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This is just my initial thoughts on the Helium seeing as I got the U-Turn SPS depower setup from Bill this very morning. The Helium 6.8 is typical U-Turn in most ways. Excellent build quality as with the Oxigens. It's made from 44gsm ripstop so not as light or water resistant as the Oxi Pros but then again you pay the premium for the very top end materials. On handles and on an Ozone 65cm line bar I'd found the Helium to be soooo very stable and virtually luff proof. No shocks, no nasty suprises just lots and lots of power. It turned quite slowly but then again it is a low aspect 6.8m kite. No real lift to speak of so just a big powerful traction engine really. Given this I felt that on the fixed bridle it was decent but no more than that so off I went to check out the depower options. Basically there seemed to be 3 choices. The Pegas WingWarp (tried it and didn't like it much), the UDS system that apprently works well and then the U-Turn SPS system which many people have been waiting for. My understanding was that the SPS works in a similar way to the UDS but with lighter components (which must be of benefit on any kite!). I decided to wait for the SPS to be released this year and finally got my hands on one of the pre-production setups with the full production starting 'soon'. I am told there are two versions of the SPS system, a 3 pulley and a 4 pulley system. The 3 pulley is for lower aspect ratio kites such as the Helium whilst the 4 is more suited to higher aspects found on kites such as the Oxigen and Butane. I have the 3 pulley system and Bill said it may be ok my Oxigen Pro 5m but given the size of my depower bar (65cm) it may be a bit lively and hard to keep from stalling. Setup couldn't have been easier to be honest. Bill sent the SPS bridles already setup to suit the Helium so all I had to do was attach everything as per the simple instructions he e-mailed to me. All my dealings with Bill have been excellent so I can't praise the guy enough. Onto the first flight then... It was a grey, slightly damp day with a breeze between 8-13mph so I thought it'd be ideal to give the Helium a go. Previously I had the Pegas WingWarp system on this kite but had found that I didn't really like the way it worked. Using WingWarp it lacked feel and I didn't really notice much depower range. Basically the kite wasn't much fun to fly. With the SPS on I found just the opposite. I don't have experiance of any other depower kites so cannot draw comparisons but I am really happy with what I have now. The kite flew very cleanly up from the deck with oodles of pull but delived in a very nice smooth way. In total contrast to the WingWarp I straight away could see what a difference the SPS makes to the big Helium. It's turn rate was vastly improved and the ability to give subtle inputs for immediate repsonse was lovely. I could also straight away feel the kites potential for a nice bit of jumping and lo away we went! Everything happened at a nice pace too. In no way was it aggressive but neither was it lethargic, the ideal word is smooth, actually very smooth! Speed through the window was fine adn on the board I found I was able to get the kite in the areas I wanted without bother. Overall (as you may have guessed) I am really pleased with the setup and can't wait to get my skills up to speed with the depower. As I have mentioned I can't draw comparisons with any other depowerable foils, one thing I should make clear though is that in no way felt like an add-on. U-Turn have said for ages that their kites are designed for depower to be added if desired and I now have the proof. Happy happy happy. By : dough_boy

I just got my first U-Turn kite. I bougth a Helium 5.5 to test for use in my snowkiteschool. The kites from U-turn comes as usual kite only so i bougth a RTF pack also. he RTF packs includes lines, kitehandels and a backpack. The kites quality is very good as you can expect from a paragliding company. The RTF package is enough for beginners, but if you are at the next level, i think you should go for a bit stronger flyinglines. I will upgrade the lines to when i test it with a de power system. Something i was missing in the RTF package was a pair of kitekillers. Dont go flying with out it. The Helium feels smaller than 5.5 when i put it out on the ground compared to my other kites. But it was just an illusion when it was in the air it feels rigth for the size. The setup of the kite is very easy, so you are in the after just a few minutes. I like that. The wind wasn't more than 5 knots. I grab the handels and back up a bit to strength up the lines and took one step back and pull. The kite was rises smothly up and go straigth up to zenith and with a smal touch on the brake it stoped. Now it was boering what have i bougth? No struggle i dont have to take a couple of steps forward. So i change the direction of the kite in to a crash posistion, now it come very smooth and the drag increases. I couldnt stand stil any moore and i was start to turn the kite around to go back to the zenith. And the drag sligthly disseper til non at all at the zenith posistion. I stand for a long time and do some areobatic exercisses with it. On the ground it was looking as a pretty "fat" kite with low Ar. In the air it is a kite with good handling fast turning and very good feeling. Iam not boerd any more iam thrilled. I keep it, and buy another one or two for the winter. Conclusion The helium is a exelent kite for beginers and the kiter who not kite so much. Its a very forgiving kite but not boering at all. The price tag is very good to. Its better to buy something you can handle and fly much with than stand on the beach or the ice and watch others. I shall test it in the mountains in the winter it feels like a very good kite to go long distans with. I like it very much. Sorry for my not so good english. By : Milko

I'm in the market for either of these kites, so went to the PKSA race at Hoylake July 10/11th to have a go on the UK distributors kites. I'm looking at either the 5.5m Helium or the 6.2m Oxygen but, due to the high winds, was only able to fly the 2.8m Helium and 3.2m Oxygen. The Helium is U-Turn's low aspect ration 'beginner' kite. Note beginner in quotes as I think it's a belter! It's similar to the Little Devil or Buster in shape and aspect ratio. Build quality is absolutely outstanding. As good as the best i.e. Ozone, Mac and Gin (U-Turn are a paraglider manufacturer after-all) [and used to be Airea :racekites.]. The kite comes fitted with power rings that join the power and brake bridles near the line connection points. The kite is reinforced at all the stress points and has internal webs and straps across the rib cross-vents and the across the innermost bridle points too. The bridle is all sewn similar to Ozone and newer Flexifoil kites. I said it was really well built! The Oxygen is a sort of mid-aspect kite, part way between the low aspect Buster/Little Devil style and the higher aspect Blade/Racekite style. It has all the features I listed for the Helium plus it has the windtip brake bridles similar to the Mac Bego, where the brakes actually hook the trailing edge end of the wingtip over when turning to increase turn rate. Both kites have a fabulous wave design on the rear of the kite and white undersides printed with the U-turn logo. How do they fly? Well it was blowing about 18-20mph constant with some small gusts. The Helium rocketed upwards with little effort. I skudded about 15m and the kite simply sat at the apex of the window. No movement, no overflying, no hammering on the lines. Superb. Turning speed was incredible even given the strong winds. Power was constant through the turns. When landing in reverse no problem with tendency to spin and fight in the last few feet to the ground. The Oxygen took a bit more effort to get off the ground. It is less agressive on initial takeoff and can be held back easier on the brakes. Power was higher than the 2.8m Helium but then the kite was slightly larger at 3.2m. Turning speed was good but not as fast as the Helium due to the higher aspect ratio. Power was smoother through the turns but seemed to drop slightly although this may have been due to the slower turning speed. Straight line speed was slightly slower than the Helium. The kite again sat still at the extremes of the window and again no hammering on the lines. When reverse landing it tended to want to fight and twist a little near the ground but this is a normal with higher aspect kites in my opinion and it was pretty windy. I had to fly the 2 kites several times back-to-back to try and decide which I liked best. It was usually the one I was flying at the time! They were both some of the best kites I have flown. I personally prefer the Helium. It may just be me as I fly Busters a lot and seem to like kites that turn really quickly even if they are not the fastest in a straight line. This means the kites are easier to work to get power. The Helium really surprised me as it was the more aggressive of the 2 which is surprising for the lower aspect ratio. From what I have heard about the Ozone Samurai (another low aspect kite) this also is pretty agressive. I think the Oxygen may be better in a buggy than on a board as it seemed to pull more lower down than the Helium,but again it's hard to say as I was just static flying. To sum up, both were great and for the money/quality absolutely unbeatable. By : Graham Smith