Premier Nighthawk

by Premier Kites

Specs

History

I bought this kite (my fourth) used in the red design after again doing quite a bit of online research.  I wanted something in the 3/4 size (~6 footer) that would be fun to fly and could easily be tricked.  I got a great deal on the kite used, and bought it to try out and play around with.  What I did not expect was the high performance and versatility of this kite given the low price.  

Construction

The kite is remarkably well made for a relatively inexpensive mass produced kite.  It sports a higher quality polyester sail (versus nylon found on many kites in this price range) and a very robust skyshark wrapped carbon frame - again typical of much higher priced kites.  Yo-yo stoppers and LE guides are useful additions as the kite's pitch performance is very good.  The high aspect planform and design is similar to many higher priced "French" kites.

The only weakness reported by others on this kite is a tendency for the nose pocket seam to wear.  Several people recommend coating the nose with shoe-goo or a similar thick glue to seal the seams here.  Other than that, the kite has been reported to hold up very well to abuse, and my particular model has withstood some hard flying with no breakage.

Tuning

I added about 7-8g of tail weight, which seemed to be the perfect amount for this kite.  It improves the pitch performance and fade performance just a bit.  Other than that - don't change a thing! 

In Flight

I honestly was surprised by this kite the first time I flew it.  Though I had read many positive reviews, I still did not expect a small 3/4 kite in this price range to perform better than many more expensive full size kites.  So far, my enthusiasm has not been dampened by time.  Every time I pull it out I have a great time flying the Nighthawk.

The Nighthawk has very good precision for a kite its size.  Corners are sharp, lines are straight, and the 3 point bridle even provides precise low speed and stall control.  I've found virtually no tendency to oversteer, and it seems to retain good precision even across a very large speed range.  It handles better than many larger kites I've flown.

The good precision is complemented by an even better ability to perform tricks.  It does what a 3/4 kite does best - perform quick snappy maneuvers.  The Nighthawk will do just about every trick in the book - easy axel tricks, 540's, fades, flic-flacs, lazy susans, etc... Stall behavior is very good, and the kite axels easily and precisely from just about any position.  The pitch performance of this kite is very good - especially if you add about 10g of tail weight.  In fact, I found myself overrotating some maneuvers into yo-yo's and reverse yo-yo's when I first got the kite, but this was pretty easy to control with just a little practice.  The kite certainly does every trick I'm capable of doing at this point plus quite a few more.

I was also impressed by the wide wind range of this kite.  I've flown it in winds as low as 3mph with reasonable results, but with a small bridle adjustment it also handles very well in quite high winds.  In fact it has become one of my favorite kites for high winds because it has a reasonably light pull and good trick performance in gusty conditions once you set the bridle appropriately.  It also seems to handle the bumps and gusts quite well , and you can still perform many tricks in high winds if you keep it near the edge of the window.

Overall Impression

Dollar for dollar, probably the best value you will find in an all-around six foot trick kite.  Construction and the skyshark frame is well above what you would expect in this price range, and the performance is also well above what I expected.  Some people have even called it a "mini-Nirvana" because it has great precision and trick performance.  I was impressed with the precision, wide wind range, pitch performance and price.   Add to that the fact that it is just a lot of fun to fly.   I think this kite will be in my kite bag for some time to come.  The only comparable kite performance wise in this size is the Cesium, but it retails for $70 more than the Nighthawk.

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