finally got a chance to have 3/4s of an an hour with my new toy, wind was, at a guestimate, about 15mph off the sea, well it was to start with. went for fully vented on 80ft lines. i've been flying for about a year now so by no means an expert (even less so in stronger winds) and certain tricks tricks still evade me (540's and cometes for a start) but these are my first impressions:
considering the wind speed there was surprising little pull, no more than flying the standard in lesser winds (and i was flying with finger straps) but the kite felt nice and solid on the end of the lines...
nice straight tracking, sharp corners and smooth arcs..
once i got used to the wind speed and how much i needed to move (run) forward to keep slack in the lines i started with the tricks...
well what can i say, for those who have flown an xtr before the vented behaves almost identically, no odd quirks to get used to, the only noticable difference was when the wind dropped and the extra inertia due to the additional weight of the frame could be felt especially in cascades where you had to keep a check on the rotation, was almost getting one pop cascades as opposed to the two pop method i use on the std and unleaded.
nice half and full axles, managed to get flatter slots than on the on the std, flics flacs sewn in, fast and slow, backflips were nose deep (providing you could move forward quick enough) opening up all the lazy based tricks as you expect from the xtr, nice flat backspins as opposed to the more barrel rolly type, jls were slow and graceful (descending) or fast and snappy (ascending), cacades and rivers (can't go fast enough for fountains yet!)
as the darkness crept in the wind dropped and i was surprised how well it flew (even with full vents) in winds that were probably more suited to the unleaded.
as for looks, it looked fantastic against the orange sunset.
needless to say i packed up with a big grin on my face, when i get more time on it i'll fill in any holes as my ability allows but for all those who have connected with the xtr this one's a worthy addition to the kite bag