HQ Beach and Fun Sport Kite - Airplane Replica - Kitty Hawk Flyer - 46 Inch Single - Line Kite- Active Outdoor Fun for Ages 8 and Up

Instructions are poor. However, here is how I assembled. No tears , no damage. The joiners are a flexible neoprene or EPD??? I still give it 5 stars .Install wing struts 1st. (wing to wing braces). Don't be afraid to slide the wing spars in the cloth wing to make the struts fit into trailing edge wing pocket.Then, the install 3 cross braces as instructed ( 3 different sizes), This opens the plane up.Next, assemble the leading edge wing spars by joining them in the center, and lastly insert 1-end of the leading edge spar in the one end wing pockets and flex the wing spar in an arc to slip in the wing spar in opposite end wing pocket. Tight fit, be patient. I found that the wing spar pockets are different lengths and if you cant assemble from 1-side, switch to other side. I stumbled across the different pocket lengths while trying to assemble and couldn't.Attach/snap in the leading edge canards. DONE. Looks great as a static model too!!! Love it. Took me 60 minutes to assemble after several teardowns and starting over. Hope this helps for those who follow. -Great Leslie

an excellent kite. hard to fly without the right wind, so not for a novice per se. challenging to assemble. totally what i wanted in a kite.

We had high hopes for this kite during our beach trip, and it looked like it was going to deliver. The first day, it was easily launched and flew steady as a rock for most of the day. It also looked great flying over our beach site. However, when the winds got erratic at the end of the day, it crashed in the ocean. After that, when we tried to fly it the next day, it listed to the left and would crash soon after launching. Upon examination, we noted that the lines at the front of the kite and the nylon were twisted. We tried, but could to untwist either.If you want a kite that you can launch and let fly relatively unattended all day, this is not the kite for you.

this thing is awesome

Difficult to assemble--so heavy hurricane winds would be needed to keep it up in the air-Really difficult to take apart to send back for a refund-

Please note this same kite is sold at another entry and name and better picture here at Amazon at a significantly higher price. Careful examination tells me it is probably made in Germany, certainly not in China. I received this one yesterday carefully packed in a large cardboard box protecting the smaller plastic bag with the kite and string. It was partially assembled with an instruction sheet with a multilingual list of safety rules for kites. Other wise there was a parts list with picture and a simple exploded diagram to guide assembly. instructions included a clear diagram on how to tie a larks head knot, with no indication of why I would want to. The other diagrams were not much more help. I hope the Smithsonian higher priced version includes better instructions.I have set the whole thing aside until I am in a better mood and ready to apply my very limited aeronautical engineering skills to this project. I also am considering a consultation with an acquaintance who is a very serious kite flyer. If I do get this thing put together, I will come back here with an update.The material itself is pale yellow rip-stop nylon with carefully sewn pockets for the various plastic struts. Seems very well constructed, if I can ever get it put together.

Tore very easily while we were putting it together. Couldn't really catch the wind very well. Wouldn't fly very well. Not Impressed.

Looks very nice, but is not good for light winds below 2 Beaufort and also not robust enough for wind over 4. So there will be not too many days even on the coast to fly it. Was not too difficult to assemble and as long as the wind is stable and around 3 Beaufort it can be operated even by kids over 5.