| Wind operation with several passengers. | |||
| Not a good weather for hovering, but what's promised - that's promised. Sun was shining and temperature was quite reasonable ~0C (32F), but the wind was really hard and getting harder. At the time i left to hoverport it was reported to be 8m/s (18mph) and forecast was 16m/s (36mph) in the evening. Got to get it done before that happens... | |||
| Plan was to take a group of people hovering to let them experience the joy of hovering. Joy for them maybe but a stress for me in this weather. | |||
| I got to the hoverport couple of hours before scheduled time to check the craft and clean it up a bit for larger group of people to fit in. Also filled the fuel tank and this time added some alcohol into the tank too to prevent freezing. | |||
| Craft started just fine and i took it to a little test drive to see the ice situation and get a feel for the wind before taking any passengers. Wind was hard that i can tell you. And the ice very slippery, since weeks of warm weather and now few days at freezing temps. And on top of that some snow we had in the morning. But what's promised - that's promised. | |||
| Group showed up at the scheduled time and i briefly told them about hovercraft and particulars of this craft. Then some words of caution and we stepped into the craft. Three people on the back seat, one in the middle and one next to me at the helm. Sides of soft top was rolled up for people to be able to see around and also to feel the speed more. | |||
| I think in a way craft handled more easily with bigger load than just me at the helm. Of course i never experienced so many "that was close"'s as i did today. Well maybe counting out the first time on the bubble that is. Almost hit a tree just 200m (200yd) from hoverport. Luckily it was just the skirt that hit it and it bounced us to correct direction. Since the water is quite high it causes ice to form a crown in the middle and naturally craft tends to slide towards the banks. | |||
| We started with head wind and it was quite easy to keep the direction. Although speed was harder to maintain because of the wind. We did 20km/h at 4000rpm on ice. Anyone with experience on Sevtecs knows what that meaning regarding the wind we faced... | |||
| After getting to the bay i stopped the craft and told that this was head wind section and fairly easy. We discussed about hovercrafts and took some photos and started the tail wind section. This time i asked one of the three men in back to sit in the middle for better balance. | |||
| I started quite cautiously and soon the passengers realized too the difference in head and tail wind operations. I had to do 180's and 360's frequently to keep the speed within a reason. I managed to steer the craft through a narrow passage to more open bay and since there wasn't no one else there i let the speed increase some more. Then did a very long 180 killing the speed. I could actually go reverse on cushion because of the wind and slippery ice - no problem at all, especially very well balanced load. | |||
| After checking few islands we headed back and passengers got a feel of another typical operation of a hovercraft side wind operation. We crossed the bay sliding sideways all the way with a still good speed. Now we only had the tricky part left. | |||
| Tail wind to narrowing bay and further on to river with a very tight curve on the way. Everything started just fine and my father-in-law was there with his snowmobile to see if we ran into problems (he heard the throttling sounds and changes in sound caused by frequent 180's and 360's). That was good since there was an old lady walking our way. Would have been no problem, but the lady stopped to watch us and wind started push us towards the lady. Immediately did 180 but prepared for a crash. My father-in-law saw the situation developing too and quickly steered his snowmobile between our course and the lady. Then i just throttled hard for second or so and waited. Indeed i managed to stop the craft just a skirt barely touching the snowmobile and the lady was not harmed. But it was far too close anyway. We did another stop and at this point passengers were really excited about our trip. During this stop i told one of the passengers estimated wind to be 11-13m/s (24-29mph). I could actually stand on the ice and lean into the wind like ski jumpers do. | |||
| One last section with the passengers on. Side wind in a very narrow river without possibility to let the wind push us sideways. I utilized some large crafts momentum to go backwards a bit and then steered straight forward. There was going to be a open water on the other end so i figured that i can easily kill the speed there if not before. And luckily this turned out to be true too although i was about to loose my faith in it. Open water section of the river was easier because of the trees blocking off the wind and i could easily keep the speed down. Last thing to do was to land the craft close to ashore so that passengers could step out with their feet dry. This succeed too and i was ready to head back to hoverport. People stayed there to watch how would i be able to take off bow heading to high riverbank. There were some skeptical comments about it and i commented that: "Let's see...". I shifted my weight to right of the craft, rudders for full right turn and throttled. Craft just pumped up and sloping ice steered the bow to the direction where i wanted it. But what i didn't remember to move was the heavier movable seat (integrated spare part/ tool box and seat) This caused me problems later when i couldn't straighten the craft's course after doing a curve on the river. Well had to step out and haul the bow into correct direction and i was again on my way. Wind caused a little bit problems when trying to hit a hole between the trees to hoverport but managed to do it on the second try. | |||
| We spend about an hour on the ice, including breaks and did just about 10km (6miles) according to GPS. But considering the weather that was plenty of hovering for the day. I certainly used all my luck for that day - there were so many "that was close"'s that i didn't even list them down all. I later on checked the wind and it was 11m/s (24mph) at the time i estimated it to be 11-13m/s. | |||