Can:
There are a lot of misconceptions about feather size and shape. Not sure what you mean by "Traditional Fletchings" I'm assuming its what is known as the Pope & Young cut. Inches of feather is the same regardless of its shape, however some are noisier that others, the P&Y shape is the noisiest. Anytime you get a angle at the rear end of the feather it creates noise, know in Airplane terms as wing tip vortices. Its caused by air turbulence coming off the point. As far as being stable in the wind the lower the fletch the more stable it is in the wind.
Bob