Ok, so out on the Free Ride foil today, with Formula board and Goya 3-batten Fringe 5.7m sail.
Gusty, offshore wind from 5-20 knots, would normally sail Slalom 80cm wide and 8.6m in these conditions (if at all), but flying on the foil no problem - big advantage is I could sail back to the beach into the shifty irregular winds, impossible on the slalom kit. Again, I was surprised how easy to fly even this time, relatively small sail with Formula board. When rigging up, I was really not expecting much flying today, just hoping to enjoy being back on the water and reacquainting with the gear.
I would say this is on the faster side of Free Ride foils. Gets up and going with ease and stays up, accelerating with good upwind angles - FAST. Probably not so suited to downwind, swell riding, like the big Slingshot and Cruiser foils reviewed in other threads here. I think it may be too fast, and wants the extra power from the sail to stay flying. I can't see it just luffing off and surfing the swells. Perhaps with more practice though, it could be tamed, as it is very responsive under foot, some pretty wild carving turns and dives were experienced, fully unintentionally. Fortunately always recovered without issue, so far.
Stoked to now know how well it does work on the Formula with small sail. Before I was thinking the Slalom board may work better. The Slalom board is currently being converted to deep tuttle foil box, so looking forward to flying on that soon. Will report back on that setup.