Fractured Axel

Some one has done some crazy voodoo on my kites!

My Subzero - My brother dumped it into the boot of his car snapping both skinnies in the process after the 2 month wait to get new ones I discovered in the process of cutting them they were also split - again 1 month later new skinnies arrive, due to the deepspace been the only thing I fly the sub hasn`t been out for ages. So I took it out yesterday and after all the breakages I keep each big kite in a plastic tube - the skinnies were fine until in the 5mph wind it went up and one just snapped.
It has now cost nearly the value of the kite in bloody repairs!

Vented Illusion - So it sat in the bag due to me buggying all the time I was at the beach 15mph winds not too bad for a vented - I thought, well the kite went up one spreader broke and the as it span into the ground the LLE shattered dropping onto the other LLE which then broke!

Meanwhile I have pummeled my outerspace and deepspace in all comnditions and not broke a thing!
Am I just the unlucky recipient of a dodgy batch of spars?

I didn`t even break my psycho that much!
Anyway once the illusion is fixed it will be on ebay - the sub I love and want to keep but just needsome skinnies and spares!

Why don`t top end kites sell a repair pack with the kite that could consist of some fittings, LLE and spreaders - I would be happy to pay the extra as you end up buying them at some point anyway!

Grant
Yes it is 3pm and yes I have just got up - Lets hope the deepspace is a good hangover cure!

Bad luck indeed. I must admit to having bought some ropey spars that broke very easily. On close inspection the tube wall was eccentric and had one wall thicker than the other. One even shattered when I flexed it in my hands!

Mark

I don't think you're alone in smashing Skinnies in bugger all wind or reducing an Illusion to it's component parts.

Skinnies don't take a knock too well.
Illusions are heavily pre-stressed and don't leave much deflection before breakage.

Don't think of it as bad luck. Think of it as a learning opportunity.

Mike.

I know someone who busted both leading edges shutting the kite in the bootlid. He sent off for replacements and his dog chewed them up when they arrived.

grantyg wrote:

Meanwhile I have pummeled my outerspace and deepspace in all conditions and not broke a thing!

I have only ever had 2 Outer Space breakages - A lower spreader, which was found to be not plugged at the centre T end, and the lower spreader ferrule of my OS UL. It's a pretty damn tough kite - one of mine even stood up to hitting a fence after a double line breakage.

So far (after only one flight in 15-20 mph winds) the DS is also proving tough in the face of "unscheduled landings" . Here's hoping it's as tough as it's predecessor

Jason wrote:

I know someone who busted both leading edges shutting the kite in the bootlid. He sent off for replacements and his dog chewed them up when they arrived.

Now that makes me feel better cheers.

I have had so many trink kites over the last ten years and the build quality and design developments are amazing when will we have the indestructible kite??

Even aerostuff a pal has broke his fury a few times the best was on the second flight lololololol

Always have spares - when we went to Fuerta in November, I said to one of the guys (we'll call him Petra Fusher for the sake of annonimity) are you takin any spares? - at which he scoffed "when did you last break a spar?" - I took spares and broke nowt. He on the other hand ......

I heard there's a 2 - 3 wk delay at Highwayman ordering 'P' Series ???

I broke a new Lithium twice before even getting it to the flying field. (Snapped the T-piece by over tightening the allen bolt. Bought a spare, fitted spare then snapped the end of a leading edge reassembling the kite.)

The same kite is also only one of two I've broken in normal flight, not turning, not tricking just flying along in normal winds. The upper half of one of the leading edges snapped half way between the nose and the ferrule - mind you Claire and I were flying pairs and it had taken a pounding earlier in the day. The other was Geoff Strangeway's Phantom UL where the nose just fell apart and the spine popped out.