DIY Foil Kites

[kitexpert]

Very nice looking kite also , esp. blue/white design is classy. I also see quite a lot detail which definitely can be beneficial, but of course increasing the amount of work.

But the bridle, in some parts it looks a bit like opposite to Schietwedder's kite. It could be shorter, all lines of it.

[Schietwedder]

The half way mark is crossed, 23 cells of 41 (56%)
The previous kites fit a bit better in the living room for taking photos compared to this monster

In 2 weeks it should be done... right now the wind is anyways way too high all the time for test flights. Not a winter kite for North Germany...

[Schietwedder]

It´s flying!
No excuses anymore that the wind is too light with this thing
Flew it on the beach, then realised that I sewed some of the bottom skin to the rib at one tip so went home corrected that... tomorrow same wind and test riding on the surfboard...
It has lift like crazy, hard to stay on the ground with 70 Kgs when flying over to the other side of the zenit.
Wind window is realy large must go upwind like hell.

Absolutely happy with the result

@Kiteexpert you were right the primaries in the tips were a bit short will correct that as well after a few rides. You can see a bit of accordioning in the tips in some flight phases.

Should be an easy fix.

Quite a massive weapon, have to get used to the performance a bit to not fly off the strapless board or buggy in the maneuvers with that much lift....
Really looking forward to see the upwind angles and reaching speeds over dead flat water (in that light breeze)....

BR Niklas

[Schietwedder]

[Rein de Vries]

Impressive work. Congrats!

That one will be great for light wind hydrofoiling I would guess. What is your total weight?

Are you satisfied with the billow choices and profile changes? So far I see no stability issues at all! Great.

[Schietwedder]

Hi Rein,
I haven´t weighted it yet, too big in volume for our kitchen scale...
Quite light for the size with skytex 27g/m² on the skins but not super light due to 40g/m² ribs.

Hehe yes, and it steers rerally direct and turns good (for the size) I wasn´t bold enough to do a loop on the beach in 10 to 15 knots today but tomorrow in the water I´ll try one. So really light wind hydrofoil with start loop should work fine once learning to foil Probably also fitted more towards small race-ish front wings but will try with the 633 when i can ride.

The billow looks like in the computer so I´m quite happy. Also there is some tension in the leading edge and the wind pressure doesn´t causes dents or bulging in the front part of the billow, so its good. Of course if you had more prototypes one could aim for lower billow values to see where the boundaries are but when you only have one try better to be conservative and run a bit more which seems to have worked.

Yes there´s defenetly more lift coming from the profile, which has more than one reason I think:
-Increased billow on top (more camber)
-More camber in profile (1,7 to 2,03%)
-higher AR so more eficcent wing better L/D

It does fly far towards the wind window but it does not fly way above your head and beyond so you get a stiff neck like on pure race kites.
That´s also due to the lower projected area/higher arc shape so the tips not really help much for the lift being more vertical. But because of this it turns better and that´s more important especially in light winds for me than the last degree of upwind angle.

Stability seems to be good so far. It is higher AR and you see the tip rolling in and going out a little bit 5-10cm from time to time you see on most high AR kites but it did not collapse and there were quite some gusts and holes. I also did the running downwind towards the kite test trying to outrun it and it drifted nicey with me. Of course it was also more like the high end wind today and the picture will change when barely flying in 5 knots or so lets see.

Tomorrow test on the Surfboard and then the wind will also be more east off a high forest so it will be the true stability test tomorrow.

[Janus]

What a great work, love it! really impressive!
Must be a great feeling, flying your own kite.

[Schietwedder]

Thanks!
Hehe yes now specially fell in love with high AR kites after riding it... Even on the surfboard once it gets going it makes itself it´s own wind once the apparent kicks in. Effortlessly gliding over flat and smooth water in virtually no wind.
Of cause for a foiler that´s normal but for me only having used the twintip and surfboard until now a whole new thing to experience.
Thats a sensation I had only in kite buggying until now. Secret weapon for light thermic summer days.

It was quite gusty, no stability issues. Breeze went up to 15-17 knots ther it was a handful, hard to keep edging to keep it on the edge of the wind window. Low end without foil is around 7-8 knots I would say. Ideal is 9-12 knots ish.

[Schietwedder]

Here a few pictures of my friend on the 9m and 633 foil, me on the 16.5m and directional. Need more outside pictures but the C and Z towpoints might go a bit further inwards to load the center a bit more. A bit of turning would be lost though and now its turning like a dream looping really really tight for the size without stall/propellering.

If I find my SD card some Gopro Onboard footage will follow next time wind is light enough

[Schietwedder]

Some short after work sunset twin tipping yesterday in about 12-14 knots. At the end some little "jumps" if you might even call it that. With the right technique (not mine defintely as I'm still learning and more married to the directional) this would be quite an airtime machine in the hands of some better rider.