The extensive explanation above seems intuitive, but it's flawed. That a foil board is more stable when the aft foil has negative camber and/or angle of inclination doesn't seem to be in dispute. The question seems to be why. So... Referring to this first attached vector diagram which approximately ...
For me, a helmet on the other hand is a big problem when I body drag, seems to cause a lot of drag and water all over the place in my eyes and especially up my nose. I have tried the helmet many times and this always is a problem so I have given up on it for now. How much of your helmet is in the w...
IMPACT VESTS reduce the likelihood and severity of broken ribs and other common kiteboarding injuries during high, hard falls (regardless of the ill-founded "perfect swan dive" argument). PFDS reduce the likelihood of drowning and exertion-induced exhaustion and hypothermia, especially in cases of u...
Haven't we discussed this stuff before JS? with chemosavi and the like, about 6-7 years ago? Yes, I think so, around the time the DDWFTW concept was being discussed (which most comments dismissed, but which now exists both physically and in the Guinness Records). The context of our foil board discu...
The "golf cart" with wings has pretty much signaled the end of this thread. Oh. Conceptually, a T foil heeled does look like a V foil. Exactly. But unlike a "V", a "heeled T" doesn't have two foil planes with components of lift that oppose each other, and associated parasitic drag. So, is it possib...
So the easy fix would be thinner wings and strutwings in this case. Yes, smaller, more efficient wings. Submerged struts, though, could almost disappear. It's possible to orient a single foil, or pair, so that almost all lifting surface acts in an optimal direction to balance kite and gravitational...
2. The AoA can never be greater than the downwind (glide) angle (and could only be equal to it if L/D was infinite). If you don't know why, get educated in the law of conservation of energy as it relates to aerodynamics. (Really educated, not just a bit Googled). Of course it can. All you need to d...
Come on JS, you told ozchrisb to check his lines because, according to you, the L/D should start to decrease right from the point of stall :o It will. You're missing a critical point (and therefore your emoticons betray you). That graph is only relevant when the referenced aerofoil's AoA can be sta...