I have a Goldfinch "Airy Tale" D which I quite like. I find it takes a considerable push to get the second octave, Anyone else with this whistle finding this? Is it more likely in the whistle or my playing? Is this what is referred to as "back pressure"?

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A moment of carelessness, a lifetime of regret.
A lifetime of carelessness, a moment of regret.

I believe that is the case, the harder it is to get the second octave, the bigger the back pressure.

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Keith.
Trying to do justice to my various musical instruments.

I once contacted Golfinch about the difference between their models and they told me that the airy tale is a bit harder to blow. What is going on IMHO is (speaking from experience with making my own whistles) -- if you want more "chiff", "breathiness" in the sound, you can make the window of the whistle slightly longer. This way the air stream hitting the blade will be less focussed and therefore the sound more breathy. But you need to blow harder to jump to the 2nd octave. When reducing window length, the sound will be purer and the 2nd octave easier. That is however not the only factor making a whistle more "breathy" sounding. You could achieve a similar effect with smaller holes (or a different blade geometry) but that might throw the tuning off and make the 2nd octave flat, especially when using a wide bore tube like on a Goldfinch whistle. Once again proof that whistle-making is always a compromise.
I was planning on getting one sooner or later but I think I will opt for the standard model if I do.