Flexifoil Hyper 16 spars

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[zippy8]

Even with a "stiff" SLE it just couldn't handle the load....

Stiffness is the ability to resist deflection under load, not the capacity to withstand it. A stiff spar won't necessarily be bent very far before it catastrophically fails.

The centre section of a Flexi. needs to be both stiff (to remain flat) and strong (to not explode). What it needs to be is SOLID carbon fibre rod, with as few ferrules (ie; weak points) as possible). I bent the thick brass ferrules on a Super 10 by not pushing them all the way in and they were beyond tough.

The old Hyperlight spar sets that Flexifoil made to ULificate their foils (yeah, it's a word) used tubes in the centre section and had a max. wind speed just slightly above their minimum.

Mike.

[thief]

Mike: drop paul at Goodwinds a note..you can also find Ray Merry over at cobra kites...both of them should have ideas....

[mikenchico]

Mike: might be better to shim your end pieces up to fit inside a 1/2" ferrule for the 1/2" solid carbon.

Here's a couple options for ferrule material

.500" ID x .750" OD - 6061 Aluminum

.510" ID x .750" OD - 304 Stainless Steel

[thief]

Mike: might be better to shim your end pieces up to fit inside a 1/2" ferrule for the 1/2" solid carbon.

Here's a couple options for ferrule material

.500" ID x .750" OD - 6061 Aluminum

.510" ID x .750" OD - 304 Stainless Steel

the followup question in my mind is what is the size of the leading edge sleeve???   can a 3/4" chunk of metal fit in there?

[Smeagol]

Thanks all for the info.  I did contact Paul @ Goodwinds and they don't have any ferrules for the 12.7mm rods they carry.  He suggested I try onlinemetals.com which is similar to what Mike linked.  I may try going that route.  Issue there is the 48" rod is $45, but 30" closeout rods are $9 so naturally I'd want to go with the cheaper solution but would need to use more ferrules.

The current aluminum ferrules are .6275 OD so I'm thinking there will be room in the leading edge sleeve to fit .750.  It has a good inch or so of room.  I don't think machining out the current ferrules to fit the larger rod will work as it will only leave ~1.6mm wall thickness material at the ferrule which is probably too weak.

I seem to recall Zeke's Hyper 16 has 12mm rods anyway, so perhaps mine was changed at some point in the past for whatever reason.

-Mike

[mikenchico]

Yeah I was dissappointed that I didn't find something with a bit of a thinner wall, I think the ones I posted would be a bit of overkill. Of course you could chuck it in a lathe and take off a bit of the OD if needed, that would be a nice time to turn some beveled edges at the cuts too while your at it.

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