Power Kite Forum

Mosquito Pro 5.5

g-force junkie - 18-12-2009 at 06:53 PM

If anybody out there knows anything about this kite I'd appreciate your input. What I know is that its a race kite of some fame, foil with some wierd airbag system that relaunches on water or land and generates the power of a large LEI. I'm only familiar with Lei's and small foils. Input please.

action jackson - 18-12-2009 at 07:01 PM

Don't kill yourself! Its a 2- line beast from 2000.......aj

tridude - 18-12-2009 at 07:04 PM

racekites.com has a kite review section with mosiquito pro reviews.......................Ive read a few reviews from buggy pilots and they like the performance..................

cheezycheese - 18-12-2009 at 07:52 PM

Some guy on racekites was selling a full set of them not too long ago...

g-force junkie - 18-12-2009 at 07:56 PM

Hey Guys,
Thanks for the input . it is a four line on handles so I think it has some brakes and it does have kite killers plus i'ts hard to kill yourself at 10'000ft altitude with two feet of powder and no trees. aka snowkite heaven in the Colorado Rockies.

zero gee - 18-12-2009 at 08:12 PM

It is a buggy race kite made by a german?? company called Windtools back in 2000-ish that was made into a water kite. It was a 4 line kite that could also be flown as a 2 line. It had one-way vents using condoms with the end cut off as the sock. These socks were easily replaceable. It also had some bladders in some cells (can't recall how many, 2-5??) to aid in relaunch. I flew the 5.5 on the water back in 2000-ish. Like most FB foils it was very powerful with a small wind range and had no depower. It was not gust friendly. It was one of the many foil kites responsible for the bad reputation todays water foils still suffer from.

g-force junkie - 18-12-2009 at 08:22 PM

zero gee,
Now we're getting down to the brass tacks, tell me more about what you know, although I'm still not scared. Ive read that this kite has set some speed records that have not been broken to date. May be wrong, and often.

zero gee - 18-12-2009 at 08:22 PM

There are much better kite options that are more friendly than this kite. i.e. Flexi Blades, most non buggy race kites.

At the time a number of us here were using open cell FB foils on the water. Mostly Flexi Blades. We all tried the Mosquito in a variety of conditions it was nowhere near as nice to ride than the Blades. Shortly after demo testing it went back in the bag and that's where it stayed.

It is a buggy race kite and best suited to clean steady winds or you need to be a very attentive pilot at all times. It was not well suited to a bar either.

g-force junkie - 18-12-2009 at 08:37 PM

zero gee,
thanks for the info, and I'll be well advised to proceed with caution with this kite and I'll try to find the appropiate slot in my quiver of 15 kites from 2 meters to 17 meters.

zero gee - 18-12-2009 at 09:51 PM

:wow: wow! your a collector. I gave up collecting after I tried my first ARC's in 2000. Since then I have only had a 2 ARC quiver with a single bar. Covers me from about 10 knots to 30+knots. :D Sure makes for easy decisions. :thumbup:

ripsessionkites - 19-12-2009 at 02:29 AM

there are two versions of the Mos. Pro, land and the one you have for water (Pro KS). later they came out with the Pro II KS, and the Stamos (lower AR)

if you're only going to fly it on land, than you dont need to have the condoms in place. however if you're using it on water than its a good idea to replace them. The drawback with them is they needed to be replaced often when sand got it them : sand + lube doesnt work well.

try and find condoms with no lube... hehehe. Trojans worked best.

Reference:

http://web.archive.org/web/20010405123018/www.windtools.com/...

http://www.kitesurfing-kiel.de/kites/mosquito.html

http://www.opalecerf-volant.fr/opalecv/flysurf/mosquitoproks...

g-force junkie - 20-12-2009 at 05:45 PM

ripsessions and everybody else that responded, thanks for the links and all the info . I know ten time more now after reading your posts, this kite is like new condition and complete. I'll take it up on the mountain this week and see how it flys.

g-force junkie - 20-12-2009 at 05:56 PM

by the way ripsessions I guess you could call it land but really its wide open flats hills and mountans with all kinds of terrain, no trees or rocks and deep snow. check out snowkiteforum, Silverton Co. that will show what I'm talking about and this is only one of hundreds of spots to go on public lands.