By Tuesday lunch we were registered and had both craft scrutineered and good to go. With no timetrials on Wednesday the day was spent preparing both machines in the miserable weather. The Yellow craft was down on compression so we replaced the rings.

It was amazing to see so many hovercraft; around 140 had turned up and many had multiple drivers which meant nearly 200 drivers (in team events or entering the same craft in different categories). The Americans, Canadians and Australians had travelled the furthest, and the sheer numbers of French, German and Swedish craft was impressive. Each nationality had their own designs and it was interesting to see them up close.

Practice and Time-trials:

I got out in the first practice and immediately had problems ploughing in on the smaller lake, eventually nose-diving the craft and taking a swim (In my profile on the race program my interesting fact was that I have never fallen into the water…)

We had to dry out the waterlogged craft in time for the timetrials in a few hours, so we got started pouring gallons of muddy water out of the exhausts. We just about got it ready and i managed to get a dry set of clothes on.

In timetrials i took only 3 laps which were all terrible, mostly spinning on the small lake. There was something wrong with the skirt which needed to be addressed so i tried balancing the skirt again.

Thursday night was a low point; we were left with one craft that was terrible on water downwind and one that was way down on power. With hindsight this would have been the point at which i should have abandoned the orange craft and swapped the good engine into the yellow machine…

Racing:

1. The wind had changed direction, now blowing you down the first longer lake, making it more likely for problems to occur going down the lake. After a cautious start i took a few places and gained some confidence in the craft, in spite of seemingly random ploughing in along the long lake. On the 4th lap i ploughed in really badly just in front of the water exit. The shock from my body on the handlebars snapped the steering cable and i spiraled off the course, my race over. I had realised by this point i didn’t have a championship winning setup and with the pressure off i planned just to go racing forfun.
2. It was a mad rush to repair the steering and other things in the 2 hours before race 2, thanks to Dad, Dave and the Bearwood guys for getting me out there. I was a late starter from the pits- about half a lap behind the leader- but the clear course gave me a chance to concentrate on my lines and get familiar with the machine. After a few laps i was taking backmarkers and eventually finished 11th. I was buzzing after that race, finally seeing the first glimpse of potential from the new craft. I was really looking forward to Saturday’s race.
3. I was ready for the start, and had moved up a row on the grid. With red mist down i passed a few places upto the rear of the leading pack. However on the large lake Fred ploughed in right in front of me, stopping suddenly and causing me to take evasive action. My skirt collapsed completely and water coming through the fan took out a few lift fan blades causing the front end to resonate badly. I had to keep the fans on to motor off the racing line so i didnt cause a red flag, the front fan shaking itself to bits the whole time. In doing so I was sure i had wrecked the Orange craft for the week so i set about readying the spare craft.
4. Using the sick yellow craft in race 4 on Saturday afternoon i ended up doing some fun racing with her eventually beating me. The craft was not revving and i had no thrust to push the craft back down from wheelying which meant i got pretty vertical a few times. It was good fun but slightly annoying knowing I had won previous races on this course with this craft.
5. The wind had increased by Sunday making it even more difficult still along the long lake and hard to keep the craft on the ground at the small lake exit. With white horses rolling down the large lake drivers were getting anxious. I raced with Laura again, getting past her only to throw it all away 5 yards from the line by flipping the craft. I restarted the craft , went through the line and went back to the pits for the last time. (Race 6 was cancelled due to high winds)

All in all it was a great week in spite of my terrible performance (i was placed 13th compared to my previous 4th place in Sweden).  I gambled on racing a brand new craft that had the potential to be really quick in a competition where reliability is the key- although this did pay off 2 years before i had tried too many new things this year. Bring on the next world champs event where i hope to be moving upto the F2 category.

The carbon lift gearbox was rebuilt yet again with improved lubrication and better coupling elements which hopefully wont melt! Since the temperatures measured were  getting pretty close to the max service temp of the epoxy i was contemplating putting a ‘wine cooler’ around the gearbox!

Thanks to the Bearwood guys i managed to get some proper testing of the orange craft with proper rudders. Over a few days i built up about an hour of flying time on playing fields and measured 250 pounds of thrust. This and the fact that many of the redesigned/ rebuilt/ uprated parts seemed to be doing their job gave me confidence with the craft in spite of the fact it hadnt flown on water yet.

Testing field, cheers guys!

Finally decided to put some proper rudders on...

It was time to start packing everything up for the worlds!

]]> http://www.camracing.co.uk/pre-world-champs-testing/feed 0 http://www.camracing.co.uk/gang-warily-southampton http://www.camracing.co.uk/gang-warily-southampton#comments Sun, 01 Aug 2010 02:10:28 +0000 admin http://www.camracing.co.uk/?p=451 After barely putting the craft back together the night before the event, my trailer tyre blew out (thanks to Dad and Tony for saving us) setting the tone for the event.After driver’s briefing i dad a manoeuvering test to see if the updated steering system worked, immediately finding it wasn’t good enough. I had to admit that my new design was crap and by stubbornly going along with it i had lost any chance to test the craft out that weekend.

Lengthened turning vane steering was crap

In spite of not being able to race i passed the floatation test on the third attempt.

All in a this was one of the most trying weekends of my racing career, at a venue where i took home gold the previous year.

I had to make big decisions about which craft to race at the world champs: the new craft had promise but no actual race time, and an offer was on the table to use the yellow craft.

At the moment the lift system isnt connected so only the thrust fan is spinning; the idea being to work out all of the teething issues with that bit first. When it is time to connect it up a reduction gearbox takes power from the flywheel and into a shaft as on the previous craft. Before putting it onto the craft the carbon frame was ‘load tested’ by my Dad and I so we know it can handle at least 160kgs thrust:Although i expect the worst loads the frame will have to take will be due to the belt and its difficult to simulate these, so basically a case of suck it and see.

Heres some of the progress so far:

Thrust axle and supporting structure has been fabricated- made from a machined EN6 steel axle and 8 lasercut plates welded together, weighing 1.8kg:

This has then been surface prepped and bonded into position in the centre of the duct with an accurate belt centres jig (only one chance to get this right!) Each stator vane end is strapped to one of the fabricated L-sections on the axle fabrication with a carbon wrap. The wraps are then compressed by covering with release and tightly binding with tape (breather cloth underneath to ensure even pressure applied all over):

Engine electrics, fuel and cooling systems are mostly ready:

Engine electrics, fuel and cooling systems are mostly ready:

Home stretch now, and then got to be ready to fix the things that dont work when i try it out…

We have been assembling the duct with its stiffening ring and flow straighteners, which are now on their way to being a complete unit. The honeycomb has come out very stiff and the stators have connected in nicely.

Mocking up the parts of the duct before its all vacced together

Next all of the attachment and mounting points need to be added.

Another Peril hull has been put together for Chris, Josh and Angus. Its slightly lighter than the orange hull and many times simpler (and a lot cheaper
!) to make- 17 man hours in total. Looking forward to seeing the craft put together to race in another formula.

Underneath showing all foam and balsa cores in the layup

It was borderline whether or not i would be racing at this event due to my elbow so i was sitting on the grid of the first race planning to sit at the back of the pack and go slowly. The arm had felt fine in practice, although i was finding the course very tough- i couldnt get the rhythm on the bumpy land sections and i was on the edge at a lot of the corners. But as the lights went i got a good start and was in the thick of it! In 6th for a few laps and gradually moved into 4th place. I exchanged knocks with Phil Hall and got into 3rd, and eventually 2nd after coming off well going through traffic.

The next two races were also great fun with plenty of jostling for positions and in some places due to luck and some craft advantage i managed to end up 2nd in both races. It was looking like craft with a shaft driven lift fan (shafties) had the advantage here as they can take long sweeping corners faster. The Venom craft which have 1 fan for lift and thrust are lighter but didnt seem to have the edge here.

In the last race i got a great start straight into 1st place and for the first few laps i had a chance to widen the gap, as Dave, who had convincingly won the previous three races struggled to get past Jess in her Pink Venom. As soon as i relaxed slightly i saw him coming up behind me, by about lap 5 he was right in my thrust air behind me, i had to deal with backmarkers and anticipate his next move. We went down the water section side by side for the last two laps but i just managed to keep in front and finally i saw the final lap flag! I just concentrated on keeping my line and nearly lost it at the last hairpin where there was a yellow flag. Finally i could actually do a victory lap!

Looking forward to Southampton at the end of August, will it be the Venoms or the shafties who come out on top at this tight, twisty course?

Thanks to Rebecca at Hovercraftvideo.co.uk, Roger at RLRdigital.co.uk and Chris Barr for the pics!