It did not take long
time to get back this time.
|
|
| |
|
| After making 500km round drive to pick up a spare
part car i thought we could go test the hovercraft since weather i
favourable. Forecast are now saying that two months of warm and dry
weather will be gone by next Tuesday. |
|
| |
|
It was just me, my wife and our kids this time.
Plan was to visit my wife's grandparents place. Secondary, depending on
wind conditions, we were to visit my uncle's summer house further up.
There were two route options, river and sea. There was headwind either
way, but longer trip by river. I choose the sea route to test the
craft. Wind was about 10m/s and we had no problem of getting through.
During first leg i did use cover of islands to help our journey, but
second would be open without islands to protect.
|
|
| |
|
| First leg was negotiated quite easlily. At the
end of this leg there is small delta and narrow river formed by
vegetation. Not a problem for hovercraft, but difficult to spot those
occasional low speedboats between all the vegetation. Luckily there
wasn't any so we made it there after uneventful trip. |
|
|
|
Short stop and we got back on the water. We
decided to try the second leg too. I zigzagged island the best i could,
but eventually i had to take the straight headwind course to our
second destination. It was also quite uneventfull. There wasn't any
boaters there, unlike yesterday.
|
|
| |
|
We weren't sure if there would be anyone there,
but as we got closer we noticed some movement started to happen ashore.
I approached carefully since this area has lot of rocks to poke through
hull off-cushion mode. After few tries i managed to park the craft
close to small pier. Left the craft floating as we got in to check some
wedding photos. There was also a huge trampoline with safety nets,
which my daughter found very interesting place.
|
|
| |
|
| After a half and hour stop darker clouds started
to gather and block the sun. We decided to head back before possible
rain (which eventually did not happen until several hours later). While
we were loading the craft i noticed a small leak at the right side of
the craft, about 1/3rd's of the passenger area. I apparently did not
leak if craft was unloaded, but once some weigth at the bow it
developed a small leak. Probably it's not submerged if floating
unladen. It was so small i didn't tell anyone about it not to scare
them for such a small issue. Passengers and bystanders probably got
enough excitement of me trying to get out there. For some reason i had
trouble getting the craft go where i wanted. It's like the rocky
shoreline sucked the craft to more troubles. During this process i
sprayd my uncle quite well as he was helping to push the craft to right
direction. Some cushion an few pushes and off we were. |
|
| |
|
This time tailwind- yippee ! I didn't push it too
hard though. I kept the rpm's round 3200 just like headwind. I'll save
the shakedownd tests to take place when i'm alone or with my brother.
Naturally the return leg was fast. I think with dark clouds wind
increased a bit, but would still have been possible to make also
headwind if needed.
|
|
| |
|
We got back hoverport and i told about the small
leak to my wife. She didn't seem to scared. I think she has alredy got
used to wonderful world of hovering. Rest of the "crew" had some snack
we had with us, while i checked the aft floatation departments. There
wasn't any water so they do not leak. It's amazing how much condensate
water those can develop during few years. I could now also take a
better a look at the leak. It seems that it's the result from years
back while i
hit a huge chuck of ice at speed. Apparently we did not fix the
hull extensively enough back them.
|
|
|
|
I've
still got to find my GPS, but i think we did about 20kilometers
(12,5miles) on Sunday. Now i think i'll have to prepare for some
glassfiber work. I'm seriously considering to move the craft to much
more convinient location for the repairs. To a place that can be
accessed easily by car and has the tools needed to do the job. Who
knows, i may go wild and finally had the airdrive and prop guards
painted or zinked ;-)
|
|