Seems there are a lot of foil modifications going on as the equipment is refined. Whilst I now use Armstrong foils that are excellent, I'm now waiting for new high aspect wings which I understand are close to being released.
Having an old short GoFoil mast left over, I ordered a Gong XXL wing. The process involves ordering your gear, waiting for a return email link with the invoice and calculated shipping fee now added, pay and wait about a week for it to arrive. The wing cost about $660 delivered, whilst almost as heavy as the GoFoil 280 wing is much flatter, more high aspect and floats too.
Fitting it to the fuselage required sanding filing back the tapered mount then rebuilding with epoxy and the carbon dust from sanding to fit the Gong wing. The GoFoil taper starts about about 24mm down to about 21mm, whilst the Gong fitting needs to be about 23mm, also the GoFoil taper is about 10mm longer than the Gong wing insert. The Gong wing has two screw mount holes, requiring a new hole to be drilled to fit the screw insert of the GoFoil fuselage.
I'm still building up the fuselage for an exact tight fit, but a quick trick is to shim using aluminium strips cut from a soft drink can. Also to minimise carbon dust itch, use baby powder on any exposed skin. As always use a face mask.
I'm hoping to try the foil within the next week if conditions allow. Also the tail I'm using is a cut down Iowa tail that I repaired from an earlier mishap.
Below is the Gong XXL vs the GoFoil 280 wing.
I use my Gong Pro XXL for wind winging and really rate it. I don't find mast flex an issue when winging using the Gong foil. It is an issue when using the regular Gong XXL wing sup foiling but one I have come to terms with. I had a short go sup foiling with the XXL pro today but prefered the regular XXL as it felt more relaxed to ride and was certainly not as nimble to turn. I only had a handful of waves on it though so will give it another go. I am looking forward to trying the Gong XL pro wing when we get some bigger autumn waves
I think the pro XL could be really good in waves. It's similar in area to the regular L wing which I learned on and loved.
Due work I haven't had a chance to progress much with this modification, however Piros was right in that the standard GoFoil mast flexed badly with the big wing fitted. Possibly this was because I needed a Tuttle adapter that added extra movement. I hope the standard Gong mast and fuselage will arrive next week to test the capabilities of the XXL Pro Wing.
Hoping to try winging on this.
From what I have seen wing foiling, low aspect appears better in learning stages. The high aspect seriously drops with any loss of power and turning. But again the sport is very young and will change dramatically.
Thanks for the reply QLD,
Unless a better option turns up before next spring here in Oregon, I'm going to give this mod a try on one of my 29.5" GF masts, they're supposedly a bit stiffer though I never noticed any difference to the 24.5" (but then I was busy just trying to get up!).
Not willing to permanently alter the mast taper but will lop a cm off if necessary as that won't affect fit to my current GF wings. I'll try hogging out the wing connection by 1mm first and reinforcing the exterior if necessary.
The XXL Pro looks like it will level the playing field with the average sized foilers. Even the GF M280 (2400cm2) really doesn't do that plus it seems like too thick of a foil. The XXL Pro is almost exactly the same aspect ratio as the M280, 5-ish but thinner and larger in surface area.
Has a bit of anhedral like the original GF wings which makes them very forgiving to slight over-foiling (and roll / carve better). Kiting the M200 yesterday on the 29.5 mast w/ plate adapter (about 80cm), saved three over-foils without touching down. As soon as you hear the air bubbles, get on the front foot!
Keep us posted please on how it's working for you!
has anyone tried the gong tail to gofoil fuselage?
Don't have my Go Foil stuff with me for this winter, another downside to the one piece mast/fuse system. Too big to travel with. The added airline baggage costs were going to be roughly equal to a complete new Gong foil package!
Just looking at the Gong fuse though, tail appears to be the same diameter as the nose and on the GF tail if I recall the tail is smaller than the nose so A Gong tail would be oversized but could be filled. The 40cm kite tail looks really clean and speedy.
One issue with the Gong stab on the GF mast might be that the outside diameter of the stab connection is a bit bigger than the GF fuselage diameter. Could induce some drag though prbly pretty minor.