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Frame Stress From High Winds


kairusan

Rev Arcana Poll Version 1.0 alpha  

42 members have voted

  1. 1. Which parts of the Rev 1.5's frame are most apt to be riven asunder by the raw elemental fury of high winds?

    • The vertical spars.
      24
    • The leading edge spars.
      11
    • liek who carez LOL
      8


Question

I'm curious as to what parts of a 1.5's frame — the verticals or the leading edge — receive the greatest amounts of stress from high winds. I've done some searches on the board and have found some conflicting opinions; most people seem to say that the leading edge takes most of the stress and the verticals absorb very little, but there are a few contrary opinions (including one from the Great Barresi himself, if I am not mistaken). Perhaps a bit of informal internet democracy (with commentary) is in order, so that this eternally vexing question might at last be resolved once and for all? Perhaps not? You decide. :blue-cool:

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When I 1st started flying Rev's I was very cautious about flying in strong wind's 8mph plus !! , I then had the good fortune to meet some experienced flyers who thought nothing of flying in wind's of 30mph + the more I flew with them the more confident I became the moral of this tale is

1) The more experience you have the strength of the wind becomes less of a problem

2) Rev's are probably stronger than you think

3) Thing's sometimes break because that is what things do

4) You don't have to pay to use COMMON SENSE it's one of the few thing's in life that is free

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Hey John-

Sadly, I confirmed what you stated today about the downspars! During a gust and windshift at the same time, POP!!! It snapped almost in the center. bummer.... but you were right. There wasn't much, if any bow to the LE and without warning, voila!

My experience over 18 years flying REVs tells me:

If the rod made a loud pop like a gun going off then it most likely due to excess stress, however then the rod usually breaks in more then one place.

If it is a almost noiseless break and only in one place, this is usually the result of damage to the rod or in very rare cases a manufacturing defect.

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The pop wasn't that loud and only broke in half....

It was very cold; if that had an effect....

I've used the frame for months, so no defects unless something happened to stress it earlier today.

This symptom appears to me, to be physical damage such as something hitting the rod like a trunk lid or maybe something dropped on it. This can even happen when the REV is packed up and in it's bag.

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This symptom appears to me, to be physical damage such as something hitting the rod like a trunk lid or maybe something dropped on it. This can even happen when the REV is packed up and in it's bag.

The odds are you won't even be able to see damage to the rod, even if you look hard at it. However if you drop the rods horizontally and individually on a concrete floor, you might be able to detect a damaged rod by the sound of it hitting the concrete.

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It most certainly wasn't hit by my trunk lid closing on it. My kite bag goes in the same spot, carefully, with several kites/frames in it, which I suppose would add to the overall strength or integrity of the bag.

The temperature was 20 degrees; with a rogue gust over 10 mph.

Do you think that could have had any effect on it? I honestly don't remember any collisions or strange hard landings. ... interesting... no biggy, overall, just curious!

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It most certainly wasn't hit by my trunk lid closing on it. My kite bag goes in the same spot, carefully, with several kites/frames in it, which I suppose would add to the overall strength or integrity of the bag.

The temperature was 20 degrees; with a rogue gust over 10 mph.

Do you think that could have had any effect on it? I honestly don't remember any collisions or strange hard landings. ... interesting... no biggy, overall, just curious!

The same happened to me years ago at a competition in Cervia. The rod, which I had used for years in reasonably strong wind popped in mild wind with hardly any sound and broke in one place. I was very sure it must have been some physical damage, probably in transit. I have zero idea when or where to this date.

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The same happened to me years ago at a competition in Cervia. The rod, which I had used for years in reasonably strong wind popped in mild wind with hardly any sound and broke in one place. I was very sure it must have been some physical damage, probably in transit. I have zero idea when or where to this date.

Thanks.

It's all good... chalk it up to the learning curve... I guess!

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This symptom appears to me, to be physical damage such as something hitting the rod like a trunk lid or maybe something dropped on it.

This can even happen when the REV is packed up and in it's bag.

How about a large dog bounding over and standing right on top of your revbag, would that cause any potential damage ? :huh:

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Nope, full on wind pressure, center of the window.

I'm gonna have to agree with John here on this one.

As I recall, the break took place coming up thru the window is a strong gust of wind. I was downwind adjusting my kite on the ground almost underneath the flying kites.

I definitely looked up right away and it was clear to me and the others that something popped.

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Yup. Heard a loud pop, looked up, and saw Laura's kite spiraling and then a rod flying away. It was cool! Pretty surprising to me. It was a weird, variable day, and I was flying a 1.5 w. 2 wraps in it, and except for the occasional gust, it never felt like the wrong choice.

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interesting post! I has sure that the middle LE spar will blow in mid air under too much stress. I cant wait to see and hear the verticals explode in mid air... but i wont search for it for sure!

i find it very satisfying to break a spar in mid air, when its not a stupid crash or accident. Like i often blow lower spreaders on my dual line kite, in mid air while pulling a hard half-axel or something like that in the center of the window. It feels great to push the kite to its max.

Never broke my rev yet.... hope it will not be my race rods!

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In all my time flying I've only broken 2 rods, 1 was a down spar in my power blast 2-4 in 25 mph winds probably due to the fact that my 300 lb lump of a body was holding the kite back.

It exploded into 4 pieces so that i know was from over stress, 2nd was a LE right at the ferrule and that was due to slippage of the ferrule.

All my kites have 2 wrap down spars reg and vented and I've never had a problem my hands seem to automatically adjust for heavy gusts without even thinking about it.

Only thing lately that has me concerned is with the race rods they seem to wear right where the downspar crosses the LE on both the down spar and the LE i've noticed blemishes forming, I try to rotate the spars every time i use them just to keep the wear down but I can see this becoming a problem eventually.

Like John Mitchell's picture I've had tips touching many times without breakage its scary and I don't recommend doing it often but it goes to show you the flexibility of these rods.

Most times I have seen LE breaks were from ground slams at an angle, Straight on they seem to take a beating well as proof on my EXP which has taken more beatings then UFC fighters from my 2 sons and people test flying.

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I have broken two outer LE spars. One on a rev 2 with supersonic crash into a rock. The other on a 1.5 SLE where the outer was not seated in the the center spar. My bad.

On verticals I have had them pop out of the connectors under high wind conditions. Solution was tightening the bungees on the bottom. I wonder if the fracture doesn't occur is the bungees are to tight and do not have enough give. The give in the bungees is a wonderful feature in the REV. It takes most of the force unless it is too tight.

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I have "popped" :angry: a few rods in my time but never realized just how much pressure is on the rods. I had a vertical rod on my Blast shoot straight up in the air. It was quite a sight. I don't know what the kite looked like coming down because I was totally watching the rod. I watched the rod go up and almost out of sight! :o It kind of fluttered down into the sea oats about a hundred feet down wind. Nothing was broken so it was a great experience. I am waiting on my Blast race leading edge to arrive soon.

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I have "popped" :angry: a few rods in my time but never realized just how much pressure is on the rods. I had a vertical rod on my Blast shoot straight up in the air. It was quite a sight. I don't know what the kite looked like coming down because I was totally watching the rod. I watched the rod go up and almost out of sight! :o It kind of fluttered down into the sea oats about a hundred feet down wind. Nothing was broken so it was a great experience. I am waiting on my Blast race leading edge to arrive soon.

HAHAHAHAHAHA..............There's some funny lines that come to mind here......think I'll just leave it alone though!!!!!! :lol::lol::lol:

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