We took the hovercraft out this afternoon to see how Dakota one of our Labradors was onboard. She was a little apprehensive at times, but overall she seemed quite happy while flying up and down the loch. Firstly I flew solo with Dakota  from the Battery park beach up to just past the primary school and then down to Slumbay. I landed on Slumbay and gave Dakota a quick walk. She met another dog there, so a new bestie. Dakota was happy enough to jump into the hovercraft without any coaxing, so guess she's not too bothered about being onboard. By now Becky had arrived at the Battery park beach, so I flew across from Slumbay to pick her up.
Once Becky was onboard she took control of Dakota and we flew across the loch to the longer of the two islands  I landed on the island and we had a mooch around on the island.  There was a seal that saw us approaching, so it slid into the water and swam out 50 metres or so and was watching us from a distance.
Once back on the hovercraft we flew towards the river Carron, but about half way across my cap flew off and landed on the propeller safety netting, so I flew over to the beach below the houses at the bottom of the mammon hill. Once I retrieved my cap, we made our way up the river Carron. There was a tree blocking our progress, so I landed on a little island between where the river splits for a hundred metres or so. I had a little walk there and could see someone up river a bit that looked like he was fishing. When he spotted me he walked away with what looked like a fishing rod in his right hand. Guessing he never had a fishing licence.
So back onboard, we flew back down the river then flew up to the top of the loch where the gorse bushes are. We had a walk around there for a while, then decided to head back to our launch site at the Battery Park beach. This is where we had a problem 🫤 As I started the hovercraft there was a bang and the engine revved up beyond where it should do. I immediately shut off the engine and went around the back of the craft to see what had happened. It was the lift belt adjustment bolt had snapped and the lift fan drive belt had jumped off.
Out with the spanner's, but there wasn't enough length on the bolt to use to get us home 😟 So out came the cable ties and I manage to get enough tension on the lift fan belt by tieing the belt tensioner to the rear of the propeller frame. I initially used about 4 cable ties. I wasn't sure if it would hold, but it did, so I followed the coast around to the beach at the primary school. I stopped and checked the cable ties, one had snapped, so I added another 4 cable ties, then flew back to the Battery park launch site, where we loaded the hovercraft onto the trailer 😁😁
All in all a fun couple of hours out on the water, and a lesson learned to carry a spare adjustment bolt, in case it happens again.