Sat Sep 8, 2001
3 hours
Pictured top right - I am preparing the thrust duct for glassing. I used duct tape to mask the inside and outside of the thrust duct. I am doing this so I can cut a clean line in the fiberglass when the epxoy sets up.
Pictured 2nd right - A close up of how I applied the tape to the inside of the duct.
Pictured 3rd right - My mother in law lent me her fabric cutting board. It is a hard rubber type board and you cut material on it with an Olfa round blade razor knife. This works great for cutting fiberglass. The edges are really clean. The squares are 10" x 15".
Pictured 4th right - Here is the knife. A highly recommend it.
Sat Sep 8, 2001
Cont...
Pictured top right - I fiished attaching the skirt today with the help of my Dad. After we attached the outside we flipped it upside down and I finished attaching the inside.
Pictured 2nd right - A view showing the skirt completely attached.
Pictured 3rd right - We put the craft on the floor. Tomorrow I will put the engine back in place and start it up!
Sun Sep 9, 2001
4 hours
WE HAVE HOVER!!!
Today I put the engine and belt and idlers back on and did a hover test. I was very nervous at first but it went great. The engine ran great as well as the balanced lift fan. Vibration is pretty much gone now. I think getting the craft off the saw horses and putting a load on it really helped. It was very quiet and smooth. Awesome is all I can say.
I didn't tension the belt enough and had some flap which hit the sharp muffler guard. This took some big chunks out of the belt. I will get a new one next week. Also the car battery I used to start the engine came in contact with the belt. This destroyed the battery, booster cable and further destroyed the belt. The belt wore a hole in the battery where it made contact and the battery started to leak acid. I disposed of it at a local auto service center. No damage to the hovercraft other than the belt. This happened at the end of testing so it wasn't a big deal.
Today I also fiberglassed around the front of the thrust duct. I finally feel like I am starting to get back on track.
The following pictures show the craft in hover on my driveway and lawn.
Check out a video clip of the Hover test here.
Sun Sep 9, 2001
Cont...
Sun Sep 9, 2001
Cont...
Sun Sep 9, 2001
Cont...
I finished fiberglassing the thrust duct. Now I mount it on the craft. I will do final sanding and filling with the duct on the craft.
Pictured top right - The 54" thrust duct with inlet fiberglassed with 6oz 10" x 15" strips. This picture taken just after I ran the razor knife down the outside and inside duct tape edges and removed tape.
Pictured 2nd right - Close up of the outside lip.
Pictured 3rd right - Close up of the inside of the duct.
Tue Sep 11, 2001
1 hour
Today was a very sad day... My thoughts and prayers go out to the American people who have been affected by the terrible acts of terrorism perpetrated by a cowardly enemy on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. I am confident that you will rebuild and will exact justice on the persons responsible for this dreadfull dead.
I was pretty glum today because of all of the events in the news regarding the terrorist attacks. When I got home from work I spent about an hour sanding the thrust duct. It was actually nice to be able to get my mind off the days events... even if it only was for an hour.
Thu Sep 13, 2001
1 hour
Today I used the trusty dewalt random orbital sander with 100 grit sandpaper to further sand the thrust duct. I then faired the fiberglass joins on the inside and outside of the duct.
Pictured top right - 54" thrust duct after I faired the fiberglass joins on the inside and outside of the duct. I used epoxy mixed with glass bubbles to about a peanut butter consistency.
Pictured 2nd right - The 54" duct... The stock UH-13P duct is 42"
Pictured 3rd right - This is how the craft sits. The bottom is completely done and the skirt is fully attached.
Pictured 4th right - A close up of the lift fan in its duct.
Tomorrow I will sand and fill the thrust duct again. Saturday I will attach the thrust duct to the craft and build the thrust prop mounts.
Sat Sep 15, 2001
10 hours
Today we prepared the thrust duct bottom for mounting and started building the prop shaft mount. A lot of thought today. In fact more thought than work. Because my UH-13P has a 54" duct it needs a 12" pulley on the prop shaft instead of the 9" one. Another modification I am making, recommended by Bob Windt, is to put that pulley in between the prop shaft pillow block bearings. This means I need to add length to the belt because of the pulley and them take some away because the pulley moves closer to the engine. Also I need to seperate the idlers so I can angle each one individually. This will allow me to line up the idler pulleys with the engine sheave and prop sheave pulley. A lot of thought has gone into this. I will be using a 5/8"-3/4" piece of rope to measure the approximate belt length that I will require.
Pictured top right - I marked a center line and used it to mark the slots that will be occupied by the motor mounts. I cut away the fiberglass with a razor knife and used a hand saw to cut away the foam.
Pictured 2nd right - My Dad used a file to clean up the slots.
Pictured 3rd right - I used some pieces of 2x2 inside the slots to mark and cut away the required flat spot. I used the dewalt random orbital sander to shape the final flat spot you see here.
Pictured 4th right - A view of the flat spot from the rear of the duct.
Pictured 5th right - Here the duct is in position. It fit perfectly. Unbelieveable.
Sat Sep 15, 2001
Cont...
Pictured top right - A view of how the duct meets the deck at the front
Pictured 2nd right - A view of the duct from the rear.
Pictured 3rd right - Thats a big pulley!
Pictured 4th right - Wow thats a big prop!
Pictured 5th right - Working on the prop shaft mount....
Pictured 6th right - This is how the pulley will sit in between the mount (I hope). I need to make sure I can get the correct belt size.
Sun Sep 16, 2001
5 hours
Today I put the prop shaft mounts in position and place the idler tensioners in place. I am going to see if it will work with the idlers to plan. If it doesn't I will have to split them up. I also cut the thrust duct "wing" support from 1/4" ply.
Pictured top right - I used thick rope strung around where the belt should go to get a measurement for the belt. It measured out to 109.5". The closest belt is 112". I can move the thrust sheave pulley back to take up the slack. One thing I noted was the belt length is outside circumference. I cut apart my trashed 212" long belt and it measured 209.5". C=2*Pi*R. 209.5=2*Pi*R. R=33.34". Add + 0.5" for belt width to R and get 33.84. C=2*Pi*33.84 -> C=212.6" Tada!. Now lets do the same with my measurement of 109.5" . 109.5=2*Pi*R -> R=17.42 R+0.5 -> R=17.92 -> C=2*Pi*17.92 -> C=112.5". Therefore the 112" belt should be just right. 5VX-1120 should be the right belt.... Will pick one up and try it.
Pictured 2nd right - Here is the "wing" cut out of 1/4" ply.
Pictured 3rd right - This is what I am thinking of building so I can angle each idler pulley so belt alignment is achieved with respect to the prop pulley and engine sheave.
Fri Sep 21, 2001
1 hours
Sat Sep 22, 2001
6 hours
Today I accomplished a fair amount. I cut grooves in the thrust duct for the wing support and I cut wood for the prop shaft mount. I removed the thrust duct and sanded the area. I then used epoxy mixed with wood flour to glue the prop shaft mount onto the motor mounts and the thrust duct onto the deck.
Pictured top right - wing grooves cut into thrust duct and prop shaft mount positioned.
Pictured 2nd right - Prop shaft mount mount and thrust duct epoxied with wood flour mixture into position.
Pictured 3rd right - I used the wing support to help position the thrust mount. I made sure it was level in all directions. ( The hull deck is level)
Pictured 4th right - I used a 2.5" x 7.25" piece of 3/4" wide board on the inside of each prop shaft mount. I then used a 3.5" x 7.25" piece of 1/8 ply on the inside to strengthen the joint.
Pictured 5th right - I used a 6" x 7.25" piece of 1/8ply on the outside of each side of the prop shaft mount to add strength.
Pictured 6th right - Here is the 12" weld on pull with the aluminum mounting hub attached. There is a very slight wobble when you spin it. I am not sure if this is going to be a problem. If it is I will replace with a cast iron pulley that fits the H-1 bushing.
Pictured 7th right - here is the other side of the above pulley illustrating the aluminum mounting hub. I used nuts on the bolts for added protection.
Sun Sep 23, 2001
6 hours
Today I fitted the idlers and gave a lot of thought to how I am going to handle the transition from 12" to 6.26" pulley. I tried bending the rod but when I tighten the belt the bend wants to naturally flip in the wrong direction. Then I went back to my old idea of separating the pulleys with back to back tensioners. I just found out a neighbour has a welder! He was gracious enough to weld my middle tensioner assembly together. I then tried the idlers with the straight threaded rod. The belt alignment doesn't seem to bad with them. I think I will give them a try first then add the middle tensioners if absolutely necessary.
Pictured top right - Looking down on the 12" prop shaft pulley. The belt alignment seems ok. I will run them first like this and see what happens. The 112" belt fits perfectly!
Pictured 2nd right - Another view of the belt on the pulley and tensioned with the idlers in place.
Pictured 3rd right - The middle belt tensioners. I used 4 pieces of flat bar 1/8" and welded in place. The holes will be where bolts will go through to hold it in place. The bolts will be oriented similar to those on the motor mounts.
Pictured 4th right - I rounded the leading edge of the wing and cut a hole for the prop shaft pulley. I replaced the wood underneath the pillow block bearing on the left wih a larger piece of wood that fits exactly under neath the front part of the wing cutout.
Pictured 5th right - A view of the thrust duct with the pillow blocks ready to be drilled.
Mon Sep 24, 2001
2 hours
Awesome weather here today. +29C
Pictured top right - I fiberglassed the wing/duct support with 1 layer of 6oz glass. Note the duct tape; I will trim the glass along its edge when the epoxy starts to set up. this will leave me with clean lines. I did not want to fiberglass the whole thing as my tolerances are exact right now. A layer of glass would have thrown them out slightly.
Pictured 2nd right - These mounts are not to plans. The plans call for the pulley to be next to the prop. Bob Windt, the designer, suggested they work better between the pillow blocks. I am going to use a piece of 1/8" angle iron under each mount.
This summer is a write off for hovering... I hope to start the cockpit fairly soon. I think now that the summer is over I am going to slow down and build a cool looking cockpit like the one Zoltan designed. I was going to build stock to get it done sooner for the end of summer. I will probably build using a mixture of wood, fiberglass and foam now. I am getting better with fiberglass... it was a really frustrating early on. I just have to figure a way to heat my garage in the winter. I know one thing for sure. I will be ready to hover right at the beginning of next season.
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