| Skirt torn. | |||
| Whole Easter we have had exceptionally good weather. Sun shine and about +10C (50F) during day and about 0C (32F) during the night. As everyone else i also had a long weekend off from work and at the last day got the opportunity to go hovering. | |||
| We were going to go and check the ice situation at the bay. We got to the hoverport at 2:00PM and could cross the river just walking on ice without problems. We also immediately started preparation for take off: filled the gas tank, opened the soft top and checked the engine area for strange objects. | |||
| Craft started fine even after sitting there for three weeks and i didn't have any problems to take off. My wife helped to guide the bow to more clear area and i headed for river. | |||
| There was snow on the ground, actually ice, and speed increased quite easily, too easily actually. I had to drop the craft to the ground. I hear something that didn't seem normal. I stopped the craft and started to see what was wrong. Couldn't see nothing, but Jaana, my wife, told me she heard it too somewhere from the aft of the craft. I tried to check the fan bay, but couldn't see there because of the bright sun light outside. Finally lifted the skirt aft section and saw a rip about 30cm (1 ft) starting from center drain hole. Obviously a small stick that i had noticed in the ground earlier had found it's way partially inside the skirt and ripped the material from both sides of the drain hole before breaking. | |||
| Since damage didn't seem to be too extensive i decided to go ahead and load the craft with passengers and take at least a short ride. | |||
| Just as we got to the river we noticed it was already open from the tight bend where current is stronger and after the bend we noticed there wasn't too much of ice anymore at all. Once we got to the bay ice was stronger except where rocks are present and current is stronger. We circled around and noticed some fresh footprints on a mushy ice. People are really crazy to on ice by walking this time of year. After circling bit more we even noticed several fishermen on ice, but they were quite close the shore and on the shadowy side of larger island. | |||
| We headed back and on our way checked the spot where someone had sunk a van just a week before. And indeed there was square hole on ice, muddy tracks leading ashore and a blue Ford Transit van sitting at the tip of the cape. Looked very funny, but i bet it wasn't funny when car started to sink... We got back safely, without any problems and i parked the craft closer the shoreline this time. Since ice was practically gone there wasn't much of risk of water rising. But still we tied the craft to be sure. | |||
| I checked the damage to start figure how to fix it. To my surprise the rip had grown from 30cm (1ft) to almost 1m (3ft). I guess occasionally scooping ice did help some. But funny thing is that i personally didn't notice any signs of such a large leak in the skirt system. I guess i better remove the whole skirt and have it patched properly. Then i can also fix some other spots that have suffered minor damage. I'm starting to fear that maybe my skirt material is giving in after two years of exposure to the elements - hope not ! | |||
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