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Narrak said..
Question for the REO V5 owners. How long (hours/sessions) before you started to see wear developing at the tip of the soft trailing edge support battens? No other trailing edge wear is visible.
Reo's and most 3 strut kites will flutter a bit when flown depowered across the top of the wind which is what happens whenwe turn onto a wave or suddenly change direction.
The minor fracturing of the coating on the D2 cloth that you can see is nothing to be concerned about, D2 cloth and all the versions of Teijin cloth that have multi strand rip stop, do this. The fibres or threads are coated first, then the thread is woven into cloth and then that cloth is coated in resin again, but the threads are individually coated and this is what made D2 and D3 cloth superior to ordinary single coated cloths.
Ozone pioneered the use of soft eva foam battens to reduce flutter, and make the kite more durable and user friendly. Hard carbon or fibreglass battens don't work any better at reducing flutter but they do keep the repair guys busy because they break easily and frequently but also make it a hassle to fold the kite and tend to make the cloth around them weaker because they are so hard compared to the cloth they are supposed to protect. Hard battens are also very heavy.
Regards
Steve