well but I've had poor ones on test and in the air they look like a good attempt at a home built kite with crumpled cells and fabric? The C-quad on the other hand is fairly unique. Its very powerful for its size but a little quirky to fly and there's always the possibility of breaking the leading edge spar.

Enter the BUSTER.....visually they're fairly plain but construction is very good and vastly superior to the Firebee. They're not quite as rugged (durable / crash resistant??) as Ozone's Little Devil but start to look at the prices and don't forget they include lines and handles: 0.7m £68.00, 1.4m £85.00, 2.0m £110.00, 3.0m £135.00 ,4.0m £160.00, 5.5m £210.00 and 7.0m £245.00!! Its almost impossible to question their value for money ?

I've been fortunate to fly a 1.4m for some time - nice in reasonable winds but VERY good in higher winds. One dramatic test was undertaken in a very strong, fairly turbulent wind here at Hoylake. I'd spent some time with a 1.5m and 2.1m Little Devil - both excellent kites and in fact the 2.1 was right on MY limit in the conditions (not the buggy or kite's limit I might add). The 1.4m Buster was set up and its worth noting that its a very stable kite on the ground. Even in the wild conditions it didn't move about too much. The Little Devils could be a bit wild and needed the brake lines to be pulled in to tame the trailing edge. In the air it was difficult to tell much difference between the Buster and the 1.5m LD. Buggy speed was practically the same with very similar upwind and downwind performance. Both kites handled gusts well. When it was time to land, the Buster had an advantage since it did seem easier to land i.e. reversing directly downwind.
Several views of the 3m Buster

The 2, 3 and 4m Busters fly very well. The larger 5.5 and 7m kites are nice but not quite as "sweet" as the smaller kites in the range and would benefit from longer lines.

The 3m in particular is very similar in performance to a 3m Little Devil. It definitely doesn't have the build quality of the LD which has coated fabric and reinforcement throughout and of course the much better line set. However once in the air the differences are fairly difficult to differentiate. Tested in a strong 18-20mph wind it was possible to get small jumps with both kites, neither having a real edge. As with the smaller 1.4, the 3m Buster was considerably easier to land downwind than the LD. General handling was similar.

On a buggy it WAS possible to feel a difference. The LD pulled harder whilst the Buster required some work to match the LD's speed and power. Its not a huge difference but the Little Devil did have a slight advantage.

For a beginner, the price advantage offered by the Buster is a big incentive, only narrowed if a line set upgrade is considered and in many hands it would be very difficult to judge any difference in flight performance between the two kites.

In high(ish) winds the Busters perform well. In lighter conditions they sometimes have a slight tendancy to lose inflation and there is a little delay whilst the cells re-inflate. The Little Devil doesn't display this at all. In some respect this characteristic affects the larger kites -the 5.5 and 7m are somewhat prone to this. Its not too much of a problem for an experienced flyer since he /she automatically keeps the flying speed up and turns well before the edge of the wind window. A less experienced flyer would probably let the kite fly too far to the edge before turning in which case the Buster begins to deflate and the "delay" / "lag" kicks in - usually ending up with the kite on the ground! I have noticed this effect on a few kites which have a number of closed cells towards the tips. Eolo-Gayla's new Radsail Pro is a strong competitor to the 4m , 5.5m and proabyl the 7m Busters - in fact it is considerably faster and more responsive. Interestingly the "RadPro" has only two closed cells (one at each tip) and hence it does not produce the "delay" / "lag" effect at all.

Overall, the Buster offers great value for money with a good compromise between performance, ruggedess and cost. The smaller kites are better than the two largest sizes and therefore worthwhile serious consideration. All kites are supplied with lines, handles, a simple drawstring bag, instruction sheet and repair voucher.