Canair 506 – The Saga Begins
So there I was like millions of Americans minding my
own business searching for hovercrafts on Ebay. On a normal cruising of the
listings one may find the pedestrian UH-10F or even the odd UH-17T and
undoubtedly there will be listing upon listing for the latest R/C hovercraft
some even with free shipping. But this was not a normal early April weekend
day.
There it was, a Canair 506 for sale with pictures
a-plenty. The sleek lines, the strange square duct, and the gull wing doors
– yes, the stuff that dreams are made of…. What could I do? I was already
at my wife’s hovercraft limit with the AC-3 and the perpetually almost
finished UH-18SP(w) in the garage. The same garage that I promised to let
her park her van back in last Christmas and was still full of hovercraft
parts and pieces. Clearly this would not be a great time to bother her
about another hovercraft. So I ignored it , well ok, I did not ignore it
but I did not bid although I looked at the pictures every day. But it was
getting near the end of the week and the end of the auction was coming up so
things were becoming critical. How to bring this up with the wife and live
to tell about it? So one night I bravely mentioned it while she was
watching her favorite show - CSI. I figured either way it went it would be
mercifully short as she would want to continue watching her show.
Well, it seems I made a tactical error by
insufficiently reconnoitering the area first. It was the TIVO she was
watching – ouch! Much discussion ensued as she did not understand the need
for yet an additional hovercraft and, in truth, it was difficult to
articulate the specific need. Although deep down in my heart I knew there
was a need for such a craft. But in the end we compromised. Although she
did not really understand the need for even one, she stuck by the two
hovercraft limit and I had to choose. Alas poor AC-3, I knew it well…. I
agreed to sell the Aircommander and trailer to get under the two hovercraft
limit and bid on the Canair. When the auction ended I was the high bidder
but the reserve was not met. The Buyer sent me an offer to sell at a higher
price but after some thinking I declined the offer. It was listed one again
on Ebay and I did not bid on it. The second auction ended with the high
bidder offering $2K more than I did on the first auction and only $1K less
than the sellers reserve. Being so very close I figured they would work a
deal off-line.
But, they didn’t and for the 3rd time it
was listed on Ebay for sale. Well I talked to the seller about the craft, I
talked to the owner of Canhover that now maintains the Canair line (Canair
went out of business) and even had an email chat with Ron Fishlock the
original designer (real nice guy). So I put in a bid on the craft at the
last few seconds of the auction. I ended up the high bidder with the
reserve met. It was mine – but it was in Edmonton Canada about 2500 miles
from Spring, Texas. That is a bit of a hike.
Part 2.
Now what? I could not take off enough time from work
to drive all the way up there and then tow it back. I called a number of
boat transporters and they did not want to do the job as it was across the
border and they knew nothing about hovercrafts. So I called
Linda Weber and asked how they
transport their crafts. Well she put me in touch with Ray Matthews. Ray is
semi-retired and delivers the Weber crafts. His response to my email was
better than I thought it would be. He said it was a long ways to drive –
but why not-. Now there is a decent guy! So I discussed the matter with
the seller and he agreed (for a price) to tow the craft from Edmonton to
Winnipeg figuring it would take about 10 hours. This was great as he would
be there to take the craft through customs with me. So after a few weeks I
flew up to Winnipeg stayed the night and waited the following morning for
the seller to pick me up. The agreed time was 10 AM on April the 20th. Ray
drove up from Wisconsin and was waiting just on the US side of the border
for us. Well, to make a long story a little shorter, it took the seller 16
hours to make the trip and we met Ray about 4PM in Pembina, ND. Fortunately
getting through the US customs went smoothly as I had all the documents and
the seller with me. It was good we did not wait another day as I heard that
the Canadian customs workers were going on strike on the 21st.
Anyway Ray and I then drove for 27 hours straight from
the top of North Dakota to Spring, Texas and arrived at 7 PM on Friday the
21st. Ray is a road warrior and did most of the driving. Other
than a very long drive it went pretty smoothly except during the first time
that I was driving. Ray took a break during the night and I started
driving. Not more than ½ hour later it starts to really rain and I mean
hard. There was mixed hail in the down pour and you could not really see
the lines on the road. I was following a Yellow Freight truck and am glad I
did as the driver was quite good and that driver became the lead for a
gaggle of cars that followed him. I thought of stopping but there really
was no place to pull over safely and I was afraid that if I did pull over,
someone would think I was in the lane and plow into the back of us. The
best of the poor choices was to continue following the big truck and so we
did. After about 20 -25 minutes or so, we drove out of the main part of the
storm and could see again. Needless to say, Ray became quite alert during
that time and no sleep was had. Once we drove out of the storm we saw a
line of trucks on the other side of the highway pulled over waiting for the
storm to clear.
The craft and travelers arrived safely in Spring.
Lane Crampton called just as we were approaching the house and came over to
meet us. Ray, Lane and I then unwrapped the Canair and I saw it in person
for the first time. It was shrink wrapped (poorly) and was covered by a
large tarp for the trip to protect it from rocks and such (hail). I got in
and started the craft up. Being tired, I forgot to close the garage door
and the garage got quite a dusting – oh well. I offered to put Ray up for
the night but he wanted to drive back to Dallas (3 hours away) so he could
pick up a Starcruiser there in the morning. Linda had arranged for him to
pick up a used craft in Dallas and deliver it in Boston. He really is a
road warrior!
So now the Canair 506 is in Texas and Texas thereby has
1/8th of the 506 fleet and, as best I can tell, the US has ½ the
506 fleet. You can see pictures of it on my web site in the Canair 506
section.
My thanks to Ray Matthews for offering to help out as
I don’t really know how I would have gotten the craft down here without
him. THANKS RAY!!!!
Canair Saga Part 3
After the craft arrived I took a few days to look it
over to see what needed to be done on it before the hover-in this last
weekend. Given what happened to Lane and his hovercraft, one of the first
things I checked was the exhaust as this craft had been used in salt water.
Glad I did as the exhaust was very rusty and the heat wrap on the exhaust
pipes had mostly fallen off. I took it to a local “custom exhaust” shop for
a new stainless steel exhaust. It was certainly the first hovercraft they
had worked on. It took two days to get it done as they had to order the
stainless steel muffler and pipe. They finished late in the day before the
hover-in. When one of the old pipes was hit, it just crumbled apart. I was
very glad that I decided not to use it before the new exhaust was put in!
Salt water is deadly on equipment.
The craft uses two Optima batteries. One for starting
and one is isolated to run accessories. Neither battery had a date on them
so I replaced the starter battery just to be safe. I also replaced the oil
and spark plugs. I think the spark plug were original from 1995 but I can’t
be sure. The oil had been changed before as someone had left off the washer
from the oil plug and there was a small leak there. A short drive to the
auto parts store yielded a new magnetic oil plug and washer. The total time
on the hour meter was 266 so the craft was not in real bad shape over all.
I also took the back of the craft apart to inspect the two gas tanks. This
craft has two 12 gallon tanks. Again, it pays to inspect as one of the
tanks had a plastic plug in an unused hole. The plastic top was broken
leaving a hole in the top of the gas tank to vent fumes into the cockpit.
Not good. Lane Crampton came over and pointed out that the tanks should
have double hose clamps on the hoses. The plug and clamps were easy fixes
and needed to be done for safety.
I then realized the whole top row of screws that held
on the gas tank covers were missing the well-nuts. The reason for them
being missing is unknown and I did not have any so they had to be ordered.
Not a critical item but it indicates the maintenance could have been
better. While I had the back of the craft apart, I looked for the leak.
The prior owner mentioned there was a leak and he did not know where it came
from. Well, someone had cut a hole in the side of the engine compartment
where some wires went into the hull. The wires had a bulkhead connector so
it is not clear why the hole was cut. But the result was that the hull was
no longer sealed and water could flow from the bottom of the engine
compartment into the back of the cockpit. I put in a temporary repair and
will make a permanent repair this winter when I pull the engine. It is hard
to believe someone actually thought cutting a hole in the hull was a good
idea. There were a bunch of other odds and ends I attended to the week
before the hover-in to get it ready but they were fairly minor although they
took a great deal of time to deal with. For example, one of the two bilge
pumps had a broken wire. Well, it was hard to fix the wire given the
location of the pump etc.
So, I thought I was ready for the hover-in and took it
along. The trailer is made for water launching and Rob Tilton backed the
trailer into the water for me while I was in the craft. It started up
nicely and backed off the trailer really well. The sight of a hovercraft
backing up is something few get to see. It is a cool feature. However, it
seems it backs up better than goes forward. There is a control in the
cockpit to adjust the splitter wings to increase/decrease lift. These are
actual aerodynamic wings and not just a flat splitter plate. The control
was not operating properly and I could not get much adjustment range. When
at full throttle, the control would bind and I would have no control over
the splitter wings. The result being that the craft was very difficult to
get on bubble and would easily plow in. It was easier to handle with two
people in front but it was still very touchy.
I drove the craft up the boat ramp and Rob and I tried
to adjust the lift/thrust wings but we were not successful. It was a very
hot and humid day and the small space you have to work in also houses the
muffler which made the heat in there unbearable. Lane and I ended up
putting the craft back on the trailer and that was all she wrote for the
weekend.
I had a chance to look at it today and it looks like
an easy fix. The push-pull tube is not getting the full range. It appears
that the control in the cockpit has slipped and limits the range of motion.
Hopefully I can have it fixed this week. The engine performed pretty well
but one of the two ignition systems on the craft is acting up and not
allowing the engine to get to full RPMs. The “B” side works fine however so
the engine will work but I need to get the “A” side fixed so I still have
the redundancy. This engine is made by
Fire Wall Forward in Canada and is designed for aircraft use which is
why it has the redundant ignition system. I also found out the window wiper
motor does not work so that is another task before the next outing as it is
hard to see through a wet windshield.
So, there are still “opportunities” to address but it
is coming along. Maybe the next outing will be better. I will likely be
working on the craft over the next few years to fully restore it. One of
the first winter projects will be to build a higher HP engine for the
craft. The current engine is 100 HP and the craft weighs about 2000 lbs so
a bigger engine may be of some help. Honda makes a H22A engine which looks
like it would fit and is rated for 200 HP. The current engine is based on a
Honda 1.5L Civic engine. The 506 is a long term project for sure. An
interesting note is that the control panel on this craft says 504L. The
information I have does not indicate a 504 was ever sold but I have a
factory sales literature picture of one. Les Adkins of
Canhover told me that the 504
designation was used for both the 504 and 506 models until the craft after
mine. The serial number on this 506 is QHO04003M95G. QHO is the
registration ID for CANAIR HOVERCRAFT INC. 04003 is the actual serial
number which I think means it is a 504 model and hull number 3. M95
indicates it was made in 1995 and the G means it was built in the month of
Feburary.