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From:
"hboyle2003" <hrboyle@s...>
Date: Mon Oct 20, 2003 3:21 pm
Subject: REPORT FROM THE HOUSTON HOVER-IN OCT
18-19TH |
Report
of the Houston Hover-in Oct 18-19th, 2003.
First, I must say the weather was great. The temperature was in
the
upper 70s during the day and dropped into the 60s at night.
Clear
skies and bright twinkling stars that provided free nighttime
entertainment were enjoyed by all. The camp fire was a welcome
source
of heat after a full day of hovering and the fellowship -
priceless.
While the evening was on the cool side, most of us camping
managed to
stay nice and toasty in our sleeping bags. Of course, there was
Lane
with his electric blanket which would have been a really great
comfort if only he had also taken the controls.... Well, there
is a
learning curve with camping and he will remember next time!
So the facts, well, there were four hovercrafts in attendance.
Lane
and I brought our AC-3 Aircommanders. Jimmy (forgot last name)
brought his almost finished13PT and my neighbor's son Mark
brought
his just finished UH R/C hovercraft.
The 13PT was not finished yet. The lift engine and thrust
engines
were not working and the steering hookup was not manufactured
yet.
But, after some considerable work all Saturday, the engines were
convinced (mostly) to run and the steering was completed (for a
short
while). The lift engine was hooked up but would not start. Seems
there was gas leaking out of the intake manifold. After that was
fixed with some gasket-in-a-tube, the starter would not
disengage.
So it was off to the nearby town for parts. Now this is not the
largest of towns so I was shocked they found the parts for the
starter. Never the less, parts were acquired and quickly added
to
the reluctant starter. Jimmy's mom did most of the work on the
starter, but Lane offered a hand also. The craft kind of became
a
community effort.
Mark was helping with making the steering bracket and the
battery
drill picked that time to be pooped. Fortunately, the park
ranger
was very nice and drove to the park office and brought back
another
drill for the project to use (real nice guy!). So the bracket
was
completed and the steering hooked up (sort of). Now the thrust
engine would not start unless someone continuously pumped the
primer
bulb. Well that gets a bit tiring you know so more investigation
was
in order. After much searching and reflection, it was noted that
the
electric solenoid was electron-less. So some new wires were
added to
hook it up to the now tired battery and, yes, it works!!!! There
is
thrust!!!
So with the lift engine working and the thrust engine on-line,
what
can you do but try to hover on the lake. With Jimmy in the
cockpit
and five others guiding it down to the water it looked good to
go. It
was launched into the water and took off – for about two feet.
Well, it seems the steering bracket had a bolt in it but the nut
was
an advanced topic left for later. Hence the bolt popped out and
the
steering became inoperative. Then the lift engine started to
putt-
putt. It looked like we would have to push the craft over to the
boat ramp to get it out but at the last moment, it started
enough to
get it out of the water. For some reason, the engine would only
run
for about 30-40 seconds before it stopped. The fan had also
ridden
up on the shaft and needed persuading to get back down to where
it
should be. After some more fussing, it was decided to trailer it
and
six of us helped put it back on the trailer. So, while not a
full
success, it was a remarkable step forward from the state it
arrived
in. I suspect with another days work the 13PT will be
operational.
Jimmy and his family left Saturday night for a four hour drive
to
Dallas. Jimmy's dad's temporary relocation to Dallas had come to
an
end and they were leaving to drive to Atlanta on Sunday to
return
home. Now there is a dedicated hover family to attend a hover-in
the
day before driving all the way to Georgia! We enjoyed having
them at
a number of Texas hover-ins and will miss them.
Mark and his R/C hovercraft did real well. That thing can scoot
on
the water. It is surprisingly big and can lift 5+ pounds of
payload. The only problem noted was that it would run out of
range
from time to time and would need to be retrieved. Looked like
loads
of fun! Mark came over to the house last week to finish the duct
and
only got it back on Thursday night so he had plenty of work to
do on
Friday to get it going. Good job Mark! Looked like so much fun
that
I may have to build one of those now….
Lane did not finish his hoverboard before the hover-in so that
will
have to wait until the next one in March. That will be pretty
fun
when he gets it finished. It is basically a hover surfboard and
looks neat. However, given my excellent sense of balance, I will
likely fall flat on my face and break my nose riding it so maybe
it
should be left for the younger crew. It will be fun to watch
though.
Lane and I gave many rides with our Aircommanders. There were a
bunch of Boy Scouts camping near by so we had a constant stream
of on-
lookers. Mark had recently passed his boating safety class and
so I
let him take the AC-3 out by himself. He had a good time and got
pretty good at turning and such.
The lake was just perfect for hovercrafting. Very few boats were
on
the water and there was only a light breeze. So, the water was
smoooooth and it was great. It was so smooth I would see the
small
ripples from my hovercraft on the surface long after I had
passed an
area. The lilly pad area had grown even larger so we had a huge
area
of the lake only we could use. There were tufts of tall grass
spread
out all through the lilly pads and it was great fun to dodge in
and
out of them. Kind of like an obstacle course. On Saturday
morning I
decided to see if I could get through the grass so I got a
running
start and plowed right through a section of the grass. At times
like
that I am glad I wear a helmet as I ended up with about 8
spiders
joining me in the craft and a tree frog on my helmet visor in
front
of my right eye. Hard to know if the frog or I was the more
surprised. Well the frog and I reasoned together and we decided
he
was better off in the water so he was plucked from the visor
(their
feet are very sticky) and deposited in the lake. Lane and I also
took a tour, in formation, of the entire lake down to the dam
and
back. With the water flat, little wind and few boats it was
great.
We only had to stop once so Lane could fix a couple of loose
finger
skirts. This is the first hover-in where I did not have to fix
anything. That is serious progress for me. Maybe next time I
will
have my 18SPW ready and then I can start the adjusting/repairing
process again.
Well that is all to report. It was a great weekend for hovering
and
everyone seemed to have a good time.
Howard |
Date:
Sun Sep 28, 2003 6:08 pm
Subject: REPORT FROM THE LAKE HOUSTON HOVER OUTING |
|
The report from the Lake Houston Hover Outing Sept 28th.
First of all, the Lake Houston Hover Outing took place on the
San
Jacinto River and not Lake Houston due to some unfortunate
circumstances. The circumstances, in order of importance, were a
Houston city ordinance forbidding airboat type craft (prop above
water line) and a Sergeant Jones of the River Patrol who was
most
insistent that a Mr. Crampton could not hover on ANY of his
water
ways.
The fist circumstance needs no further elaboration. However the
matter with the good Sargent … well … earlier on Saturday I
called
the River Patrol and talked to a nice fellow who explained that
hovercrafts were not permitted on Lake Houston but he did not
know
the details and invited me to call back in a hour and talk to
his
Sergeant (Jones). What with one thing and another I ended up
calling
some five hours later. At that time Sargent Jones was rather
put
out that he was being bothered about the same matter again and
asked
if any more people were going to call him. Seems someone else
had
called him a little earlier about hovercraft use on Lake
Houston.
This other person had then asked about each-and-every waterway
in
Houston and then asked why -in detail- he could not hover on
them.
Now, as you all know, I am not one to mention names in a hover
report
… but, it was Lane Lane Lane…. As he hung up Sargent Jones took
a
moment to mention that he had water duty on Sunday! On to plan
"B".
So after discussing the matter Saturday night we decided on the
San
Jacinto River. We went to Love's Marina. We got there about
10:45
on Sunday and it was real nice. There was lots of parking, few
people, nice picnic tables and multiple boat ramps. The older
man at
the gate suggested we take the far boat ramp so we would not
disturb
his campers which we were happy to do. $5 seemed like a good
deal.
We unloaded on the grass and hovered down the boat ramp and into
the
river. There was a dirt road between where we parked and the
river
so there was a bit of dust but not bad. Lane and his son and I
and
my son went up the river to the dam. There was some water
flowing
over the dam but not too much and we were able to get pretty
close to
the dam face. There were a lot of fishermen in that area and I
think
they were happy to see us depart.
Anyway we hovered until about 1pm and then parked on the shore
to eat
a bit of lunch. My son and I had chips and water (the lunch of
hover
champions) and Lane and I were discussing what a nice place it
would
be for a hover-in. After the short rest, Lane and I went
hovering
again down the river this time. There was some interesting wild
life
to see along the way. For example, on one boat there was a young
lady working on her tan in a serious and outgoing kind of way.
Mind
you I did not see this myself as I always hover with my eyes
closed
just in case something like this were to happen.
We got back to the boat ramp about 3pm and I opened my eyes
again ….
Well, it seems that around 3 pm all the folks that were at
church
earlier decided to come on down and boat (I went Saturday of
course…). All of the boat ramps were being used and each had a
line
of cars pulling trailers with boats lined up to use the ramps.
Just
when we thought we might have an opening two more cars/boats
would
come to unload. I thought for sure we were in the middle of a
Bass
contest for a $1M fish. The stream of cars/boats seemed endless.
Seriously, it went on for hours. This must be to only water
access
for miles. Finally, there was a partial opening as a guy had his
truck blocking enough of the boat ramp that others had to wait.
A
quick dash to the hovercrafts and we were up the boat ramp and
back
to the trailers. With both Aircommanders crossing the dirt road
at
the same time we did put up a dust cloud that was enjoyed by a
few of
those in the boat line. But, it was then or who knows when.
It was a fun day and I let my son drive the AC-3 for a bit with
me
behind him. He did pretty well but he tended not to keep forward
motion when doing turns. This created a very wet startup as he
would
not reduce the lift engine at all. I don't recall a wetter ride
since I had my Scat but he had safe fun and that is what counts.
Overall, a good hover day at a place close to home.
H |
Date:
Mon Sep 22, 2003 1:53 am
Subject: A REPORT FROM THE LONE STAR HOVER-IN |
A report
from the Lone Star Hover-In
September 19-21st
Finally, I made it to a Lone Star Hover-in! Last year I was sick
as
a dog and hovercraft-less and did not make it. This year, life
was
good, the weather was fine and traffic was light. Of course, it
did
not go as planned. I had intended to go up around 2 pm on Friday
afternoon and setup camp and such. Well, my truck needed a front
end alignment, I had to buy ice and food, the hovercraft needed
the
skirts fixed and lastly, the battery died on the Aircommander
and I
had to run to the auto parts store and procure a quick
replacement.
As such, I just managed to limp out of the neighborhood at 8 pm
for
a five-hour trip. I decided against going all the way there and
trying to find the campsite and trying to setup my tent at 1 AM
in
the morning (I am sure the other campers would have agreed with
my
decision). So my son and I drove until midnight and stayed in a
town about an hour away from the campground for the night.
Rob Tilton was coming up Saturday morning with his 12T4 and so
we
met him for breakfast at the local IHOP. A tasty breakfast was
had
by all and then we set out for the campground. We arrived at the
campgrounds around 10am and were greeted by the organizer, Dan
Wakeland. It was a pretty nice place to camp but it was on the
primitive side. The camping was free and not very crowded plus
we
had pretty easy access to the Brazos River. It turns out the
camp
site is where the cattle was driven across the river when the
Chism
Trail was operational. There were even parts of the original
houses/stores from that era in the park. It was just as well
that
we missed the round up as a few thousand head of cattle would
have
made the park somewhat less desirable….
After unloading the crafts at the boat ramp and then driving our
cars to the camp area, the main event for Saturday was, oddly
enough, hovering. After that we hovered some more and lastly we
hovered until dinnertime. So, generally speaking, Saturday was a
hover day. We went up and down the river many many times and
generally annoyed the resident fish. There were the occasional
folks fishing and we tried to be respectful of their efforts by
passing by them at a distance. But I suspect the fish took off
for
quieter locations. I did see a couple of large fish (8 -12" or
so)
jump out of the water so there were fish in the river. It was a
long segment of river and was as wide or wider than the
Wisconsin
River but did not have as many sand bars to play on.
Dan and Louis Fredrick were, for most of the hover-in, trying to
convince a Hoverstar to actually hover. They were "discussing"
the
matter with the Hoverstar at some length on Saturday and most of
Sunday. Finally, the Hoverstar saw the wisdom of what they were
saying and started just in time for Louis to run it to the boat
ramp
to load for the trip home. As best I could tell, the score was
Hoverstar 2, Dan & Louis 0. In fact, the only time I saw Dan
hover
was when he was kind enough to fly my AC-3 from the boat ramp to
the
campgrounds for me. However, Dan was pretty busy talking to the
many guests that came by to ask about the crafts and he did most
of
the cooking (described in more detail below).
My AC-3 was not without its issues. It seems on the last trip on
Spring Creek, the lift engine starter decided to croak. In spite
of
the new battery, the starter showed a remarkable lack of
enthusiasm
and I had to use the pull cord. I pulled it so much my right
shoulder was hurting most of the night. It turns out that the
pull
starter works quite a bit better and faster when you remember to
turn on the ignition switch! Well, I am getting old…. I even
have
another starter that I conveniently left at home. See previous
comment on age.
Rob Tilton sold his 12T4 at the hover-in to a family also named
Tilton (not related as best we could tell). They came from
Maryland
to pick up the craft with their 18-month-old son. They left at 5
am
on Sunday for the trip back. That would be your basic looooong
trip
with their son expressing his opinion, in a quiet conversational
kind of way, about the length of the ride.
As I mentioned there were quite a few quests that came to see
the
hovercrafts. John Cauley has been to a few of the Houston area
hover-ins and has started building a UH-19P. He always comes in
a
rolling motel that looks to be about ½ a mile long with all the
accommodations & a flagpole! To show my hospitality, I kindly
offered to trade him my tent that fits on my truck (with air
mattress of course) for his mobile home for the night but he
declined. Perhaps he was too shy and did not want to
inconvenience
me?
Dan was a great host. He brought lots of food and cooking stuff
and
became the master cook for the outing. The food selection was
hamburgers and hotdogs (on request) for dinner and lunch. For
breakfast many of the folks went to the local diner. The grill
was
provided at the campsite and was the typical charcoal type with
a
heavy grate on top to cook the food on. However, the spacing on
the
grate was larger than normal and the hamburgers would tend to
disappear from time to time. However, Dan always seemed to have
the
same number of burgers come off the grill as went on it.
My father was famous for his daddy Boyle "golden brown
pancakes".
He always served them with the nice golden side up but us kids
quickly learned to always look on the bottom to see how "golden"
the
brown on that side looked as he would often get distracted while
cooking. Well, as I crunched into one of the burgers, I started
to
think of my father for some reason….
Honestly, thanks for all the hard work Dan and for cooking for
all
of us. It was great! I will definitely try to make it again next
year.
H |
Date:
Sun Jan 26, 2003 3:16 pm
Subject: Dallas Hover-in: Lake Lewisville Report |
Date line: January 25, 2003
Dallas Hover-in at Lake Lewisville
News Flash: VERY COLD HOVERCRAFTERS STILL WAITING FOR HOT
CHOCOLATE
Hovercrafters from all over Texas converged on Lake Lewisville
this
Saturday for a day of hovercrafting and good times. The star
attraction was Craig Wilkins's all aluminum UH-15TA. It was a
spectacular silver gleaming craft meticulously made with the
finest
of materials and craftsmanship. Oh yea, I almost forgot, Craig
came
too.
The other attendees were, Rob Tilton with his flaming 12T4, Mark
?
with his black 10F, Peter Tew with his green 12T4 and, your
humble
reporter, Howard Boyle with his yellow Scat Intruder. A huge,
almost
smothering crowd of onlookers (3) descended on the banks of the
Lake
to watch the goings on and ask questions about hovercrafts and
the
people that made them. One lady in particular was wondering why
anyone would spend the hours needed to make such things. The
best
answer seemed to be a warped childhood but I am not sure she was
fully satisfied with that answer….
The weather was originally forecasted earlier in the week to be
57
degrees. However, the cold front took hold and the temperature
was
in the mid 30s with winds between 5-15 mph. With little wind it
was
cold. With more wind it was really cold. Ice cycles were found
on
the lee side (Rob - that means the sheltered side) of some of
the
inlets. It was cold!
All the HCs seemed to perform very well and there were only
minor
breakdowns. Craig thought he heard the dreaded "thump" while
giving
rides so he came in for an inspection. Nothing was found and he
continued to give rides to all of us and the 15TA performed
flawlessly. Craig generously gave me a ride and it was smooth
and
pretty quiet. Of course, relative to a Scat everything else is
virtually silent. Nice job Craig!!!!
My Scat was behaving itself mostly. I had to have new rudder
mounts
made for it and only received them at lunch time on Friday. I
painted them and had to put them into the oven to speed cure the
paint so I could leave Friday night. Fortunately for me my wife
was
out on Friday so I did not have to explain the unapproved oven
use….
I got the Scat put back together (rudders, throttle cables, drag
flag, 2 skirt segments, fan etc) and finished packing at 10pm
and set
out for Lewisville. Arrived at the motel (Motel 6) at 2am
Saturday
morning and instantly fell asleep.
The Scat performed much better this time than at the Austin
hover-
in. The three anti-plow-in skirts I added seem to help keep the
plow-
in problem reasonable. It would still try to go in but I was
able to
recover before having to say hello to the fish. It is still a
touchy
craft to fly. The rudders were much much much better than
before.
Not having them bind when turning is a real plus! I also changed
the
skirt attach system and it was worth the work (thanks for the
tip
Ralph!). I only had one skirt problem when a tie broke but it
was a
minor event and did not really affect the performance. The
starting
relay stuck once and would not turn on the starter. So I used
some
kind words and a hammer and it saw things my way and worked
again.
It think it was the kind words that made the difference….
About 1:30 it was decided it was lunch time. For security
reasons,
Mark and I stayed with the crafts and continued to shiver so the
rest
could go for lunch. Rob generously agreed to bring back hot
chocolate to help Mark and I warm up. After HOURS, all returned.
Say Rob, were is the hot chocolate? Moral of the story, go get
lunch
with everyone else.
About 3:30 folks started to leave after a day of excellent
hovercrafting and cool good times.
|
|
Date:
Sat Dec 28, 2002 11:42 pm
Subject: The Webberville Hover-in Report |
|
Well, the Webberville, TX, hover-in brought a standing room only
crowd. This was assisted, in no small part, by the lack of
chairs…. The weather was great – clear and warm – a perfect
December day. The Houston contingent came with three hovercrafts
to
visit with our friends, Peter, Mark and Rob, up in the Austin
area
(about 3 hrs drive from Houston). Well, Peter and Mark could not
make it so we were able to spend some quality time with Rob –
until
he left at lunch time saying something about having to help with
the
babies. Seemed a weak excuse but we let it slide. So the Houston
contingent continued to hover, get wet and get into trouble
pretty
much in that order.
The day started off a little slow. Webberville, being the garden
spot of Texas, against all odds, actually has two parks. The
"Big"
Webberville park and (yep you guessed it) the "little"
Webberville
park. So Lane Crampton, Ralph DuBose and my neighbor & son were
at
the Big park and Rob Tilton and I were are the Little park.
About
10:30 am we all got together at the little park. Webberville is
on a
hill and the river is not. So the boat ramp kind of reminded me
of
the tall water slides in the water parks. Not for the timid.
Rob,
Lane and I walked our HCs down the ramp to the water. Ralph just
went for it.
My Scat was about 50/50. Flew it for 50% and fixed it for 50%.
In
the first 10 min of use, I ended up having to perform by-pass
surgery
on two broken P clips. What a pain. Then my steering just froze.
The rudders would just not turn. Thanks to Rob going back to my
car
and retrieving some tools and oil the required repairs were made
on
the muddy bank. More on this later. The most exciting time came
toward the end when my engine died about 50 ft from the boat
ramp.
Seems the gas tank cover can hit the quick disconnect on the
tank –
and did. Well, the engine died and I was being pushed down
stream by
a fairly fast current. I was luckily able to catch the branch of
a
fallen tree to stop me and with the help of Lane and some others
on a
rope I was pulled to shore. Repairs were made and the Scat was
able
to motor back to the boat ramp. BTW, floating your Scat with the
engine off is a clever way of finding leaks in the inner hull
-?.
Seems one of the holes I sealed still needs attention. Lane
being
the optimist wanted to give me odds on whether the Scat would
sink
before I could start the engine….
Lane had his AC-3 there and it was working great until he gave a
ride
to my neighbor. They departed the ramp in good style and headed
down
river. After some considerable time, they returned – lots of
noise,
little speed. Seems Lane's lift engine decided to take a snooze.
Lane fixed the problem a little later.
Rob's 12T4 performed flawlessly as did Ralph's sort-of Scat
thing.
Ralph let me fly his craft and it was very nice and pleasant to
fly.
Much better than my Scat and I have a bigger engine. His craft
did
not plow in at all and would go over hump way faster than my
Scat.
Good job Ralph! Rob gave rides to my neighbor's son which he
really
enjoyed. He was still talking about it at dinner many hours
later.
Thanks Rob!
About the rudder matter, well, this is a really nice quiet river
and
there was a guy in a boat fishing quite a ways up the river. He
had
launched much earlier and slowly made his way to a quiet nook
where
he could contemplate the meaning of life and fish in
tranquility.
Rob was the first up the river with my son and I following at
about
30 mph. You can get pretty far up the river in little time at
that
speed. So up we go and who should we pass but the solitary
fisherman
parked on the river tending to his affairs. Rob zips by in his
12T4,
then me in the Scat then Lane in the AC-3. The nook became part
of a
freeway. Well we passed by pretty quick so we did not think much
of
it. But then the rudders…. Well I had a skirt blow out up river
so I
was not able to get over hump and was coming back down river
making a
great deal of noise and moving very very slowly. I rounded the
bend
in the river and I could just see the horror in the face of the
man
in the boat. About that time I noticed the rudders were not
responding so I beached the Scat just down from the guy. Rob now
comes to the rescue shortly followed by Lane. When I finally got
back down river I noticed the fishing boat at the ramp and the
guy
backing his truck down the ramp. I decided, all things
considered,
that perhaps this was not the most opportune time to go in….
So that is all the news that is fit to print. No boats sunk, no
one
hurt and a great time had! Next time in Houston!!!!! |
Date:
Tue Nov 19, 2002 9:33 pm
Subject: Great Houston Parking Lot Hover-in |
|
Well, this last weekend we held the seldom seen Great Houston
Parking
Lot Hover-in. Three hovercrafts descended on an abandoned
Builder's
Square parking lot in Houston for a day of scaring the natives
and
blowing dust around. A good time was had by all. There was an
Aircommander brought by the local purveyor of hovercrafts, Lane
Crampton, a SCAT II brought by myself and a UH-6F piloted by my
son.
I hovered for the first time! Not pretty, but I hovered never
the
less. The SCAT with its rotax 532 seemed to do well but I think
the
battery needs to be moved opposite the muffler as it seemed the
craft
was a little heavy on that side. The UH-6F was sporting a brand
new,
hand crafted, prop from Rob Tilton and it worked great. With a
6HP
engine it would get up and move even against the wind. Very
impressive - Thanks Rob! I had to give my son a speeding warning
as
he was really scooting around.
Lane and his son and friend took a tour-de-force of the parking
lot
in good style. He did have a couple of reluctant bags that
needed
attention. A native was driving by in his truck and Lane, being
the
sales man, cornered him and when last seen was giving him the
you-
need-a-hovercraft speech. Other natives had more sense and kept
watch from a distance.
By the way, for future reference, don't go over a big parking
lot
drain with your hovercraft. It does bad things for your lift and
I
am sure someone at the other end of the drain pipe was surprised
to
see stuff flying out of the now pressurized pipe!
Movie will be posted shortly. Well that's the report from the
first,
and, likely, last Houston Parking lot hover-in.
Howard |
|
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