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Test. Back to Back.
Two Main de-power systems available in the market place.
The U-Turn Oxigen Pro 7.8m used to test the de-power systems. It was chosen
because,
A) We had one
B) It is a very stable canopy and of a good size at 7.8m
C) It is very easy to fit any de-power system to these kites.
Secondary test kite was an Ozone Frenzy 9.5m (03 model)
UDS II
The UDSII arrived in the same packaging as the Wingwarp and the only instructions for fitting was a single A4 sheet of paper, however, it was fully assembled so no messing around with trying to fit anything together, just fixed to the kites bridle. The UDSII was very easy to fit and it took no time at all to have it ready to fit to the kite. It was a matter of laying out the kite and removing the small piece of line that bundled all the A/B/C/D bridle lines together. Once these were untied the UDS was just tied onto the A/B/C/D bridle points. The only time consuming part was adjusting the brake line length. If this line was to tight the kite when powered up would stall and lose power. It had an effect of reducing the power to the kite considerably even though the kite turned fast. What you have to do is find the sweet point where the kite turns fast but does not stall when fully powered up. It was just a matter of adjusting the brake line on the UDS .
In flight the UDS worked very effectively, however, the kite did need more wind to power it up fully than usual. This extended the wind range of the kite much higher than you would of have been able to control on the standard bridle. The Oxigen Pro 7.8m is a renowned low wind powerhouse and when the UDS was fitted it removed some of its low wind performance. The UDS can also be used on handles and it works very well. Just remove the bar and fit handles and away you go, no adjustments at all. What was noticeable when moving from a bar to handles is how the low wind performance had returned. We put this down to the more limited de-power range offered by the handles due to the size of the handles over the bar de-power strap. The kite still de-powered very well but produced more power. The feel at the bar was very, very smooth and bar pressure was constant and light. There was a real sense of re-assurance in that the feedback to the bar was very direct, you new exactly what the kite was doing even with your eyes shut. The quality of pulleys and line used in the UDS is very good and should last for years. The design also works very well and there was no distortion in the canopy and the de-power was very smooth. Some people make comments about the number of pulleys used and are worried that it will result in massive tangles. It is very unlikely that you will get in a tangle with the USD even with all the pulleys, the design is very effective. Why are there so many pulleys when the Wingwarp uses only two? The de-power effect using the UDS is very smooth and there is no noticeable step in the power delivery. Every position of the bar offers a smooth power delivery. The large number of pulleys does have one downside and that is in the wet the pulley creak. The kite makes some very strange noises when powering up but not any louder than the Frenzy we tested. The UDS is hard to get hold of in this country and is not cheap but it really did transform this kite into a fully de-powerable foil that was well behaved, with no overfly, strange stalling, or wingtip curl.
WingWarp
It arrived in a similar package to the UDS with no instructions, however, thanks must go out to Pegas kites for providing this sample to test. This may not be the way it is sent out to a normal customer. Online instructions provide by Pegas kites is outstanding and the images used on the Web site are very clear and easy to follow, much better than the UDS system, although we did have to put this system together. For a novice, this DIY approach could present problems and did take our new flyer at least an hour to work out how to put it all together and fit to the kite.
The quality of the line material is excellent with the same line used on the UDS. The two pulleys used (left & right) are metal as opposed to the Plastic ones on the UDS, however, they do look more flimsy than the UDS. It is nice to see all the lines with sewn loops as apposed to the UDS knots that can over time slip. It was very easy to fit to the Oxigen and a little faster to trim the brake line than on the UDS. Fitting took no more than ten minutes.
In flight you notice the difference between the two systems straight away. With this sort of de-power design, with the kite pivoting around the C line the feel at the bar always seems very heavy, like you are supporting the whole weight of the kite all the time. When you power up the kite it takes a good pull on the bar to get the desired effect. The design is very similar to that used on the Ozone Frenzy and does feel the same although the de-power range offered on the Oxigen 7.8m was much more limited than the UDS. Even though the depower range was not as good as the UDS it was important to note, it did not remove the low wind performance. In removing the limiter the depower range was increased but the kite was also very easy to overly. The UDS felt smooth and completely variable, the Wing warp was more like stages of depower, an, on and off switch with variations in between. The weight at the bar on full power, even, though heavy, was quite nice and not as woolly as the UDS can feel at times.
We tried different settings on the Wingwarp, either using the C bridle to attach the pulley to or C+D, or D, but the kite never felt as smooth as with the UDS.
At the end of the day the Wingwarp was designed to be retro fit to Pegas kites and I am sure works fantastically. On the Oxigen it is very effective but limited. We also fitted the Wingwarp and to a Frenzy. It was not a simple retro fit and a few mods had to be made to the bridle of the kite but when fitted it flew very, very well, as you would expect due to the similarity in depower design with the Ozone kite. UDS was also fitted to the Frenzy and worked very well, again offering a lighter feel at the bar. WingWarp is well priced and easily available through Pegas kites web site. It is well made and easy to fit and again transformed the Oxigen 7.8m, giving a fixed bridles kite de-power ability.
To conclude, both these systems were tested, off the shelf, so to speak, with no modifications. Both could have been made to work better with a few modifications and time playing around with the lines and pulleys. Both have differing characteristics and it would really be down to choice as to which to chose.
The UDS is priced higher than the Wingwarp but does contain more parts to the system. The Wingwarp has a advantage in that Pegas kites customer support is outstanding if you run into any problems. The UDS is more configurable but more difficult to obtain.
What we need to see now are more alternative designs to de-powering kites. Vio kite offer something new as does Flysurfer but I wonder what the future could hold.
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