The PKD Nippair is a strange little kite. First of all its made out of Camo style ripstop so it instantly looks different in the sky. The kite comes with a bar which can be split in two to create handles. A great idea on the drawing board but when it comes to flying it, its slightly different.

The kite comes in a nice carry bag which contains the kite, the handles/bar, lines and the usual goodie pack from PKD (sandbag, stickers etc.). The lines are already attached to the kite and bar which makes it very easy to setup, basically unwind the lines and off you go.

The first thing you need to do is decide if you are you going to fly the kite on the bar setup or the handle setup. The reason for this is if you are flying on the handle setup you need to pull on the adjustment line. This simply shortens the main flying lines to allow for the brakes to be "turned off". This makes it much easier to launch the kite. If you decided to fly on the bar you lengthen the main lines to allow you to turn the kite much better.

The first time I took it out it was light winds and I didnt need to make much of an adjustment. When I took it out in 30mph winds the adjustment allowed the kite to launch much easier on handles.

Flying the kite on the bar is great fun, a very twitchy little kite in high winds but one that would be suitable for kids to learn how to fly a kite on a bar, however, not suitable for teaching them to fly a kite on handles. I will explain more about this later.

While the kite is on the bar I noticed a couple of things. The first is that the bar starts to bend at the join when under pressure, I wouldn’t imagine it would snap at the join as the bar is made from a metal however it is a bit concerning. The second is that when you try and land the kite you need to take one hand off the bar to pull the break loop. In stronger winds this does become a skill as you need to move one hand in to the centre of the bar otherwise the kite will go in a to spin and then grab the brake loop. One option is to let go of the bar and let the kite killer pull the brake on for you but I much prefer having the bar under control when possible.

Flying the kite on the handles setup.
This is when the kite becomes different to your normal 4 line kite on handles. Normally when you want to turn the kite to the left you pull the left handle in towards you, however, due to the way the kite is setup, when you do this nothing happens. The only way to turn the kite is to apply the left brake. This is simply because when flying in the bar setup when you move the bar it turns the kite using the brake line so the same thing has to be done when flying on handles.
This setup doesnt give you as much control over the kite as the bar and you get the feeling that your not in complete control of the kite, unlike when setup on the bar. 
Splitting the bar to make the handles isn’t as simple as it could be either, its a fiddly thing to do and something I can't see many kids having the strength to do.

Overall I think this is a great kite for learning how to fly on a bar and for buggying with in 30+ mph winds but I think it should be supplied with either a bar or with handles, both with a strop/harness line to allow for more control in the higher winds.
Over the next month I plan on putting the kite on to regular handles and testing to see how well it flies, I reckon it will be ideal and make life a lot easier. If the kite was supplied with a bar it would also be good if the bar had horns at the ends so you can wrap the lines around them when packing up because just now I am wrapping the lines around the bar which could allow the lines to slip off and great a nasty tangle.

Maybe I am being a bit harsh on the kite since it is aimed at the younger kiter who probably will not fly the kite in 30+ mph winds but and when I took it out in the lower wind speed it was great fun, got flying in about 10mph winds and behaved itself really well, but again I would like to fly it on a different setup.
When the gusts did hit it in the 30+ mph winds the kite handled them really well, it simply floated backwards from the edge of the window, waited for me to give it a tug on the lines and off it went again, no tips tucking in or collapsing of the kite.

Would I recommend the kite to a learner? Yes, if they wanted to get a feeling for kiting on a bar, no if it was handles they prefered.

We have the kite available for others to demo so feel free to pop over to the TK van and ask for a go. It really is a fun wee kite but could be improved.

Photos will follow soon.