| This section details the acquisition and
restoration of a Canair 506 Hovercraft. I am often asked how much the Canair 506 is worth. The short answer is I don't know but new the
crafts cost between $51,000 and $55,000. This craft sn#3 was
originally purchased by Lew Adkins for a demo craft and is a movie star.
You can read about it on his web site
http://www.canhover.com . |
Click here for the full story on buying the Canair 506. |
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U.S. Customs ruling on
the Canair line of hovercrafts. |
| April 25, 2004. I have decided to buy
a Canair 506 hovercraft. This is a nice looking craft that was made by
Canair
in Canada. Unfortunately, it is located in Edmonton, Alberta Canada
which is about 2500 miles from where I live. Ouch!. Well, you have to
do what you have to do.... |
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These are the pictures Randy Ruggles put on
the Ebay ad. |
| May 20-21, 2004. Randy Ruggles
(previous owner) and his wife Ellen drove the 506 from Edmonton, Canada
to Pembina, North Dakota which is about 1000 miles. Randy picked me up
in Winnipeg, Canada at a gas station and we drove across the border to
Pembina where Ray Mathews was waiting to tow the 506 to Spring Texas.
Ray drove from WI to Pembina on the 19th and I flew to Winnipeg on the
19th. Randy an I drove into Pembina at 5 PM on Thursday and transferred
the trailer to Ray's Ford 150. Ray and I then drove to Spring and
arrived at 7pm on Friday the 20th. Ray did most of the driving - he is
a road warrior!!!. 1st picture is Randy and I driving into Pembina.
2nd picture is Ester, Randy and I after we arrived at Pembina. |
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| Here is a picture of Ray Matthews and his
Ford 150 that towed the 506 from the Winnipeg/North Dakota border to
Spring, Texas. The truck and trailer were are long as the big trucks.
After delivering the 506 and me to my house in Spring, Ray turned right
around and headed back to Dallas to pick up another hovercraft he was
going to transport to Boston. WOW. THANKS RAY FOR ALL THE HELP!!!!!!
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Here are some pictures when we unwrapped the
506 on Friday night. Lane Crampton came over and helped unpack it. |
| May 22-24, 2004. Now the work
begins. The exhaust needs to be replaced. Since this craft has been
used in salt water, the exhaust was one of the first things I checked.
I learned a good lesson from what happened to Lane's craft after it was
used in salt water. The pipes are pretty rusted and the heat wrap is
mostly off. |
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| Here are the pictures from inside the back
of the craft showing the muffler and pipe. They are sad looking. I
will have them replaced before the Memorial Day hover-in. |
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| When I took off the engine panels, I noticed
one of the panels had a big crack and was not long for this world. It
needed pronto fixing. |
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| 1st picture is the carbon fiber and
fiberglass I laminated on the back of the panel to reinforce it. It is
pretty strong now. The 2nd picture shows the back of the craft with the
rear skirts removed. The two rectangular holes are where the air comes
out for the lift to enter the skirts. Inside the holes are the muffler
and exhaust pipes in the earlier pictures. |
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| 1st picture shows the control panel and
control stick. The stick is moved in the direction you want to go even
backwards. the 2nd picture shows the inside of the duct. The
horizontal wings are controlled in the cockpit to adjust the amount of
lift vs. thrust. |
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| Here are two pictures of the thrust
reversers. The rudders are moved to cut off air from going out the back
and then the air pushes open the reversers which direct the air
forwards. |
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| 1st picture shows the Cam100 engine. It is
a Honda 1.5L with a cog belt reduction unit attached to it. It also has
a custom ignition that uses one coil per cylinder. 2nd picture shows
the rudders. |
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Four pictures taken for the insurance
company. Hovercraft insurance is not cheap! |
| June 6, 2004. My job today was to
find out why the window wiper does not work. It was difficult getting
the mechanism out but I persevered. The mechanism is totally corroded
and nothing seems to move. As I doubt I can find a similar system, I am
going to have to rebuild this one if at all possible. It clearly has
not worked for some time. Click here for
the details of the mechanism restoration. |
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June 18, 2004. My son and I went to visit Larry Threlkeld
at
Strike Zone Charters Inc.
in Big Pine Key, Florida to receive
transition training on the Canair 506. We had a good time a
learned a lot. Click here for the
full story. The 1st picture is of Larry and his 506. The
shark's name is Julio. 2nd picture is my son at Strike Zone Charters. |
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July 18,
2004. The wiper
motor is restored and mounted back into the hovercraft. I have
been working on the alternator wiring. The old wiring had
significant corrosion and so I have replaced it. I also had to fix
the wire going to the starter solenoid. I happened to touch the
wire and the end fell off. Well, better now than out on a cruise!
While I was at it, I changed the battery isolator from a diode isolator
to a smart isolator that has negligible voltage drop and it will connect
AUX battery if needed for starting. |
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Sept 12,
2004. Lane and I
took the Canair out to Lake Somerville on Sunday. I had changed
some of the wiring and added foam to the inside of the side structure.
It was a pretty good day and a comfy ride. I did have some trouble
with the splitter control which needs to be fixed. Here are some
Quicktime movies of the first run.
Movie1 (7meg):
Movie 2(4meg):
Movie 3(7meg). |
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Sept 18, 2004.
Lane and I went to the Lone Star Hover-in on the Brazos river Saturday.
The first picture is Pete Tew who is leaving Texas shortly and has sold
his very fine 12T4. The 2nd picture is me about to take off. Here
are some Quicktime movies taken at the hovein.
Movie 4 (3meg):
Movie 5 (7meg).
Since the last outing on Lake Somerville, Chris Keirs and I replaced the
splitter cable and weather boot. It took about 4 hours to do.
Thanks Chris! The new cable is a Morse 4300 series cable that is
16' long. The new cable moves a lot easier than the old one. |
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Oct 13, 2004. I have decided to change the control system
by adding a trim switch to the control stick so I don't have to take my
hands off the stick to trim the craft. I will detail this work on
a Separate Page. |
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I am also replacing all the plastic "barbs" with nylon screws and lock
nuts. The barbs work pretty well but do come loose. This is
a great deal of work and I can only do one large segment of fingers
before my hands get tired. 1st picture of of a "barb" and the second
shows where they go on the skirt. |
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On the last outing, I noticed the starter did not want to turn when it
was hot so it is getting replaced. |
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Oct 24, 2003. I replaced the starter with a rebuilt one
thanks to the efforts of Duff and Northbelt Auto Parts. It works
fine now. THANKS DUFF! Just as a precaution, I am having my
old starter rebuilt so I have a spare. The craft is running
fine now and I will take it to the Lake next weekend for a cruise!!! |
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