Waroo potential safety issue.

Mark · Tue May 30, 06 2:25 pm **Waroo potential safety issue.**

I am not trying to bash Waroo only bring up a potential safety issue. In fact, I am considering purchasing one. I found this on another forum. Hope it helps. Here is the full thread.

http://www.kiteforum.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2328494&sid=d7c65a6b81ccd539806a1865ec609373

Mark

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First of all, I want to clarify that:
- I own 2 waroos
- I truly believe there are the most fantastic toys I have ever had.
- In one session on the waroo 9, I was feeling so confident that I managed to do things I never did in a few years kiting with regular C kites.

So I am not a Best basher, just the opposite as I managed to convince quite a lot of people to buy waroos and they bought waroos indeed and are very satisfied with this choice.

There have been some reports on the Best official forums about potential problems when activating the security release grabbing OSH (Oh shit Handle), all the reports were mentionning that the kite was going into death spirals for quite a long time before crashing. (OSH are mounted on the backlines.)

So I decided to give it a try to make myself a proper opinion on this.
Here is what I observed (Conditions: gusty 20knots with a brand-new (pre-modded) waroo 9m)

Test 1- If you grab one of the OSH and leave the bar go still hooked in
-> It does not kill the kite or put the kite as a flag as expected, it just make the kite turns even faster in one direction or another. I tried it several times and it always responded this way.

Test 2 - Grab one of the OSH and activate the security release on the chicken loop.
-> The kite started spinning like hell, and the pressure in the handle is much bigger than the pressure on the chicken loop when you are 100% depowered. It lasted for more than 5 minutes, lines and brids starts getting tangled and I got very scared to a point where I considered releasing the handle and leaving the kite free, when it finally crashed (by chance?). -> VERY VERY SCARY to me and for all the witnesses. For obvious reason I did NOT dare repeating that test!

Conclusion:
The only active security you can fully rely on is the 100% depower assuming that the kite is trimmed to allow 100% depower, it works very very well, and pressure on chicken loop is almost null.
Then if something really bad happen, don't loose time with the OSH, there are very difficult to grab, and not effective at all. The bad news is if you don't use the OSH you will loose your kite (becoming a real danger to the other kiters downwind and all the by standers)

Now I am considering two options:

Option 1: Try to mount the equivalent of OSH on one of the front line. Has anyone try this? How does the kite behave when the only line left is one of the front line? Can you flag the kite this way?

Option 2: Buy a new bar with a 5th line, and mount the 5th line on the kite.

Thank you very much for your recommendation.

Yannick
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pkh · Since 27 Feb 2005 6548 Posts Couve / Hood Site Lackey

Good stuff Mark, thanks for posting.

I wonder if a front line leash would work better than the side line ones?

Kodiak · Since 01 Aug 2005 1114 Posts Slidey

I use a front line release on both my windwing rapture2 and my turbo diesel and it's works fine. From what I have seen and read, it just seems that bows are not really designed for rear line release.
Jim

Wyo Kiter · Tue May 30, 06 3:52 pm **Re: Waroo potential safety issue.**

Yardsale · Since 29 Mar 2005 387 Posts Portlanastan Obsessed

Contact John Bellacera at Best, he lives in White Salmon and should be reachable through Best website. John developed the bar for Windwing that has a higher sheet ratio so that when you sheet out you get double the depower for the same amount of movement. You can effectively get 100% depower when the bar is fully extended away from you. Seems like this might be logical solution vs 5th line, which I believe would add too much line craziness to bow kite bar.
-- Shocked

jack · Since 12 Mar 2006 211 Posts Stoked

what would be so complicated about adding a 5th line to a bow kite bar? does not seem that it would cause any problems?

Inept_Fun · Since 14 Apr 2005 1417 Posts Hood River XTreme Poster

dont you just connect a suicide leash? When you let go of the bar the kite keeps flying but it is completely depowered.

gabe · Since 16 May 2005 475 Posts Obsessed

not true, common misconception. however, the xbow style bars do this. reducing the needed throw has no effect on the safety system anyways.

Yardsale · Since 29 Mar 2005 387 Posts Portlanastan Obsessed