I broke my E2 lower leading edge, first flight

[JMPVW73]

I decided to fly the E2 because the Jazz was having trouble staying up even though I had steady wind. I set it on the lightest wind setting and used the 65'x85# lines. It flew well and I had good pull for a while. I continued to try flying even though the wind was letting up. When doing ground recovery one of the wing tips got stuck in the dirt in take off possition. I tugged the lines a few times and snapped the lower leading edge at the end of the male end.

The good thing is I now know the yield point. I want to buy 2 lower leading edge rods and a used Quantum or other strong, large, beginner friendly, kite that will fly in 3MPH wind.

[ant man]

the mirage is a good kite its big and flies pretty well in light winds ive flown mine in winds as low as 4mph

here is my mirage its 2 years old and flies great

[Steve]

I don't like the E2 for that reason alone. Better keep spares on hand all the time. I have broken mine on ground recoveries and hard wing tip laandings as well. Now I fly Quads!! Good luck

Steve

[ant man]

well my E2 has done the same thing ive broke rods on it before on tip stalls as well as my fiantic but my mirage has a skyshark p 300 frame im not sure if the newer E2 kites come with the sky shark frames mine has a hotrods 34mm frame the skyshark rods are better you might want to consider frameing you kite with the p 300 rods they are much better

[JMPVW73]

The lower spreaders have SkyShark II P200 on them but the leading edges are constructed differently. It is a pretty clean break 1" from the end. A small section splintered back from the break about an inch but the inner spiral wrapped part is OK. The rod sticks out a good bit past the sail so I think I can get by with just tieing one side an inch shorter.

I have been told to wrap splintered rods with fishing line or even regular thread and super glueing it in place and that will work for quite a while. I was thinking of useing a piece of heat shrink tubing at the end to strenghten it.

[ant man]

I tried that method a while back to get me therugh the day when i broke my spreader last year but it only held for an hour or 2 before it broke again

[sky fish]

Bummer about your E2 especially on its first dance . JMP You may consider going to a local Hobie shop and seeing if they have some carbon fiber rod's in the right diameter that you could use .

[ant man]

good idea skyfish

[FlyingWolf]

The lower spreaders have SkyShark II P200 on them but the leading edges are constructed differently. It is a pretty clean break 1" from the end. A small section splintered back from the break about an inch but the inner spiral wrapped part is OK. The rod sticks out a good bit past the sail so I think I can get by with just tieing one side an inch shorter.

I have been told to wrap splintered rods with fishing line or even regular thread and super glueing it in place and that will work for quite a while. I was thinking of useing a piece of heat shrink tubing at the end to strenghten it.

Sounds like the same problem I had with one of my LE. There was a batch of E2s where the ferules in the LE came loose because the rods weren't cleaned out properly before they were glued in. This resulted in the ferules moving (slowly) and leaving insufficient length in one of the rods (in my case the lower LE rod). The force on the ferule is transferred to the rods along the length of the ferule but concentrated at the end . . . thus if there is insufficient ferule length in a rod the end of the ferule will eventually bust out the wall. It sounds like this is what happened in your case. Thus when replacing the rod make SURE that the ferule is fixed as well with half into each rod (should be at least 2-3 inches)

As for using regular carbon instead of P200 . . . I tried that, it's much 'bendier" (not as stiff) giving the kite different flight characteristics especially in high wind conditions (read tip shudder). I wouldn't recommend it.

As for reframing it with different rods, since I replaced the one LLE (and fixed the ferule) I have been unable to break anything else despite continued abuse (it's my 'beater' kite). In fact on several occasions I have done tipstabs that bent the LLE 90 degrees without any further adverse effects.

[JMPVW73]

I flew for about 3 hours yesterday and 3 more today. I broke the Jazz lower leading edge for real this time, shattered half the length of the rod. For the rest of the day I flew the Micron. The Jazz flys like a brick by compared to the Micron. I think it is billed wrong by Prism. It is a easy kite to fly and ground recovery is very easy with it. Any beginner can fly it without problems.

I'm glad I broke the Jazz because it forced me to get the E2 out today. The tabs on the bridels are wrong and is probably why I was having trouble before. On one side the strong wind tab is on the top and its on the bottom on the other. I set it up in the middle. I had a blast flying it, partly due to having the cleanest, steady 7-14MPH, wind yet. I think I will be able to fly for a long time with the shortened rod because it was a clean break. I'm now addicted to the strong pull and want a faster big kite so I'm still interested in a Quantum or other.

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