AAE WAV vanes

Last year, AAE introduced a new vane that has caused quite a stir.  The vane is called WAV.  It's a 2" vane that's low-profile (0.33" tall) and weighs only 1.7 grains each!  A plastic vane of this size with that weight is truly remarkable.  In addition to the impressive specs, it's got a nice shield cut shape (which I like) and bold graphics (which I like reasonably well).

So, when they became available, I was in the process of getting some new arrows to try out so I grabbed some WAV vanes to try out as well.  Here are my impressions, experiences, and opinions.

Impressions: the vanes are noticeably lightweight.  The material is very thin, and the base where you glue them to the shaft is considerably more narrow than other vanes.  The material is not as stiff as other vanes, almost stretchy.  They have a matte surface finish.

In shooting, I found that these vanes do what they advertise - they fly really, really well.  I fletched mine up with 1 degree straight offset, which worked well for me indoors and outdoors.  I used my usual Flex-Bond adhesive, which turned out to be not ideal.  Because of the very narrow base, it's really tough to glue these vanes on, and unless you use the glue AAE suggests (AAE Max Bond Glue) they will literally fall off.  I didn't have a single shooting session in which I didn't have at least one vane simply fall off.  They do fly really great when they are still on the shaft, though!  Another issue I had is that they warp/distort quite easily.  If you shoot an arrow a little close to another, the impact can cause puckered, almost stretched vanes.

The Good: These are really light, very attractive, great-flying vanes.

The Bad: They're hard to glue on, will probably fall off if you don't use AAE's glue, and tend to warp/distort a little easier than I'd like.

My verdict: If you use the AAE glue, I'd recommend these vanes if you must have the lightest 2" low-profile vanes available.  They really do fly well, look nice, and are light enough to almost compete with mylar vanes.  However, be prepared to replace them a little more frequently than other plastic vanes.

In the end, for plastic vanes I switched back to my favorite - the VaneTec Swift.  The Swift vanes in 1.87" weigh almost double the WAV vanes (3.2 grains), but that's still pretty light.  They're much more durable, much easier to glue on, they come in more colors, and they fly pretty much exactly as well for me as the WAV vanes.  If you can live with the small amount of extra weight, give the Swifts a try.