Flipping Your Wing

[ozski]

Any thought or theories on flipping the wing over? We had some discussion at the lake this week about less turbulent water and more surface area if its flipped over.... I was not around to find out how well it worked. Anyone played around with this?

[SkiJay]

@ozski Wing flange side down = a little bit more drag but without increasing tip engagement as much as adding more wing angle flange side up.

[liquid d]

flip it upside down. works better, has more effect, and cleaner effect [ less interference with water compression against bottom of ski]....holds tail in better

[ozski]

It seems logical that it would work that way, strange that you don't see many skiers running it like that.

[jackski]

What you're really taking about is the distance from the bottom of the ski to the working surface of the wing. The closer the wing is to the bottom of the, ski the more effect it has during the pull and preturn. The further it's away from the bottom the more effect it has during the turn.

[A_B]

Not really hard to run a set at x degree and then flip for the next set and see what YOU think.

 

I did years ago, and the only discernible difference I felt was that my offside turn seemed to finish better with wing on bottom = holes on top of wing, not under it.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

There are 2 factors that affect the feel of right side up or upside down:

 

- having the flange side down shields the turbulence so you do get a slightly more laminar (smooth) water flow over the wing, but the wing is closer to the bottom of the ski, so the "wing effect" is reduced.

 

- upside down positions the wing lower on the fin, farther away from the bottom of the ski, so its in an area of less turbulence to begin with, and the wing can have more effect.

 

In my experience, the position of the wing being lower dominates. The lower and farther back you can position the wing, the better. Somewhere on this site, there is a link to a 1990's vintage Kris Lapoint article on wing position. Well worth searching and experimenting to find what works best for you.

[teammalibu]

If it works better upside down why dont we just call that right side up??? And of course what Bruce said!

[Glydon]

Glad to come across this thread my old Kidder Redline had the wing "upside down" as opposed to the position most new skis are coming with. I grew accustomed to running it that way so I flipped it immediately when I purchased my new Iconn C-6 carbon (old now). I was just considering trying it the opposite way. Will be interesting to see any difference.

 

[mwetskier]

ive seen reference to the kris lapoint article a few times but it took a while for me to find it. for anyone interested it can be found in this thread about 27 posts down from the top.

 

http://www.ballofspray.com/forum#/discussion/4794/bob-lapoint-on-wings/p1