I’m enjoying my progression setup for winging on inland lakes/reservoirs:
175/200 front, med carbon fuse, 14.5 prog tail
Thinking about going a bit faster/looser and wondering about chopping the 14.5 (which I see a lot of recommendations for), vs getting a 13.5.
Wondering what the Uni brain trust has to say about that choice…
I never chop my tails because I feel like they’re instantly worthless. Then if I don’t like it, now you have nothing.
I would just buy whatever tail you want
Everytime you change part of your kit you learn something. Always valuable getting a more well rounded understanding of variables. Not sure what the current used market is like for a Progression tail, compared to performance difference of cutting off the winglets… Likely not much money and not much difference in feel.
My trial and error in tail chopping and making from scratch, cord length and foil shape are what will give you the efficiency and looseness you’re looking for.
Pretty interesting to me to hear Erik and Pedigo on the latest podcast talk about chopping the progression tails and their finding that a simple straight cut (parallel to fuse) gives the most efficient result, and that trying to blend in a leading edge curve is a losing strategy (if I understand the discussion).
Also interesting to hear that the reason for the improvement is in part because they got the angle on the tips just slightly off for max efficiency (based on subsequent modeling).
Might need to just get an extra and chop…
Definitely… great podcast, Mike was way overdue!!
I also thought that that point was super interesting. Can anyone confirm the line that a straight edge cut is efficient?. I guess the point was that for the specific design, a straight cut is more efficient (and they mentioned that the tips weren’t designed with CFD so once they analysed it they discovered this). Really enjoying the Mike episode btw!
Relevant stab:
Mike gives his reason for a straight cut here - maintaining the profile of the LE. Think he is referring to foil section. He says 45deg but probably meant 90deg. Performance Hydrofoils on Instagram: "HOW and WHY to chop your tail with @flyline_productions"
Makes sense, but I’d want to try different angles to account for outward flow. Too many ideas, too few tails to chop..
