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| On sunday sun was shining and it was going to be exceptionally warm
day for December. But wind was quite hard and that worried me a bit. We
were at the hoverport in good time to prepare for warm-up spin which we
did. Ran ½km upstream and back. Just enough to warm the engine for
oil change. On our way up we managed to ran over one lamprey trap, but
hey why do they put them in middle of river !
Oil was still intack there was absolutely nothing wrong with so we just checked it and put it back and added some more to reach the top mark of the dipstick. Feeling rather confident we took of for longer tour. |
| As we got away from river it was inevitable that wind and waves were too rough to fight against. Explorer jumping up and down and cold water splashing in from open door. It was no pleasure riding in there. I just turned back. Waves were about 80cm (2,5') and wind 10+m/s (+22mph) so you'll understand that poor little engine had to really work to get us in to the headwind. |
| After we got behind some island it eased and we started to gain speed.
I noticed a small screw rolling on the foredeck and dropped the craft off
cushion to pick it up. As we were floating there uncontrollably craft turned
so that when we left i had to make loop to get us to the direction i wanted.
Doing the large curve i noticed just like oil floating at our trail. Didn't pay anymore attention to it just headed back to hoverport. |
| I took longer route back to hoverport including ramming through some vegetation. Everything seemed to work OK despite of few times engine choking when applying more throttle. We got to ashore safely. |
| We were to put some logs under tha craft to store the craft so that it wouldn't freeze down to ground incase we do have freezedowns this winter. I drove the craft just over waterline to passengers to get out with their feet dry. As i set the craft down and first passenger climbed out the craft he noticed the steam coming out of the engine. As soon as he took a better look he shouted to me: "Come and see this!" |
| All of the engine bay was messed with mixture of oil and coolant. So gray smudge all over the rear of the craft. Not a nice sight i can tell you that ! Continued to Construction Report |