Osprey Review
This is a review of the Osprey, made by Don Ostey, Kent WA. This is his first "production" kite.

Since I was going to be posting a review I did a quick inspection of the "workmanship" of my Osprey yesterday. Kite looks very well put together, stitches all in place, reinforcements where they should be, etc. Looks good, quality materials, APA connectors and skyshark rods. Kite comes with yo-yo stoppers and weights. Turbo bridle with many knots for adjustment. Connector covers and a small standoff type rod to get the lines past the connectors. More on that......

The following is excerpts from an email I sent Don a while back after I got a few hours on the Osprey. I got another hour on it yesterday and will tweak the "email" a bit as I go :-) I compared it mostly to a couple kites that he and I know fairly well, the Nirvana and Mamba.


Basic feel of the kite is very good. Some kites just feel good on the lines (the Mamba comes to mind, the Nirvana also) some others are good trick kites but aren't real fun just to fly. The Osprey fits into the former catagory, fun just to fly. I think someone who didn't do tricks would enjoy flying it. Nice presence on the end of the lines, nice smooth flight.

First off I flew it with no weight. That lasted about 10 minutes. I could do the basic tricks with it, but no roll ups or rotofades, so I put on 10g. That is how I flew it the rest of the time. Roll ups and rotofades started happening right away with the weight.

Tricks I could do with the kite, and how difficult:

Insanes were very good. Very consistant and repeatable. Pretty close to the Nirvana in ability there.

Rotofades were pretty decent. A bit more difficult to get the first spin going than the Nirvana, but easy to keep going and nicer looking than the Nirvana after the first spin.

Roll ups were easy to get into. As easy as the Nirvana. I did have a minor issue with roll ups though, I had a tough time getting the lines on the stoppers. **I would say 80% of the time I had one on the stopper and one on the upper spreader connector. Took a lot of shaking and such to get the one down to the stopper, and sometimes it wouldn't go. Other than that, roll ups were easy. I got a 540 unroll, straight up unroll, pancake unroll, and could occasionally get a lazy susan unroll to work. Not real consistant though. Could also get a straight up unroll, let the kite pitch toward you, then roll back up (love that trick).

** Note:  Yesterday I put some pop bottle glides on the kite and never got hung up on the connectors. Problem solved.

Snap lazy susans took a bit of getting used to, but once I got used to them I was fairly consistant with this kite. Lateral roll kick into a lazy susan were pretty good too. I couldn't get any multi lazys, but I can only get that to go on a couple kites anyway.

Jacob's Ladders I found hit and miss, but I find that on any kite (I am not very good at that trick). I get the feeling the Nirvana would have the edge there though, but not by much.

After flying it again yesterday I felt that JL's were decent and as good as most kites that do them well. The problem is me.....

Basic tricks like 540s, cascades, flic flacs, axel take offs and such were very nice. The 540 and axel take off is much better on the Osprey than the Nirvana. Reminded me of the Mamba there. Actually the kite reminds me more of the Mamba than the Nirvana. Just a bit of french flavor there :) Cascades are stupid easy. Very nice. Slides were pretty decent. Much better than the Nirvana but not quite as good as the Mamba.

Back to basic flight: I found the kite to have a bit of oversteer that decreased as I got used to the kite. I would have to rate it just a bit behind the Mamba in precision, but not too far behind. It is somewhat fast, but that may have been an illusion. Landings took me a bit to get used to, but once I did I could hit them very consistantly. Pull and feel of the kite is very nice.

Fun factor is very high. I had planned on flying a number of kites today and ended up spending 2/3 of my time on the Osprey, so that says a lot. It is nice flying a kite that can roll up, do insanes and such and still do nice looking 540 and axel take off. I have been doing inside hand 540's on the edge of the window (with the Mamba), letting them go only 360 and pulling them into a fade and then a few flic flacs. I can't get the Nivana to do that, but the Osprey loved that.

Bill Rogers
12/19/04