PKD Brooza MKIII

Well, after owning these kites for some time, I feel confident that I can put something down about them which may be of use to others!

I had made the same mistake a lot of guys make when starting out flying – I thought my abilities were a lot better than they actually were and ended up with several race-kites I simply couldn’t fly – to be honest, they scared the cr*p out of me after a bad experience in the buggy which saw me flying backwards at very high speed with absolutely no control!

At this point I almost gave up flying, and then a friend lent me a 4 meter Brooza (MKII I think) on a sensible wind day and I finally got going in the buggy!

HOOKED!!

I decided to sell some things and purchase a full Quiver of the MKIII Broozas while I still had the money.

WHAT YOU GET:

• 2 meter – yellow
• 3 meter – red
• 4 meter – blue
• 5.5 meter – turquoise
• 7.5 meter – orange

Each kite is supplied with the following:

• Foil (obviously)
• Lines
• Handles – PKD’s Soulfly handles – complete with built in strop lines and clam cleats for the brake lines
• Stuff Sack/Ruck-sack
• Stickers
• Bean Bags
• Ground Stakes + Carry Pouch (2 Stakes Per Kite)
• Kite Killers (2 Per Kite)
• PKD Lanyard With Clip
• Stitch In Lables (2 Per Kite)

The kites literally come ready to fly, open the bag, unwind the lines and off you go.

FIRST IMPRESSION

One of the first things that you notice when you unpack the kite and start getting ready to fly, is that they look fantastic.

There are 4 open cells on the leading edge which allow the kite to inflate and take on the traditional foil shape.

There are 2 zippers on the trailing edge which are the ”dirt-outs” should you require them.

The AoA adjusters are set on the standard middle setting – after over a year of flying, I have never actually had the need to alter these.

FIRST FLIGHT

**My personal preference is to fly captive regardless of what I’m doing with the kite, so please bear this in mind – it makes a difference!**

A trip up to the local playing fields for the first flight on quite a gusty day! I set up the 2 meter kite as I was flying static and fastened the strop line into the pulley on the harness. Gave a quick pull on the power lines and like all small kites it shot around like a lunatic, but there was very little response from the brake lines – I had to adjust the length of the brake lines. These kites want and need a quite a lot of input from the brakes when turning and once I had this set up the kite responded magnificently.

Flew up to the zenith and with gentle taps on the brake lines, sat there very happily!

Loads of pull from the kite, hardly any lift – perfect.

IN THE BUGGY

This is where these kites come into their own. There’s shed loads of pull from them and I find them extremely stable (note: I mostly fly on the beach, I have found that inland at the edge of the window in gusty conditions, they can be ”luffy” if you’re not careful).

Gusts are not really a problem until you start using the bigger kites and then it’s more a case of flying sideways than forwards. However, drop down a size or two to cope with the gusty conditions and the overall result is a kite that’s got plenty of grunt and puts a smile on your face and decent speeds on your GPS!

Once you have the kite in the ”Park and Ride” position, carefully putting a little more tension on the brake lines gives a tremendous ”turbo” boost to the kite, don’t overdo the brakes though, the net result is not wonderful although that said, this is a very forgiving kite.

UPWIND PERFORMANCE

This is adequate although not wonderful, there are kites out there that have better upwind performance. This may be down to the pilot though!

I have found that if you get the input on the brake lines right, the upwind performance is much better. So experience really does pay.

POSITIVES

1. Price – great value for money
2. Build Quality – typical PKD – great build qualit
3. Ease of Use – PKD marketed the Brooza an intermediate kite. It’s a great piece of kit and an absolute pleasure to fly!

NEGATIVES

1. There are a couple of negatives – as there are with all kites
2. Material – unfortunately the Brooza was never available in Porcher Marine, a great shame in my opinion
3. Size – SIZE DOES MATTER!!! The Broozas are only available up to 7.5 meters. At this size though, it is already quite heavy so a larger size would have ideally been made from lighter ripstop for those seriously low wind days
4. Availability – PKD have ceased to manufacture the Brooza and have instead merged the Buster and Brooza into the Buster Soulfly. Why? I have no idea. They are still available but for how long? Till stocks run out I guess.

END NOTE

I have been flying these kites for over a year now. When I first got them, they were described to me as ”PKD’s best kept secret” and it’s true – anyone who owns one will say the same thing when asked about them ”Yes, they’re pretty good” – you try and see if anyone will sell them though…

Author : R1CH-G

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