Just a short review of this, which I bought a few days ago on the basis it was cheap, easy to repair, looks nice in the air (in a Jam Session / Phantom way), and because Mr Gross had a hand in it promised to fly a little.
I wasn't expecting that much to be honest, after all its a beginner / entry kite that promises precision out of the box, and a tricky style with a simnple bridle adjustment.
What You Get:
£80 gets you a 6-7 foot kite, from ripstop poly, in unbranded 6mm carbon tubing. The quality is what you would expect from a mass produced entry kite, i.e. some of the finishing aint great, and the LE tensioners have a damn great knot close to the nock which is surely going to cause a tip snag at some point. The sticthing looks ok, it's a bit tatty around the nose, and the connectors and LE is cut in such a way that unintentional yo yos may result (there are no yo yo stoppers fitted). It comes with a sturdy few hundred denier bag, complete with dyneem lines and straps. There is also a small instruction booklet that is practicaly useless for anyone other than a total beginner, and confusingly advises against bridle adjustments even though it explains there are marks against which you can adjust it......riiiiight.
Flight
OK, to put my comments into perpective - I hav e not been flying regularly for several years, and when I have, it's been on a L'Atelier Transfer xtr. Prior to flying the Dream On, I spent a eye watering 15-20 minutes re-acquainting myself with the Gemini, which had put big seeds of doubt about buying a DS, as I was oversteering all over the place, had diffuclty is getting it on its back, and cascades were really difficult as I am used to the two pop method, which I cant get to work on the Gem. Mind you 540s, doubel axels, snap stall axel/lazy susan were a lot easier than the Tranny...anyway back to the dream On.
Instantly it tracked up from launch as straight as an arrow, and cut some very impressive sharp corners. If this was a car, it's a Subaru Impreza, neutral handling no oversteer, and no need for masive thwacky (if thats a word) inputs. Very easy to make a sharp 90 or indeed any angle corner you wish. So far, very impressive. I should also point out that I thought there would not be enough wind, as by now the Gem had started to struggle, but it was fine, and with a much stronger pull than the gem, and probably more than the tranny in the same wind. So given its tracking precision, I assumed it would be a pig to spin, but no it axelled fine first time, dead easy, little set up required and nice a flat. Half axels even easier than the tranny, and also cascades were easier I felt. I then tried to turtle and it flopped back nice and deep; lazy susan was ever so easy, so I tried the half JL (cant do a full one yet) and it popped into the fade nicely and sat there with very little effort. I tried a 540 (which I find quite hard on the Transfer, much more so than a Gem) and it did a fantastic flat rotation.
So overall, it managed all of the very basic repertoire that I have, but to my clumsy hands feels probably capable of much more - its a great beginners kite as its really quite forgiving. Another bonus is it looks good in the sky - several people commented on it, whereas the Gem was pretty much ignored.
So i summary, I am impressed with its performance so far - its no boutique kite and cant be compared of course, but if I had to try to benchmark it, then I'd say it feels like somewhere between a Dot Matrix and a Fury.