| New radiator in place i took off from the hoverport, just me in the craft. | |||
| Weather was really good for testing: sun shine, temperature at 16-17C (61-63F) according to multimeter i had with me. Absolutely no wind at all ! | |||
| I headed upstream planning to do the same test run as previously on week. Didn't have my GPS with me, but guessing i did 30-35km/h in a river not much wider than Explorer itself. Well, i do have my reserve since there is thick vegetation before hitting the banks or trees. | |||
| So far, so good. I got to the first bridge and temp gauge was showing steady 81-83C (178-181F) as it should. Multimeter showed 44C(111F), a bit low and i started to suspect that coolant is not circulating in the system. I turned back and this time drove little bit harder to see how it turns out. | |||
| Tach showed figures of 3000-3200rpm as i rammed back. Was expecting temp gauge needle to raise, but it didn't ! I took a quick look at multimeter and it showed 41C (106F). So putting a sensor on the surface of radiator hose didn't give me accurate figures because of air flow cooling it, but at least it gave me a some figure to see the trend anyway. | |||
| Since engine wasn't heating too much i continued pass the hoverport downstream to the bay occasionally taking a look at the multimeter and more frequently at the temp gauge. Everything seemed to be OK and did a all so familiar route around few islands, testing also top speed or more like full throttle since i didn't have anything with me to measure the speed. Everything worked just fine all the way and i took the craft back to hoverport to report the crew about success. | |||
| When i slowed the multimeter reading started to raise and after stopping it reached 68C (154F) so air from lift fans really cooled it while operating. Since the weather was very good it was finally time to open all the access hatches at the back of the craft and check the interior of floatation compartments. I had opened one of them in spring, but had great difficulties putting it back and therefore never opened another one. It turned out that just this particular hatch was difficult to open and close, but other worked pretty well. I knew there was some water in there with all the rains and melting snow and ice through the year, but it was quite a surpise of how much actually there was water particularly in compartment with problematic hatch. We pumped at least 20-30liters (5,5-8gallons) of water from this particular compartment and maybe total of 10-20l (3-5gallons) from others. One of them was actully empty. | |||
| After this i just had to test it. And yes even in large craft like Explorer the difference was easily noticeable, actually it was like night and day. Craft lifted on cushion much more easily with less throttle and was much more balanced even me driving solo (most of the water was at the same side than steering wheel). Good day alltogether. | |||