My Unscheduled Rev.1.5 Crash

[kram]

Well, today i went flying with my Rev1.5 SLE...Winds were around 10-15 mph with temperature at 34 degrees..flew about an hour until winds started to get erratic.. decided to pack it in...suddonly a super gust came up..caught me off guard and down came the Rev1.5 right on top of a fence...Now here is the strange weird result...The SLE wedged itself horizonally between the wire fencing, bracing and crossbar...It snapped the SLE about 4" from end.. However, the bright side is No Damage to Sail !!...How the sail escaped from being ripped was a stroke of luck...End of Story..But i do have a question..

my question is concerning repair..should i replace with another SLE or with a standard leading edge?.. i Do have another Rev1.5 SLE...

Kram...btw, i was in a groove today with Rev.1.5...all was going so well...kinda reminds me of Caddy Shack when the Golfer had the best day golfing in his life until he was struck by lightning....One of my all time favorite movies.

[CLTKiter]

Hi,

I know that you'll get differing opinions on the leading edge, so I'll give mine. I, personally, like the SLE and if it were my kite, I'd replace it with an SLE. It's stiffer than the non-SLE one (I would think from the EXP). I'm not sure of the non-Rev replacements, although I know that people have replaced the SLE with other rods to reduce weight. Perhaps someone will give you their thoughts.

Later, Doug

[Jason Paul]

I would replace it with what I use of course. A P300 LE and quad sticks.

Replacing the SLE with P300s will take more than a full ounce off the weight of the kite. The result is better low wind performance, and an overall snappier feel. The SLE feels extremely sluggish to me after getting used to the P300 LE. It's just slow in acceleration and deceleration, and builds too much inertia during spins, so it requires too much opposite input to stop spinning. The lighter LE helps a great deal here.

The drawback for some is the added flex. The quad sticks help with this, but don't eliminate it. Personally though, I like a little flex in the LE.

I've flown mine with a P300 LE in winds up to 20 mph with no breakage. In fact earlier in the year I was going to fly a demo in a festival. I knew the winds were going to be in the 15-20 mph range, so I put in the SLE, thinking there would be enough wind for it to fly OK. I hated it and ended up putting my P300 back in within 15 minutes.

Of course this is just my opinion. Obviously others like the SLE.

Jason

[John Barresi]

I've always preferred the standard LE in the 1.5... An SLE seems to have too much weight, and gives added inertia which I don't care for.

However, if you plan on working over the fence some more, or giving a number of lessons... The SLE might be good.