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Nov 15-17, 2002. (SCAT II)
I HOVERED on 11/16/02. Well, it wasn't pretty but I did hover the Scat.
I had a problem with 2 of the P clips that held two of the rear bags on so I had
to quit early and take it home for repair. See pictures in Scat II section
and Video section for the Great Houston Parking Lot Hover-In |
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Nov 9-10, 2002. (SCAT II)
Wiring, fan, exhaust now installed. Even started but...there was a small
matter of a large fuel leak.... Need more parts. |
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Oct 19-21,2002. (SCAT II)
This is the weekend of the Lone Star Hover-in and I am sick-as-a-dog. Very
sad. Oh well, next year. Rob Tilton even made a new fan for Mike's
6F and I am sure it would have worked great. We will try it out in two wks
at the cub scout campout. Not much progress on the HC I am building but I
purchased a used SCAT II hull that I am trying to resurrect. It had no
engine, exhaust, fan, gas tank, gas pump or gas lines. Oh yea, the steering
was assembled wrong and the wiring is a mess. Other than that, it was
ready to go.... See SCAT II pictures. |
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| Purchased a SCAT II hull and it was delivered by a friend
that was picking up his trailer from the same guy. That worked out
well. It was gutted. |
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| I started looking at the wiring and it was not for the faint
of heart. There were wires just twisted together (in a marine
environment). The switch box master switch was wired so that it had no
effect. There is an extra power wire that was run from the front to
back and a power wire that is not used? Still looking for the
Safe-T-Stop switch wires.... |
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| Then there is the steering. Chris Keirs (the chemist)
was put to work on the cooling system - the anti-freeze has chemicals ya
know -. He casually noted the steering does not seem right....
Well, after some investigation, it turns out the screws holding the steering
cable inside the hull were not correct. The screw was metric and the
nut was not. So, as the nut was tightened, it would just slip on the
threads and you could not get the correct torque. Mind you, to get to
the screw/nut you are working through a really small air hole in the front
and have to work by feel. The hole is too small for my arm to fit in.
I still have scraps on my hands from fixing this. |
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| I purchased a ROTAX 532 engine from a guy in Houston.
I had to take it off the airplane it was on (kitfox). It was complete
with the exhaust, carbs etc. Looks like it had been outside for a
while but for $400, it was worth giving it a try. It is 64HP and the
SCAT II normally comes with either a Rotax 277 (about 25-30 HP) or a Rotax
503 (52HP). Could be fun if it works. |
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| I took the engine to John Webb who runs an ultralight
club/shop down south of Houston. John is a real nice guy! He
changed the gears on the "B" box to 2:1 from 2.58:1 so it would drive the
multiwing fan properly. He also checked out the timing and gave me a
lot of information on how to hook the engine up. The
engine cover in the picture is for a Rotax 503 and will not fit the 532 I
have. The other cover is a seat/cover for the gas tank. All the
hardware you see is from a shopping trip to Lowe's to get an assortment of
Metric SS screws/nut/washers. The Rotax uses all metric "stuff". |
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| As you can see from the pictures, there was some
"engineering" required to fit the radiator into the craft. I am still
working on the exhaust as it is different than what is normally used in the
SCAT hovercrafts. But, the radiator that comes on a HC with a L/C
engine costs $600+ and the proper exhaust is $500+ so it pays to be somewhat
creative. I have been able to get most of the odd parts I needed from
Aircommander in FLA. Gary at Aircommander has been very helpful and
even sold me some used parts to save $$. |
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| I still have to fix a broken P clip that holds the front
skirts on and the exhaust is a real problem. The mounts for the
exhaust go inside the hull and are used to screw down straps welded to the
muffler. But, my muffler does not have the straps and it is not clear
how to get my hand and a screw driver inside the hull to screw in the screws
even if it did. The picture is one of the two exhaust mounts used in
the HC. |
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| Nov 9-10. I took the Scat to the
muffler shop to have the extension section made. I pulled into the
parking lot and the owner and all the employees came out to see the HC.
Well, 45 mins and $67.50 later I had the section welded and mounted. I
still need to paint it and add the anti-seize compound to the ball joints. |
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| Since my muffler came from the kitfox airplane,
it did not have the attach strips welded to it. So, I made some our of
L brackets. One at the back screwed into a rubber isolation mount.
I also made one where the exhaust comes out of the Scat to hook up to the
engine. To keep the heat from melting my craft, I wrapped the muffler
and pipe inside the hull with hi-temp header wrap. |
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| I mounted the fan, gas tank, and "stuff".
On Sunday, I started the engine and it RAN. But ... wait ... the smell
... gas was going everywhere. One of the Bing carbs was flowing gas
out the overflow tubes. I stopped the engine and cleaned up the gas.
Then took the carb apart. Seems the float sunk.... Not good.
It had a crack and would fill up with gas and sink letting in too much gas
into the bowel which would then flow out the overflow tubes. Oh well,
nothing that $29 + shipping won't fix. I did have a fire
extinguisher in hand just in case but did not have to use it I am happy to
say. Made for a little excitement for a Sunday. |
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| Nov 16, 2002.
I hovered the Scat today. It was pretty hard to keep the speed down in
the parking lot. We took it to an abandoned Builder's Square store
where there was a fairly big parking lot. Two of the P clips on the
rear corner bags were broken which made the craft list badly. So, I
had to cut the practice short and take it home for repair. I even
registered the craft yesterday so I am legal.... |
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| We also had my son's Uh-6F there. It
still had the poor performing multi-wing fan and did not perform well
(surprise). We changed the fan to the one that Rob Tilton made (thanks
Rob). What a difference! It can even lift me now. We will
go back out tomorrow with both crafts. |
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