Foil Froth Fever

ghostshaper

Phil Edwards status
Jan 22, 2005
6,243
2,866
113
1134
So what's the update, did the canard meet / exceed your dreams? :)
Needed to shim it b/c the Spitfire wings are completely flat w/ no lift angle. You were right: not enough SA for lift. Tried Grendel's flat wing to the rear for more lift. Got it to lift a few times, but kept falling b/c wings are completely flat. Promising though.

Fit my Axis wings to the rear. Stuck the Spitfire medium wing in the front. Pearled on almost every wave. Have to relearn not to stomp on the front foot, haha.
 

juandesooka

OTF status
Jan 12, 2009
346
294
63
Needed to shim it b/c the Spitfire wings are completely flat w/ no lift angle. You were right: not enough SA for lift. Tried Grendel's flat wing to the rear for more lift. Got it to lift a few times, but kept falling b/c wings are completely flat. Promising though.

Fit my Axis wings to the rear. Stuck the Spitfire medium wing in the front. Pearled on almost every wave. Have to relearn not to stomp on the front foot, haha.
Interesting...thanks for posting the update. I don't know if flat is the issue...the new go foil wings are close to flat too. I've been using flat g10 kite foil for years, but the dynamics are a little different, maybe more angle of attack is needed for surfing. I suspect for lift the key variables will be surface area, wingspan and chord.

I just got a too good to pass up deal on a spitfire with 3 wing sets, so I will join the experimenting soon. I have my doubts about surf potential, my first goal is kite foil, 2nd wing foil (but unsure if enough lift), and then surf/sup.
 

ghostshaper

Phil Edwards status
Jan 22, 2005
6,243
2,866
113
1134
Interesting...thanks for posting the update. I don't know if flat is the issue...the new go foil wings are close to flat too. I've been using flat g10 kite foil for years, but the dynamics are a little different, maybe more angle of attack is needed for surfing. I suspect for lift the key variables will be surface area, wingspan and chord.

I just got a too good to pass up deal on a spitfire with 3 wing sets, so I will join the experimenting soon. I have my doubts about surf potential, my first goal is kite foil, 2nd wing foil (but unsure if enough lift), and then surf/sup.
Took it out again yesterday: added a bigger shim under the baseplate and small plastic washer under the front wing. Good lift and getting longer rides before pearling or falling falling off to one side or another. Doesn't feel stable at all. I think it's due to having no wingspan on the front wing.

Have it set up all the way forward in the boxes. I think if my boxes were further forward, I would need shims. Less pearling, too. Might reroute them.

Interested to hear your take.
 

juandesooka

OTF status
Jan 12, 2009
346
294
63
Took it out again yesterday: added a bigger shim under the baseplate and small plastic washer under the front wing. Good lift and getting longer rides before pearling or falling falling off to one side or another. Doesn't feel stable at all. I think it's due to having no wingspan on the front wing.

Have it set up all the way forward in the boxes. I think if my boxes were further forward, I would need shims. Less pearling, too. Might reroute them.

Interested to hear your take.
First ride on the spitfire, XXLW under a kite, quite underpowered but enough. WOW. Immediately felt awesome, perfectly balanced, super smooth. Rode along the faces of a few waves, doesn't translate diretly to sup/surf foiling, but felt pretty good. I have my doubts it will have enough lift, at least for what I'm used to (GoFoil Iwa main wing). Very much doubt enough lift for wing foil, compared to the Maliko 200. But I'll do some experimenting and see. For kiting, it's a winner for sure, I am really looking forward to trying the smaller faster wings.
 

juandesooka

OTF status
Jan 12, 2009
346
294
63
another brief xxlw spitfire kiting attempt. A little overpowered on a 12m kite, when I dropped into swells I would get going so fast and just keep accelerating until BOOM....explosive wipepouts. So I guess that bodes well for the surfing potential with this set up, as it may have more lift than desirable for kiting. Though the 36" mast would be too long for surfing it. Maybe wing foil on a high wind day.

Ghostshaper: have you experienced the rear foot bias in turns yet? Feels quite different to me, you can stomp turns on your back foot, kinda slidey tail like a shortboard, versus steering through them. I am looking forward to trying the medium size kite foiling too, fast.
 

ghostshaper

Phil Edwards status
Jan 22, 2005
6,243
2,866
113
1134
another brief xxlw spitfire kiting attempt. A little overpowered on a 12m kite, when I dropped into swells I would get going so fast and just keep accelerating until BOOM....explosive wipepouts. So I guess that bodes well for the surfing potential with this set up, as it may have more lift than desirable for kiting. Though the 36" mast would be too long for surfing it. Maybe wing foil on a high wind day.

Ghostshaper: have you experienced the rear foot bias in turns yet? Feels quite different to me, you can stomp turns on your back foot, kinda slidey tail like a shortboard, versus steering through them. I am looking forward to trying the medium size kite foiling too, fast.
No, I haven't. I just bought a foil mount to stick on my prone board so that I can move the rig further forward. I realized that it was too rear footed. Not even close to the turning point, just trying to figure out the placement to get it to fly consistently. Wings will probably need some curved tips to prevent the sliding out.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sozzle

Clamsmasher

Michael Peterson status
Apr 22, 2013
1,855
926
113
Nar
Ghostie , Juan, have you guys done anymore work with the canards?

i cant get it out of my head for winging.

But I think it needs bigger span to be useful for winger and surfing. In a couple of days I’ll start plaging around with it. I’m going to flip my GF fuse around and mount the wings in standard Gf fashion.
 

juandesooka

OTF status
Jan 12, 2009
346
294
63
Ghostie , Juan, have you guys done anymore work with the canards?

i cant get it out of my head for winging.

But I think it needs bigger span to be useful for winger and surfing. In a couple of days I’ll start plaging around with it. I’m going to flip my GF fuse around and mount the wings in standard Gf fashion.
Nope, no further experimenting as yet. I have the zeeko spitfire with all 3 sizes, so the first go eventually will be to attempt the XXLW. I DIY'd a kite version years ago and played around with it on the water, but it was never comfortable. It felt like it needed a lot of fine tuning to work right and I didn't have enough interest to do the necessary learn by failing. A buddy wanted to try and measured angles on the zeeko....turns out it is pretty tricked out, more complicated than it looks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Clamsmasher

Clamsmasher

Michael Peterson status
Apr 22, 2013
1,855
926
113
Nar
I jumped into it today..

I'm using premo pine for ease of shaping and I'll bag it when I get it all jigged up.

Main 31" X 9
Canard 23.5" X 7.5"
19mm thick before glass.

I figured that the Zeeko foil might be on the small side for our application, due to kites being able to helicopter out of the water a little better than even wingers so I scaled it up. I will cut as required after flight tests.

You know... something that struck me when I stood on top of the foil blanks in surf stance...it just looks right. Shall see.

0D9BDC04-CEAA-422E-9FE7-F937164707D5.jpeg
 
Last edited:

ghostshaper

Phil Edwards status
Jan 22, 2005
6,243
2,866
113
1134
I thought about printing out some foil templates and then shaping them in first along the whole wingspan, before thinning out the tips.

Then I got sucked into the praxl wing (twisting foil angle) rabbit hole and gave up.
 

Clamsmasher

Michael Peterson status
Apr 22, 2013
1,855
926
113
Nar
I thought about printing out some foil templates and then shaping them in first along the whole wingspan, before thinning out the tips.

Then I got sucked into the praxl wing (twisting foil angle) rabbit hole and gave up.
Haha well I love a good rabbit hole, but recently I've been riding the Kai and loving it so I have confidence in crude foils.
For this one I just want enough surface to fly for sure and plenty of room for whittling. Must be 2000cm here but thin so hopefully not too slow. The hard bit will be the geometry and trimming such big surface.