"THINGS THAT FLOAT"
creations by David Bosworth
June 2002
"Lil" hovercraft maiden flight!
Well,, needless to say this was a very exiting day for all of us. Seven people including myself had there first chance to fly a hovercraft!, I begged a ride in a 14' Sevtec vanguard "Woody" owned and operated by Alex Olshove's at the north west hoverin in Anacortes Wa. last fall but had never got my hands on a flight stick (on a running craft) until today! . My buddy and fellow hover builder Mark arrived early and we made a few adjustments to the splitter plate and the steering system a couple of practice laps around the driveway and down to the river we go!, I have to admit I was very, very surprized by the amount of dust it threw into the air when I crossed the gravel road in front of our house! Mark said the hover literally disappeared for a second in the cloud,,, this would be the second it took me to hit the kill switch, which was all it took to sand blast most of the paint off the leading edge of the fan! "Oh well" chalk one up for experience and off to the river we went!,,,,,,again!
Dave ( that would be me) eases up the throttle and gently slides off the bank.
Dave brings her back in for a landing!
Heading out mid channel of the cove, as you can see the river level is up over the lower lawn, there is normally a steep drop off here,,,, heck the river can get up to 13' higher here too!
Shallow water? reeds? sandbars? dead head? no problem for a hovercraft!!
We convinced my wife Diane to give her a try out on the water, this was Dianes first flight out of the yard. "Lil" really hops to with a pilot in her weight class! she's porked up to about 105 lbs. I have been meaning to talk to her about that!!
This would be Mark Pezoldt having a turn at the stick. Notice he is keeping just enough throttle up to stay on cusion as he comes in and greatly reducing the amount of spray!, Mark has a big stretched UH-16s project underway now!
