| For a long time weather was "warm" enough (-10C/14F no noticeable wind) to take ride in a hovercraft. Actually intention was just go and check the craft and remove all the snow before forecasted snowstorm would hit the area. | |||
| Snow was very light and it was easy to remove so we were done quite quickly. And of course we had to try to start the craft. | |||
| Usual problem: solenoid and strater were frozen but not too much that breeze of warm air from heat gun wouldn't cure. Once engine started to crank it started right away and blasted forward as soon as aft right corner of the skirt was released from frozen icy snow. | |||
| We headed downstream just to take a short tour in closest bay. Craft worked fine after we had released frozen steering torque tube to move freely. It was a cold ride, light snow dusted and blew right into our faces as we stood because of the frosted windshield. | |||
| We turned back and everything was until we got to the narrow curved part of our hovertour. Engine started to loose rpm and just after we got through the tricky part craft would drop off the cushion engine barely running even i had full throttle. | |||
| Sun was still kinda shining just above the horizon so time must have been 17:15-17:45. I didn't check my watch until 19:30 when we were in a car on our way back home. | |||
| We struggled for two hours to make the craft run again and we managed to do that once which helped us for another 10-15meters (11-16yards). But engine just didn't run longer. By the time we gave up it was already dark. Basic reason for all this seems to be weak or missing spark. After it stopped i dried the spark plug leads and distributor cap and checked spark plugs, but didn't find anything mysterious. At some point electric fuel pump stopped working and it didn't help us either. Well, for a long time i think i can finally write a construction report too. | |||
| So right now my craft is resting deserted on the ice waiting to be rescued. Plan is to get there this afternoon with some new spark plugs and other items and make it run to hoverport. It's only less than 200m. As a final resort it'll be towed with my father 4WD truck to hoverport. I really would like having more reliable hovercraft than this one seems to be... | |||