| Windshield ALMOST complete it was
time for another test drive. After all it had been almost a month from
last operation and weather has been really nice recently and it's not likely
to stay that way for ever.
I spent entire nearly whole Saturday finishing up and screwing those numerous DIN964 M4 screws tight and loose while trimming windshield pieces. Late in the afternoon i was finished and we could haul the Explorer to boat ramp. As we have had some practice launching this craft before we managed very well to launch it just by two of us. I headed right away to my hoverport, about ~3 kilometers (~2miles) downstream from boat ramp. I took the short route which included few low bridges. Actually this was going to be my first longer solo-operation and i didn't feel confident enough to take the long route which would have included ~10km (~6miles) and more open waters. Clock was ticking at 5:00pm, day was turning to sunset and temperature had started to drop from earlier 16 Centigrade to more like 11 C and was still dropping. Luckily water in the river was in record low level for this summer so i could easily float under low obstacles i had on my way. Of course lamprey traps were still there to be avoided. Transfer drive was quite quick, nothing much to report there. I floated with engine stopped under the lowest bridge, even had to turn propeller to "X" position to fit under those large I-beams. It's amazing how much vegetetation can grow in a month even in September. My hoverport was blocked by 1,5m (~5ft) vegetation and it was only month ago there was a free access from river to ashore. Anyway i could throttle through and land my Explorer on beach. New windshield worked great. When dodging lamprey traps i had to run through vegetation and previously this resulted some debris and insects flying and i had my share of that too. Now i could just lower my head behind the windshield and watch grasshoppers bouncing to Lexan sheet... |
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| As this was a quick tranfer drive i didn't shoot any video footage. I had my digital camera with me, but despite of charging the batteries it didn't work, so no pics. | ||||