Here's the launch!
Here's an album from the day if you want more pictures and videos than are here in the post below.
Michael and I headed out from Sunnyvale with the hovercraft in tow behind the van. The van really does improve the towing experience. We got to Redwood City relatively expeditiously.
We did have some friendly spectators even as we got started.
Victor joined us and we got the hovercraft out of the trailer using the dolly. Then we tested the lift fan and repositioned it manually with the lift fan. Florian joined us too and we were ready for the first land test. We tested it with two chase ropes to start.
It looks pretty good from Victor's point of view too.
From here I stepped it up and we put away the tethers.
Coming down the hill I was able to build up some speed. The parking lot looks level, but it's definitely not.
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| Picking up a little speed. |
As we were testing things out the Coast Guard Auxillery was putting away their boat. They were intriqued by the hovercraft and came over. They offered to do an safe vehicle inspection of the hovercraft. We went through the safety equipment etc. And then I have the signed form and a decal now thanks to Paul our friendly examiner.
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| Inspecting the craft |
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| Talking about safety |
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| Going down the checklist further |
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| Counter signing |
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| Getting the sticker |
With that out of the way I went back to some more land practice and was able to give some rides. At the end of the last run Jessica joined us and she was quite enthusiastic so she got the first ride.
After that I next gave Victor a ride.
During the course of these runs I'm definitely getting more comfortable with the controls. There's a strong commitment required and you need the confidence to keep the power on to allow you to turn. Especially when turning down hill.
The leaning also makes a big difference. To the side helps a little, but I think actually leaning forward was slightly dragging the front corner and helped snap the rear end around a little faster.
After that we decided it was time to try it out on the water. We walked it over while just hovering using the tow ropes. I was quite impressed with how well it went over the edges of the road and other unevenness. It feels like a long vehicle for going over the angle changes. But with the new lift fan we're really floating quite high and have excess capacity.
And of course after that we're into the water!
On our way over we also ran into Andrew who'd just been talking about the hovercraft with Steve at Sequoia. He hung around for a little bit to see it in action and gave a hand with the lines too.
With a lifejacket on we decided to take it a little bit deeper and promptly ran out of gas.
For testing I've purposely been keeping the gas tanks close to empty so that there'd be less energy around in case of an issue. But as you start doing longer tests it gets in the way.
We fueled up and then kept testing. Everything was a little wetter than I was expecting. And the lift engine powered down. I wasn't sure if it was no gas as an issue, but after some fiddling with the sparkplug it lit back up. I think that it was getting a little bit too wet for the lawnmower engine design. I'm going to look at putting up some housing to protect the sides of the engine from direct spray.
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| Restarting the engine on the water |
The unexpected shutdowns and long time in the water turned out to test the skirts more than I expected. The boat is quite stable on the water deflated. We were able to have 3 of us walking on the deck without much problem. It's quite stable and plenty buoyant. One of my biggest worries was that the skirts would be full of water and wouldn't drain. The skirts did drain, but we stopped at the top of the ramp for a while to be patient.
When we continued there was definitely still a little water coming out. But it did seem to vent out relatively quickly. It also made it quite clear that there are several areas where the skirt doesn't seal as well as I thought. I noticed leaks in the corner seams as well as shooting out of the corners of the battons (aka where there are no battons holding the corners.) But a little leakage is ok the system is designed to tolerate that.
I gave Wim a final ride around the parking lot and then we loaded it up for going home. On the way home i began to realize quite how dirty I'd gotten in the day. It almost looked like I had a 5 o'clock shadow on the entireity of my face. (Good sunscreen alternative....) I took the craft out when I got home to wash it down. Here's before and after.
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| Before the hosedown |
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| After the hosedown |
Other lessons learned. The stickers for the registration do not hold. At some point we were displaying F 16 on the starboard side. I think basically all the decals came off. I'll need to find a new solution for that.
I was also quite underwhelmed with the thrust generated. When I was giving Wim a ride back to the trailer we were not able to get going up the hill. We were just sitting there on the couple degree grade. After Andrew gave us a pull on the rope I had control and could guide it down the hill. We might have still had some water in the skirts, but I think that the limiting factor is now the thrust fan. Which is presumably as inefficient as the lift fan was.
It's been many years in the making but I now can say that I have a hovercraft! I'll call this the end of the build log. There's clearly more improvements to be had, but it's fully functioning!
It's been a great day!
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| The craft back in the dirvewawy at the end of a successful day! |
