The original finger skirt was taken off four years ago to repair the hull and duct, which were damaged. The damage was caused by losing a bottom aluminum rail to a rock in a river, this caused a gap between the two hull halves which came undone in a dramatic way about a year later and almost left me stranded.
I never liked the constant spray in my face of the original skirt; the sorry obstacle clearance and the inherent instability which made it a poor cruiser yet gave it fair maneuverability and banking ability.
I sought to change and improve what I thought I could, even tried to make it quieter in the process.
The point of the continuing experiment is to learn as much as possible using the school of hard knocks method or perhaps an artistic rather than conventional engineering method. The excitement and possibility of doing something which has not been done before defies practicality and logic yet is the sprit of many inventions and innovations. Graduating from the theories found reading and the play of models, I sought to “scale up” my experience and knowledge base within a reasonable budget and investment of time.
In retrospect I could of built a hovercraft from plans with the same amount of effort and time, but I don’t think I would of gotten out of it what this furrowed path has brought.
Concept: Hovercraft operates in water the majority of the time, make the skirt more like a boat hull and see what happens.
One of the rescue workers said of my Sunday morning river run; we had to do a double take, it looked like a Zodiac at first.
First Gen, Transparent skirt:
http://www.hoverclubofamerica.org/forum/in...p?showtopic=412
Second Gen, Heavy Yellow Skirt:
http://www.hoverclubofamerica.org/forum/in...p?showtopic=962
This thread is the Third Generation, and it may not be the last - we will just have to wait and see.
It's a work in progress, I'll try to back-track as much as possible.
The stern skirt which kind of looks like a diaper with temporary straps got torn up on some rocks before it could be adjusted for air pressure and final connection to the two side skirts. There is some serious re-engineering going on in my head about this right now.
The gray skirt is ballon material, a large bag filled (almost 90 feet x 4 feet) weighed in at about 10 pounds, I used 7 pounds. The old yellow skirt weighed in at 60.5 lbs....................a weight savings of over 50 lbs!!!!!!!
I also redid the stern counter weights by removing the dumbells, and placing steel bars on the twin tail farther from the center of lift and center of mass/gravity. This was another weight savings, I'd like to take all the weights off by just having a larger engine one day.
The hot air balloon material is not very abrasion resistant, I may be going to a conventional material or combination material skirt in the fall.
Big thanks to my wife Kim who did all the sewing.