Maiden Voyage, Aug 10, 2008.

It actually happened. I took the hover out for a short maiden voyage. Zach Bell was kind enough to bring his hover out for support and back-up. The first trip out from the boat ramp resulted in a bolt in the steering pulling loose. This was quickly remedied with a larger washer. Then the craft operated for 1.7 miles. I was making passes upstream of the boat ramp. Each was was slightly faster than the last. I was try to get the feel of variator and was able to get the craft up to 30 mph. Then the variator handle started to push forward and I was having a hard time pulling it back. Looking behind the craft revealed a long line of smoke. I shut the engine off and lifted the hood expecting to find a burnt belt. Instead I found a puddle of oil under the engine. Since I was up stream of the boat ramp, I floated back to the boat ramp and put the craft on the trailer.

The diagnosis of the oil leak was the short extension that was used to connected oil pressure sending unit to the block. I used a short brass pipe nipple and a coupler to mount the sending unit. The pipe nipple broke at the block and was spraying oil directly on the exhaust manifold. I used an easy-out to extract the rest of the pipe nipple from the block. The sending unit is being mounted directly to the block. This requires a special wrench to fit the tight clearence between the block support webs. I bent a wrench in the press and started to tighen the sending unit. Just when the sending unit was almost tight, the wrench slipped off the sending unit and my hand went straight for the heat shield on the exhaust manifold. Throwing a hand at a sharp sheet metal heat shield will result in a quick trip to the doctor. 3 hours and 4 stitches later, I was back in action.

Even with the set back, the maiden voyage was a success. The craft performs well with decent acceleration and low noise.