Hey guys,

I was contemplating getting my hands on a Beamer Scout 5m. Right now I'm looking for something in the 5m range on a bar, and it fits those qualifications. I'm also thinking that it would be good riding engine for future use on a buggy, atb, or snow. I haven't read any complaints about the scouts, and everyone loves their standard Beamers so why not. If any of you have flown them before, let me know what you think! Thanks in advance!

Erik

For the buggy I personally prefer handles....but for the snow or on the mountain board the Scout Rocks!! You won't be disappointed at all. Great kite, great choice.

Awesome, could anyone tell me how the Scout 5m would compare to a 5m Ozone Flow?

*Update*

Well I have been spending the last week researching and trying to determine if the HQ Scout 5m with a crossover bar would be better/ worse/ or the same as an Ozone Flow 5m on a bar. I have not seen any direct comparisons of the two, but based on their stats and specifications, I’m assuming they are about equal in flight characteristics. Honestly, I do like the Flow’s color scheme much better and even though it is not a crossover bar, I like the Ozone bar much better. Plus, dirt outs in the wingtips are always a good thing to have. When it comes to the bar, I have only heard good things about the Megatron chicken loop and the crossover bar on the Scout looks like it would attach awkwardly to a harness. From the few pictures that I have seen of it attached to a harness, it looks like it would be more difficult to steer than with the Ozone bar. In addition, I have a little story of a fun filled adventure that I had today that has put me in a little predicament and maybe you guys could be of assistance.

Today was an amazingly windy day, one of the windiest days we’ve had in a while. I got all my stuff done as quickly as I could so I could go out and fly, it was too good of a day to not fly. Anyways, before I went out, I rigged up a little bar setup for my 3.5m Prism P.4 (which btw takes a lot of adjusting to get it to fly well on a bar) that I could attach to my harness so that I could see what it would be like. As I started flying, the wind became stronger and stronger until the point where it was a solid 20 mph gusting to over 30 and I was really having fun. Everything was going pretty smoothly until… BAM! Just as I was going for a pass through the powerzone a nice gust came in and snapped my bar right in half! It’s amazing how quickly that stuff happens. I was having so much fun and the next second, not so much. So now I am out one 60 cm (24 in) bar. Granted the bar was not the highest quality one, and I did drill a hole through it to attach a brake line and wrist strap attachment, I was surprised that it happened. My engineering background says that it probably was not a smart idea to drill a hole in the center so that all of the force of the kite on the power lines could rotate about and maybe I was flying in too strong of winds… but oh well.

This does, however, bring up a very important question. Will the bars that come with the 5m Flow and Scout be able to withstand the amount of force the kite produces in a situation like that? They are bigger kites, and would produce even more pull than my 3.5m and the bar setup on the Flow is very similar to the one I rigged up. I would think that the quality of an Ozone or HQ bar would be much better than the one I was using (which will remain nameless unless you really would like to know), and if it comes as an option for the kite, then it should stand up. Any advice from you guys would be greatly appreciated. Hope you enjoyed my little story.

Erik

I'm not sure which Ozone bar you're talking about. That new Turbo one seems to be getting good reviews but I haven't tried it. Haven't flown the Flow either.

I liked the Scout that I had for a while, but I really didn't feel like the crossover bar added much to the flying/turning capability and I found that the crossover portion of the bar caused a lot of annoying snagging issues with the lines. The kite itself flew great. Nice build quality. Seemed like a good value. I just didn't think that the crossover part added as much turning responsiveness as I hoped it would.

The bar that that comes with the flow is a standard ozone 4 line bar. It has a Megatron chicken loop that hooks to a harness and a wrist strap that is attached to the break lines. Here's a link to PKS:

http://www.powerkiteshop.com/accessories/ozonesamuraicontrol...

I've had my 4m Scout for about 2 weeks now and I am having a great time with it. We get pretty consistent 15 - 20 mph afternoon winds where I live and that kite is one powerful puller at those wind speeds - I'm using it with a mountain board on a lumpy soccer field.

Frefel,

How do you like the bar that came with your Scout? Is it pretty solid and do you think it would stand up to higher winds and hold weight?

Jovver;
The bar is high quality; seems as stout as my LEI kite bar. I've been hoisted off the ground many times by this kite. This is my first experience with a 4 line fixed bridle kite (I thought I was buying a depower kite/bar when I ordered it, based on the picture of the bar and line set up). In retrospect I'm completely satisfied since I spent hundreds of dollars less and I think I'm going to be better at flying kites in general not having the depower function present. What I wanted for sure was the bar instead of handles since I'm also into kite surfing and this bar fills the bill with a fixed loop to hook into. Hope that helps.

Frefel, that was very reassuring. I am definitely concerned about the strength of the bar because of what happened to mine, but it sounds like it is much better quality and strength-wise. Thanks for the insight.