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Wings work on snow?

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kitexpert
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Re: Wings work on snow?

Postby kitexpert » Sat Apr 11, 2020 5:27 pm

:thumb: Very respectable and also surprising distances. The way you ride shows your experience.

With small kite it is possible to handle quite high winds also on hard surfaces, but when it goes above 40kn it starts to get unpleasant and scary. I guess my record is something like 50kn in the mountains but it was a bad experience, for example my kite started to buckle and I got lofted. (Graphs showed later there had been over 100kn at the top :o ) But because 30kn is enough for over 60mph speeds on ice and usually over 50mph on snowy surface highest wind speeds are more like a curiosity, they are not useful or looked forward. Boosting on snow is possible in surprisingly low wind if surface is good, less than 20kn is often very well enough.

Could it be Kitewing is more efficient than these new inflatable wings? I've tried them also but too long time ago to compare. Inflatable wings have very thick LE which can slow them down but on the other hand they are not supposed to be much more than simple hand held wings.

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Re: Wings work on snow?

Postby LONG » Sun Apr 12, 2020 1:45 pm

On hard surfaces kitewing is very very fast.... :thumb:
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WINGONSNOW.JPG

squambat
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Re: Wings work on snow?

Postby squambat » Mon Apr 13, 2020 11:53 pm

The inflatable wings are great on ice with light wind, they will fly in less wind than a rigid frame wing. If the wind dies, you can put it in your backpack and skate on. They are very forgiving for new users to learn the sport and can be used in heavy wind conditions, but are much less efficient than the fixed wings. Tradeoff is speed for ease of use and minimal set up time. You can use a harness with an inflatable but you can't put all of your weight in the harness like you can with a fixed wing.

Kitewing has gone to carbon fiber frames in recent years, which is lighter and stiffer. The stiff frames deflect less under load making the wing more stable.

Velocity WingSails is a new venture making wing sails with hang glider technology:

Image

Matteo V
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Re: Wings work on snow?

Postby Matteo V » Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:18 am

The thinnest Leading Edge is on a rigid wing. A larger leading-edge typically leads to necessity in designing a thicker foil section. This can be better for low-end and low wind, but really struggles at efficiency and high speeds. I've had this thought for a few years now, that if there were ever to be a snow Wing race, the a class would all be on Ridgid wings, while the beginner or sport class would be on inflatables.

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Re: Wings work on snow?

Postby GDTRFB » Tue Apr 14, 2020 3:45 pm

Hey Squambat, what are you running for skates in that pic?

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Re: Wings work on snow?

Postby squambat » Tue Apr 14, 2020 7:04 pm

That photo is a friend on sailing the Velocity Wing, the blades are probably made in Finland. I use Wing Blades made by George Peterson in Toronto. He uses snow blade bindings, works great with ski boots! I like them in medium to light wind but would prefer to be on skis at high speeds. They have a 27 meter radius rocker. These work awesome with a Kitewing on good ice, so fun to gybe a kitewing through a long turn. Some use them for kiting but I am not comfortable doing Kite transitions on blades yet. They are tall enough to lean way over without booting out.

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squambat
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Re: Wings work on snow?

Postby squambat » Sun Apr 19, 2020 2:15 am

We had an incredible day snowkiting on Umbagog Lake in Errol New Hampshire, Friday 4-17-20 in snow squalls and big gusty wind. After sailing 32 miles on the kites the wind ramped up to 30+ knots and we headed in for lunch.



We set up 5.5 Kitewings and headed back out for 52 miles of amazing high wind kitewing sailing. The corn snow was firm and carve-able and the wind was steady and big, average speed of 24 mph and hitting top speed of 43 mph. So much fun to lean all your weight in the harness, turn down wind, feather the wing and haul ass. The Kitewing is a great tool to sail in big wind.

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