Omer Airbalete 110

Well played sir, well played

Oil today
Blood in spring!

Just finished reading 41 pages about the Airbalete and would like to know what happened to it.Any bloody fish pictures/ updates? I know that I'm kind of late but it would interest me how the gun does . Cheers

Quote from Don Paul

Most of the time I just play around with the Blond.:hooray:

Cheers, Don

Yes. And I hope he's been playing with a blonde instead... <img src= " class="smiley" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x" height="23" width="23" loading="eager" data-tooltip="biggrin" aria-label="biggrin">

Quote from Don Paul

No bloody fish pic were taken with the gun, but the tweaked Airbalete did ok landing a small (mid twenty's) Blue fin and Yellow fin
tuna offshore, along with a few small white sea bass and calico off the beach.
It will be my camera gun this summer when I return to the game.
With a 7mil shaft @ 30 bar the muzzle brake rubber is still in one piece after about 30 test and fish shots. The Tuna were hauling ass but hard to miss 12 feet off the tip, this guns handling and shaft speed are impressive as you guys will see once I mount the GoPro.

This gun is not my primary gun in any way for game fish, just something to tinker and play with like a toy, teaching my son some skills along the way.

Cheers, Don

Thanks Don

Hey Don,

I recently acquired a new to me Airbalete and I'm having some fun with it. I couldn't help digging up this thread and trying to understand the GoPro mount you fabricated. I want to to make something like yours but I don't have a lathe and wondered if you can share any advice or ideas on how I could mount a camera on mine.

Thanks,

Don,

That gives me a lot to go on. Thank you!

I used the gun last Sunday at 18bar to hunt for Hogfish in shallow water and couldn't get over how easy it was to load, aim, quite (for a fart gun) and how well balanced it was in the water. There are a few things that I didn't like but most of them can fixed. Here are my dislikes from the stock gun:

Gun came with a 6.75mm Stainless Shaft but I would prefer a 7mm Hardened Stainless (aka Spring Stainless)

The Slider holes where the shooting line threads have burs that started to cut through the mono (I see some polishing in my future)

The valve at the rear of the barrel comes in contact with saltwater and the drift pin must be removed after each use to rinse the area thoroughly. This concerns me as I can only imagine after a while the drift pin will have very little tension to stay in place (the GoPro mount may solve this issue)

Parts are hard to find since Aqualung bought out OMER. I was able to find an O-ring kit and a Valve from old stock but Pistons, Shock Absorber, Inner barrels and the Hand Pump are near impossible to find in the States. Aqualung has informed the LDSs that I deal with that they don't plan to import any parts for these because there simply isn't a market for them (:grogan3:). I wrote to Aqualung about it last Friday and I've still not heard anything back.

Edited to fix the bulletpoints.

Don't freak out, Sith;-)
The Italians will stock parts for these guns for a long time - and both the Airbalete and the One Air is still in production, I think.
Yeah, it's a pain if you have to have bigger parts shipped, but the parts will be there. And the small stuff like o-ring sets, pistons etc. can be dropped in an envelope and prolly not even get much trouble in customs.
I can recommend both Neossub and Edosub for parts in Italy. They have online shops and answer emails in English.

My One Air (which share the same handle and most of the eternal parts with the Airbalete has no issue with the valve being exposed to saltwater. I dive on vacations, most often 3-4 weeks at a go and at the end of the trip, I take off the handle and clean the valve. Never in between and I haven't seen any sign of corrosion at all.

For replacement shafts the easiest could be Sigalsub's pneumatic line from scubastore.com but the flopper will be countersunk making the tip a tad weaker - but the shaft will fly faster and more precisely. So, it's a toss up. Otherwise, go with Devoto shafts for toughness (no countersunk flopper on their pneumatic line). For hogfish, you are prolly fine with a countersunk flopper though.

18 bar is not that much, but a 7mm spear should also help you load it at more pressure. I think the Airbalete has an 11mm barrel and as such, you should be able to take it up to the mid-to-high 20s in pressure. I think I am on 26-28 on my One Air.

And, of course, if you want maximum performance out of that gun, you should consider adding a vacuum muzzle. With that exact gun, you don't have too many options, though. STC makes some expensive ones (perhaps around E100), but you can get a cheaper, custom made one from Tomi and Marko in Croatia (about E60-65). It will be a thing of beauty and give you about 20% more power and a more quiet shot. I do think Don Paul has one, too.

Thanks for the wealth of information and confidence Gecko. Based on the info you provided, I should be able to keep the gun maintained for a while.

I found the hand pump and ordered it from Edosub. Not sure what shipping cost is going to be yet but they said they would send me a quote. I may write to them to see if they can get me a piston and shock absorber as well to have as spares.

Quote from Sith

Thanks for the wealth of information and confidence Gecko. Based on the info you provided, I should be able to keep the gun maintained for a while.

I found the hand pump and ordered it from Edosub. Not sure what shipping cost is going to be yet but they said they would send me a quote. I may write to them to see if they can get me a piston and shock absorber as well to have as spares.

He has all those things on his website:-). The o-ring set, too, at E5.5.
Piston is about E10.5. Can't recall the shock absorber.

http://www.edosub.it/ecommerce/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=4661&category_id=57&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=34

http://www.edosub.it/ecommerce/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=5415&category_id=57&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=34

http://www.edosub.it/ecommerce/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=2451&category_id=57&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=34

http://www.edosub.it/ecommerce/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=5622&category_id=57&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=34

Quote from Diving gecko

He has all those things on his website:-). The o-ring set, too, at E5.5.
Piston is about E10.5. Can't recall the shock absorber.

You rock I didn't see those on the site at first!

Quote from Sith

You rock I didn't see those on the site at first!

Yeah, his site is a bit hard to navigate but he is solid, he knows his stuff. First time I bought from him, shipping was not cheap but he kept looking and found a better alternative. All in all, very highly recommended:-).