Select to expand quoteSamkyo said..
Hello,
at first with the preliminary flyer that slingshot release I was really interested by the phantasm. Since with delay, price and wing availabiIity, I started changing my mind as a refined I76 will stay a 76 not sure the upgrade will be really noticeable except the drag reduction at the fuselage connection.
I would have prefer a solution to allow HG owner to use the carbon mast with there original set of wing and been able to add really new wing like high aspect.
now let's talk about price, with delay on shipping the probably that the production is in Asia is high and as Sonic inChina is the actual go to for foil manufacturing we can start from there and try to understood why European foil are less expensive like Alpin foil/AFS/Lokefoil/SAB. The only option is that's man hrs rate in 10years grow so much in China that Europe are now a low cost area. yes I forgot to say that 10years ago I was working near Sonic factory for composite manufacturing and more particularly Moth that give me a good idea of the number and to know that big factor are not the few extra carbon layers .
Base on this and to reduce carbon print impact that already high with composite my next foil upgrade will be certainly source locally with brand that also manufacturer and who give me the feeling of not being only a wallet full of money that you full with good commercial information
I did see this high aspect hoverglide wing on instagram last year.
www.instagram.com/p/CIHVwvZDjV_/
No idea if it's coming to market
Select to expand quoteZeroVix said..WhiteofHeart said..simonp123 said..
I haven't been impressed with the Phantasm quality so far. My Phantasm Kite 633 had a very noisy mast and rear stab which I had to fix with some Donaldson's trailing edge sanding. The sides of fuselage are now developing significant areas of corrosion where there is no contact with wings, etc or suffered any damaged. I assume that's caused by poor quality paint/coating.
The Phantasm Windsurf 730 is going to sell for GBP 2500 (USD 3500) in the UK! That seems excessive - particularly if the quality doesn't improve. For that sort of money I'd expect a carbon or titanium fuselage like Armstrong.
I dont understand that they didnt go 1-piece / monobloc plane, or at least 1 piece frontwing/fuselage. Especially since slingshot doesnt believe in shimming anyway. The performance difference is quite noticable (having tested the exact same carbon frontwing with an alu fuselage and 1-piece carbon), and its a lot stronger if done right. Alu fuselages kept bending on me, carbon is bulletproof!!
I suppose transport is an argument (and possibly a good one at that..), but the biggest F-One wing has 110 wingspan and 2200cm2, and also has a monoblock construction up until the mast connection. Its just the back half of the fuselage which is screwed on, but that bit doesnt take that much force.
Why? Modular system for 3 sports (can't be one piece). It would be very expensive to offer a product like Lokefoil system for the casual user. Carbon fuselage are far from bulletproof. I have seen some pictures of split carbon fuselage. You can ask the designer of F4 and Starboard why they don't offer them in carbon. The longer the fuse, the greater the problem. Forget about any impact issues. The Phantasm wind foiling series will have 873 fuse (87.3 cm). Funny thing about transport; I read yesterday on a German website offering the Phantasm series and the translation is: "The mast connection to fuselage is very tight. That is why the foil is not necessarily suitable for removing the mast from the fuselage. It is better to dismantle the front wing for transport." No first hand experience on the kite foils, so I can't comment on that.
Ofcourse modularity is a great argument! Silly I missed that one!!
