A hobby of mine (apart from Bit-Tech of course) is racing my hovercraft. I did start a project log a while back but I've never really gotten round to updating it so here are some pictures of my 3rd race weekend. Things were all going well in the 1st race ( I got 2nd). Then in the 2nd race, my lift engine started dieing randomly . Most of the time this is fine as you either just skid along the land or dig into the water. However one time I was doing ~35mph and it died juuuust as I was about to hit a vertical wall of mud going from water to land. The skids on the bottom dug in and ripped a large hole in the bottom of the hull. I didn't actually notice as the engine started again and I kept going another lap when it stopped again in the roughly the same place and I filled with water and couldn't go any more (that's me in the blue shirt / jeans - it was pretty hot up there!) After it was back in my spot, people came over and helped fibreglass the bottom back on, and fix it up again in time for the 4th race (2nd to someone else!!). Overall I got 4th/11 (2nd, last, no show, 2nd) But I had SO much fun.
Looks pretty sweet. Does the racing line differ from road racing? I guess the craft would slide and you can't brake, etc, so that must have some kind of difference.
There are a HUGE amount of regs - however there are quite a few holes too I'm new at the racing lark so i'm not entirely sure what the racing line should be at the moment it's kind of which ever line doesn't end up with me in the bushes. erm yeaahhh, I never quite got round to taking pics - i always ended up doing work late at night under spot lights so the camera never really worked
Just wounding, how do you stop that thing, i mean it can go too far with out any power to it, so do you just kill it and hope for the best or what?
I go to college where a student has a family company making these but I have never actually seen any working. I am in the process of making a kayak using fiberglass so I guess that is good practice for this type of activity. Can you fish of that? I have been told that you can go places where boats and cars aren;t allowd like sand dunes and DNR land becuase this is not classified as either car or boat. Very cool project you made. Your log has no pictures in the first thread of the very start . Do you have any drawings or models of this that you could share with me please.
hovercraft racing does seem like so much fun! how is it like to drive one, id imagine driving over land and water would be an amazing feeling, and the way they float so effortlessly always has me intrigued!
This was the first time I'd actually properly gone on water, and there seems to be a curious effect where once you're moving, if you remove lift and go at a low speed it'll just keep going! presumably the water creates a good seal with the skirt. As a result, if you're gonna crash you let go and ope for the best. On land you just let go and you'll scrape on the ground so it's easy. There's no reverse or anything, and as it has rudders at the rear once you've gone into something (liiike a catch fence ) you can't just steer out of it - if it's solid you have to get out and pull the front out or in some cases just drive over it and rejoin the race The ones that use bike engines *could* use reverse, but then the lift would also be reversed.... Word has it there's a concept craft which reverses the crankshaft rotation by retarding the ignition to reverse the fan at idle... This one isn't very good at stopping on water - it's a racer so has a low freeboard (less weight) - distance between the water and the lowest open point (skirt air feed). It does float, it just fills with water but they are good for accessing dunes, mud flats, etc. and no tide problems! Zach, OK I'm gonna make a special effort and get something up with lots of pics. However it's covered in mud at the moment It's guestimate is ~180kg or something like that. (needs 4 to lift) edit - Zach, which college are you at?
Yeah that would'nt be too good would it, thank you for explaining i understand it now, its a very nice hobby you have and it sounds like a hell of alot of fun
profqwerty that would be great. I am at the University of Wisconsin Platteville. here is a set of free plans I found on facebook. not as nice as your craft. http://cid-b6971a6d97854efd.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/plans.pdf
That looks similar to a Universal Hovercraft (one of the main US companies). I built an "Eagle 1" from plans from http://www.kmproducts.co.uk/ it's a plywood jobbie. The one up there /\ is a fibreglass hull I bought from the same company, and I have added on the other bits eg engine frames, rudders etc. You should speak to the student! The people here are all very nice people so should be the same there
