- fsracetip.jpg (11.29 KiB) Viewed 1982 times
So far I have tested the A15 just flying with 1 and 2 Z disconnected and also C. I didn't like C disconnected. I noticed a loss of static power with 1 Z and more with 2 Z, an improvement in L/D and less stall, maybe more power with faster flight. I think 1 Z is better but I will need to test it more.
I have tested on water a few times a Psycho 4 with 1 Z disconnected (of note the Psycho 4 Tip C is at B position, so no real C there). I had a quite noticeable improvement in L/D, reduction in stall, more power flying, faster kite, faster through the turn, more glide in jumps, higher upwind. The kite turned less tight, had slightly lighter bar, little less responsive, had less static power, less peak power jumping. The kite behaved significantly different jumping, and it threw all my timing off. The glide was great, but lack of height not the best but could be just timing related. I found the flying much quicker so I was missing loops at the right spot. I don't usually look at the kite but after a few bad landings I saw that was the problem.
When flying the kite and sheeting it there is a noticeable deflection away at the tip, more so the more the kite is sheeted. I would say about 6 inches near stall, way past that after and in turns. With highly efficient fast flight with peak power the deflection is maybe 1 inch and the kite is quite able to hold it's shape flat in some flight when not sheeted much.
What it seems we have here in some part is an actual antistall device, like what the jetflaps promised but this works
Well done Flysurfer. It definitely does something and seems to improve performance in a significant way to be useful. The most noticeable thing to me is the improvement in upwind and power with flying fast, seems to give an actual improvement in lowend and I can see why a race kite would want this, but also maybe anyone chasing the very low end ( ring ring Regis )How and why does this work? Well I know for a while now that loosening Z more at tip so to prevent over cambering there, improves L/D. If you have no Z this can never cause a problem. It also seems obvious that the tip is free to allow air to flow or bleed back which would prevent a stall, makes a nice oversheeting indicator too. There is precedent in winglets, but also nature where birds have very flexible tip feathers.
) What should it be called? I scanned the FS Race page but no mention. Maybe Flexible Tip Technology aka FTT?
I certainly think there is potential and more development to be seen with this. Go try it out.
