| Allthough few minor setbacks were experienced, but more of that later. |
Wind was quite hard for a beginner like me: gusty ~9m/s (20mph). Forecast
was 7-11m/s and it was going to be more windy later in the evening. Warning
to all boaters on the west coast of Finland was given just before we headed
to boat ramp.
 
 
Ramp it self was exposed to wind, but it was easy enough to find a protected
areas as this was a river with thick growth of alder on sides. At the place
where ramp is river divides to two branches. Other one is so small i'm
not thinking of getting into just yet, but other is wide and has space
enough to learn basic skills.
Still there was plenty to take into consideration. I had studied bridges
and low hanging electric wires before, but still managed to be surpised
by couple of electric wires. After few slow runs i was assured that we
can just drive under those wires without worrying about "shocking" contact.
Summer is turning into fall and that was noticed by the amount of floating
birch seeds on the river. Of course large prop and inexperienced driver
did not help at all when my crew ashore got wet seeds all over them everytime
i launched for another round.
 
Allthough i tried to be as quiet about this test run as i could, just to
learn to operate first without distractions or pressure from audience,
sound of large propeller whistling in a wind attracted interested folks
to watch my performance. Of course i had to have a lot of help especially
during loading the craft to not so good trailer and i'd like to take this
opportunity to thank them all - without them i'd still be without this
much expected experience ! Still i have a doubt that someone ;-)
in the group of these "trustees" blabbed too much because as the set time
for test got closer more people started to show up.
 
 
After learning the basics and few "that was close" i gave rides to people
who wanted to get along. Slowly increasing wind perhaps scared few away
as time to time when turning and wind happened to be hard lot of spray
invaded cabin. Changing sound of propeller in this situation would have
certainly scared me if it wasn't mentioned in Barry's operational instructions.
 
When carrying few people one of mentioned smell of burning plastic. We
stopped the engine and studied the engine area. Nothing was on fire so
back on cushion. When we were closing the ramp my dad waived to stop the
engine. We got ashore and he told me that when i reduce throttle and aft
drops off cushion skirt contacts with exhaust tube until all air escapes
the bag. Right away he drove back to our workshop and welded quickly a
shield to separate hot exhaust tube and skirt when this would occur. Soon
we back in operation.
But as wind got harder and harder and afternoon was turning into evening
- we had to pack things and start to figure how to get it back on trailer.
Luckily not all people vanished when fun part was over
and it was time to do some labour. First lift ended up puncturing floor
panel. Sharp rectangular steel tube protruded outer glassfiber skin, but
thanks to disgusting sound of it we knew immediately what was happening
and we backed off to let the craft to float. Another try was then succesful
and we had craft bac on trailer.
Dismantling the prop, lifting skirt up for transportation went now
smoothly - we had some practice already.
What should have been one of the first things to do was done now. I
had special shirts made for people who helped me during construction and
with this test run. It would have been quite nice to have all those people
wearing matching shirts when we were at river. But after we were ready
to transport Explorer to ramp everybody rushed there and i didn't have
a good opportunity to give these away.
 
When we got back to workshop time was about 9:00PM. We just quickly collected
tools laying around the yard, piled timber and wheels we used during loading
and cleaned up consequences of test running the engine and lift fans. These
past few weeks have been so intensive time for me that i'm going to take
few days off from Explorer project. Just watching a video we taped during
Sunday afternoon. And preparing some available to internet community. |
| Some notes made during this first test run: |
|
|
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Exhaust tube contacted with skirt - shield installed to exhaust between
operations
|
-
Hull punctured during transportation after testing - will be patched and
modification will be done to trailer (new trailer ?, this one was modified
from surplus one we just happened to have)
|
-
Belts do need some kind of cover or shield. I didn't hear any slipping
(i have aluminium pulleys) and haven't inspected the pulleys yet, but occasional
spray can't be good for drives. Engine has to be covered also which wasn't
done for this operation.
|
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Windshield and soft top would certainly add some comfort especially to
passengers on back seat.
|
-
Wiring of RPM indicator has to checked. Starting of electric fuel pump
caused engine to rotate at 1500rpm (according RPM indicator) and applying
just 1/4 or 1/3 of throttle bursted engine to 8000rpm (again according
RPM indicator). Something wrong there.
|