Hovercraft during a solar eclipse
Due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions and a broken foot that I could not get treated due to the Covid-19 restrictions, I have not been able to shoot new photos since January.
This is a photo from the solar eclipse in August 2017. We flew across the lake to other side in our 2-person home built hovercraft. IT is powered by a 16 horsepower ride-on lawnmower engine.
During the eclipse, the lake became very quiet, all the boat motors were off, and the birds thought it was evening and began tweeting away.
We were the first people to have watched this eclipse via hovercraft in the United States, as visibility first began on the west coast and this is in the coastal hills of Oregon.
The 2nd person to watch from a hovercraft was at Ochoco Resevoir in eastern Oregon, where Matthew, famous for his Delorean modeled hovercraft, was also watching the eclipse.
I suspect Matthew, plus us, were probably the only people in the world to have watched this eclipse via hovercraft :)
You can see large cracks and peels in the original blue coating.
After the eclipse ended, the Sheriff's Marine Patrol unit went around checking everyone on the lake for proper licenses, flotation devices, safety equipment etc. When I flew up on shore, the deputies were on the dock checking every boat that came into the dock. They looked right at me - and ignored us! I think they had no idea what to do about checking a hovercraft. They literally checked every boat on the lake - including kayaks and canoes - but ignored us. How weird!
At the moment, I have stripped all of the blue coating off, from the engine forward and am prep'ing to recoat it in Piper Cub Yellow. The top surface is aerospace fabric (Stitts Poly-Fiber for those familiar with homebuilt aircraft) and will be coated with a layer of adhesive, then 3 layers of an ultraviolet protectant, and then 3 layers of the final cover. I am pretty sure I did not order enough of the protectant or final color and will need to order more before I can finish. (See flic.kr/p/2jdBYnH for the final color.)
This photo was taken with a Nikon 1 J3. I do not own this camera but had picked it up, used, for my daughter, who has it now. I do still shoot with other Nikon 1 cameras though.
Hovercraft during a solar eclipse
Due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions and a broken foot that I could not get treated due to the Covid-19 restrictions, I have not been able to shoot new photos since January.
This is a photo from the solar eclipse in August 2017. We flew across the lake to other side in our 2-person home built hovercraft. IT is powered by a 16 horsepower ride-on lawnmower engine.
During the eclipse, the lake became very quiet, all the boat motors were off, and the birds thought it was evening and began tweeting away.
We were the first people to have watched this eclipse via hovercraft in the United States, as visibility first began on the west coast and this is in the coastal hills of Oregon.
The 2nd person to watch from a hovercraft was at Ochoco Resevoir in eastern Oregon, where Matthew, famous for his Delorean modeled hovercraft, was also watching the eclipse.
I suspect Matthew, plus us, were probably the only people in the world to have watched this eclipse via hovercraft :)
You can see large cracks and peels in the original blue coating.
After the eclipse ended, the Sheriff's Marine Patrol unit went around checking everyone on the lake for proper licenses, flotation devices, safety equipment etc. When I flew up on shore, the deputies were on the dock checking every boat that came into the dock. They looked right at me - and ignored us! I think they had no idea what to do about checking a hovercraft. They literally checked every boat on the lake - including kayaks and canoes - but ignored us. How weird!
At the moment, I have stripped all of the blue coating off, from the engine forward and am prep'ing to recoat it in Piper Cub Yellow. The top surface is aerospace fabric (Stitts Poly-Fiber for those familiar with homebuilt aircraft) and will be coated with a layer of adhesive, then 3 layers of an ultraviolet protectant, and then 3 layers of the final cover. I am pretty sure I did not order enough of the protectant or final color and will need to order more before I can finish. (See flic.kr/p/2jdBYnH for the final color.)
This photo was taken with a Nikon 1 J3. I do not own this camera but had picked it up, used, for my daughter, who has it now. I do still shoot with other Nikon 1 cameras though.