YAN (yet another newbie) - Board shape feedback for starting out with e-Foiling

WeightShift · February 21, 2024, 9:18am

Yeh FG, it was a good day. Thanks for the kind words.

Nope - no analysis required! I’m all in on the idea of building my own. I pretty much always have a diy project on the go. The closest past project, to building an e-Foil, would be my e-HG project - I built an electric drive for my hang glider:

Problem was, once I got a flatland launch under my belt, the worry of having RC lipos on my back with no easy way of ejecting them, played on my mind

My last project has been a flight sensor that I built to Bluetooth airspeed and vario data to a flight app on my phone. An exercise in miniaturisation, that turned out to be!
(https://flyingsilicon.blogspot.com/)

So no intention to buy a Waydoo
Was just appreciating what I perceived to be good design. Plus still chuffed with our Sunday shenanigans.

Foilguy · February 21, 2024, 1:29pm

Yes the “journey” of the build can be just as entertaining as the actual use.

After reading a lot of build threads here one of the challenging issues is getting an easy to use watertight hatch in the board.

I and others have decided to use a commercial board that has proven design, after all they spent a lot of $ in development.

I bought a used Fliteboard and then added all of the components to get a very dependable rig.
The build was fun and I’m out on the water.

Larsb · February 21, 2024, 1:52pm

Anything that takes you out on the water within budget is a winner

Kian · February 21, 2024, 5:01pm

@WeightShift
Single surface glider? Is the lower take off speed needed for the motor, or are you still launching from a hill?

WeightShift · February 22, 2024, 6:29pm

Hey Kian

Yep single-surface: Wills Wing Falcon.

My drive unit only produced 36kg of thrust at WOT. Petrol units produce over 50kg.
So yes, more difficult to launch from flatland than a ‘Mosquito’ petrol.

It used a relatively small prop (which physics sadly means is less efficient), so can launch from both hill and flatland.

Send me a PM if you would like to know more. Did all this over 5 years ago, but there are plenty of YouTube videos of the craziness

Carlvasta · July 11, 2024, 7:47am

Where in New Zealand are you? Im in waikanae. Just about finished my first build.

WeightShift · July 12, 2024, 9:57am

Hi Carlvasta

Great to hear you’re almost at that awesome milestone of the maiden voyage!

I’m in Auckland and have been slowed/distracted by house reno’s, but am coming out of the other side of that finally.

I’m a fraction of a fraction into my build. Thought I would start with what I consider the most onerous part . . . building sub-moulds for a composite battery/electronics/mast-mount module. I am wanting to put everything under the board like PWR Foil does:

For me, something like this:

But this way up:

I could well be on a fools errand