Hi James! Thank you so much for having your vision, and building something that actually works (really good) and sharing not just your kick ass videos with us, but also answering everyone's technical questions...regardless of how many times they're asked. lol My first intent was to try and re-scale one of the AirFish designs, using educated guesses, visual interpretations and lastly...the ol' dividers-on-the-monitor-screen technique. lol You're design however inspires me to go with the MUCH simpler/safer/cheaper/successful design and your willingness to share your specifications. I initially was going to start my build around a wrecked airplane fuselage, like a Lake, and transform it to a WIG, but was told by someone smarter than me, that I should start with a boat instead. Anyway, since it's so much easier to critique/build around someone else's trials and tribulations (thank you for yours), I've decided to give it a go with my own version of the venerable MudSkipper. If you would...I wonder if I might make your's and my new craft even better than Mud Skipper #1, with the some crazy added concepts I dreamed up while watching/reading every spec of your comments and posts. (I'm factoring in all your past comments too.) Here they are...1. Use a tractor (as you suggested), for clean prop air. 2. Counter-balance the control surfaces, and add trim tabs, so it will somehow fly on a "even keel," "weather vein," or whatever you want to call it...should the rudder/elevator break. 3. Use tall/twin vertical stabilizers, to lessen dirty air turbulence/drag from the prop against the control surfaces. 4. Add positive buoyancy flotation in the fuselage, for catastrophic water landings/crashes. 5. Add quick-detach 5-point harnesses, to keep my teeth out of the dashboard, in such cases. 6. Enclose the cockpit for better streamlining (which must have an automatic "pop-off" mechanism, for inverted water landings/crashes, with a window to spit my gum out of.) 7. And lastly, turbin power, for that (hard-to-afford) power to weight advantage. I hope you're still reading this......... Thanks again for all your hard work and inspiration. I really mean it! Sincerely, Dan (from the bumpy Lake Of The Ozarks in Missouri, USA.)
This is the only wall of reasonable (or at least somewhat so) suggestions I’ve read so far that made me laugh rather than cringe. I personally would go with a 1,060 pound Tesla Model 3 battery pack, plus a 500 pound fuel cell, then use two KingTech turboprop engines to drive doubled-up heavy lift drone motors, wired to the tesla battery for on-the-fly (heh heh) recharging… then those same drone motors (we’re in the $10,000 range and climbing here) can be put into ducted fans, say two 200-lbf for each wing… and then we’re in BUSINESS with a 13-14 hour range! Let’s just hope James is comfortable with sleep deprivation… otherwise we might have to pick your chewing gum off of the hull and force him to chew on it so he stays awake on his 300 MPH journey to Peru (or heaven)…
Nice work. I looked at one of your other vids showing your control inputs. It looks a little twitchy in pitch and looking at your wing it will have an unstable centre of pressure. I might consider some battens to define the profile. It could also increase the performance to. As a designer of hang gliders since 1979 I am happy to offer my help.
Hello, while it seems the control inputs are a lot remember I am only 1m off the ground so the flight tolerance is very tight so any slight disturbance from the gusts requires immediate and positive input. The craft is actually quite stable and inputs are minimal. The CP also seems to be stable due to the 5.5 degree angle of incidence of the main wing which keeps the wing surface 'inflated'. Buttons would definitely help with efficiency and performance though as the craft on its current configuration isn't too efficient but that was never a design consideration for me.
@@Ground-Effect Worth a try, I think you may find it will just sit and ride through those gusts without having to correct. It will be more relaxing for the pilot.
Hey I’m glad I found your channel. I made a 30 seater hovercraft for an accountant in Fremantle out of aluminium. The owner of the craft was totally interested in large wig effect island hopping craft that could do navigation over shallow reef. I would like to one day do a bigger version of you type of craft if I get the funds.
im going with this ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gyLwK7Akx2I.html but i might use some of ur wing ideas if thats ok engine behind seats .. long drive/ propshaft ending in a cv joint for PAR thrust . thorts ????
Nicely done, good work! When You find Your ultimate design, pvc foam and epoxy fiberglass would probably have an even better strength to weight ratio. WIG obviously but what is the classification of this, boat, ultralight, plane or what?
6 cylinder Jabiru. 3200cc, aircooled, 120+- HP. Designed/built in Australia, been around for 15 or 20 years now. Uses some off-the-shelf automobile parts (I think! Such as Honda rods/pistons??) I have one in my garage attached to a CH701 fuselage in progress. Light weight, direct-driven prop. Just gotta keep them cooled properly!
Hi again James. Thanks for prompt response. What I was asking was what is the offset displacement distance between the LE and TE, not the chord ie how much lower is the TE to the LE in vertical measurement? Thanks for heads up re tinny idea. A suggestion would be to use ducting on the prop to improve efficiency? Thanks again
Sorry you did ask that. The angle of incidence is 5.5degrees with the leading edge higher than the trailing edge. Yes ducting increases efficiency but it's another thing that can go wrong and cause you issues if not very well secure and it also increases the height of the craft making it harder to go under car ports etc.
Wow - love it! Very jealous LOL... Im currently trying to make a number of RC models - wing in ground type etc - and finding it difficult - but rewarding... Seeing basically similar stuff to what Im doing - but done in full size - is really interesting! Would secretly love to try full size sometime - but Im not ready yet! Fair play man- great work!
GR8 job! For improvements, you could have a look at the answers to question: 'How would an Inverted Delta Wing planform behave, Straight part forward? Are there wings shaped this way?', in Aviation Stack Exchange. Blessings +
It's understood the vessel which crashed into the water is called The Mudskipper with photos of it pictured in Lancelin Bay shared to social media earlier on Saturday. Rip mudskipper
Hi James. Thanks for sharing. Please: what is the diameter of the ali wing tubing and wall thickness, and type of ali? Also what is the displacement distance between the LE and TE (or angle of attack)? Do you reckon a 12' Tinnie would fly using similar configuration? Many thanks. Cheers.
Hey. It's 76.2mm x 3.25mm 6061T6 aluminum. The distance between the two is 3m. I originally thought of using a tinny hull to do this but found out that you would need to be sitting right up the front with your feet over the edge to get the CG correct. If you reduced the wing chord and increased the wingspan you would have a better ability to move the wing rearwards closer to the CG. Downside is longer wingspan is not your friend in a WIG.
Hi James, do you have any intensions to sell plans? What's it like taking off over choppy water? Would you change anything if building again ? Thanks Ben
Hey Ben. In choppy water you definitely feel it, the hull requires a sharper V to handle more chop. I would deepen the V in the hull, move the engine rearward, change to tractor not pusher to name a few. Overall I am extremely happy with how it turned out
Thanks for your thoughts and reply James, interesting. I notice some people have opted for two tractor props, one in front of each wing to reduce take off speed. Don't know if that's a good idea or not. The other craft type I was looking at is the hoverwing, where I live is a large estuary where you can launch from a beach. It would be much easier with a hovercraft to launch. Pluses and minuses to both ideas I suppose.
@@Ben-Dixey so I have built the hovering. Good fun but I find you spend more time in the shed fixing hovercrafts than you do flying them. The MudSkipper was designed ensuring all of the bad aspects of the hovering were addressed. That's why it looks nothing like a hovercraft anymore. The salt spray, gear boxes, twin engine, skirt just to name a few of the features that caused alot of time fixing or modifying.
Well, I should have looked back through your videos further. Amazing what you have already achieved. Some video watching for me later and reading through the comments. I'll do this before asking anymore questions. Thanks
@@Ground-Effect Hi, me again, think I have watched all your videos now, very envious of what you have achieved. can I ask why you would choose a tractor configuration rather than a pusher ? I've looked at the jabiru engine and found it's expensive. Wondered what your thoughts are on using the much heavier Subaru ej22? Another thought I had was to use powered retractable hydrofoils to lift the craft out of the water sooner. Stupid idea ? Lastly I am doing another helicopter video where I would like to mention your channel and the wig vehicle as a potential next project. Would you mind me doing that ? Hopefully add a few subscribers to help get to the 1000. People obviously haven't discovered your channel yet for some reason. Ben
Hey Glenn, I used inspiration from a hovercraft and a seaplane. I also used my knowledge and experience in model aircraft building and flying also my knowledge as a pilot. I'll be putting up a video very soon going into detail
I would have incorporated Rudder pedals with cables pulleys and tensioners..and kept the Joystick just for pitch control. Also would have kept all gauges in a cluster in front of the PIC instead of trying to fill space all over the panel.
Having the rudder and elevator separate would be a death sentence. A pilots natural reaction is to move the control stick/column not move the feet to turn. The way I did the dash was for looks. Actually very easy to scan
Hey James if you still monitor this, would you please shoot me a message about differences between the hover style and pure wig like consumption handling speeds etc. thanks mate and great work! I’m looking at something a little different little lower stall so to speak.
Thanks mate I appreciate it!! There some big differences. I do like the UH-18SPW but I have found through experience that hovercraft breakdown regularly and require a lot of maintenance. Due to vibration, sea spray, gearbox issues and skirt issues to name a few. I disliked the amount of time broken down or at home repairing. Hovercrafts are great fun but my attention is on WIGS now. I designed this to be as reliable as possible and so far 2000km with not even a bolt needing to be tightened. I reduced the minimum speed to 60kph by increasing the wingspan and chord and reducing weight. Fuel burn is alot higher as I have gone with an aircraft engine over an automotive engine. This handles chop better than a hovercraft also. Any other questions just ask. I will be doing a full walkthrough soon. Possibly I'll take the footage tomorrow for that.
You’re welcome brother. I have a small handheld cnc that I can use to make perfectly accurate cuts out of wood etc and going to go that route t make a double duty fishing/flying machine, hence the questions about differences in wig/hoverwing. Maybe even go the foldable hard wing route so as to stand on it and fish from it idk yet still thinking through design there. Seeing as how load forces wouldn’t be to high maybe a fold and fold back out of way and fish from fuselage. Guess really the hull could be whatever and I’ll revisit my twin hull idea. Could be same principle as hoverwing without the lift, rely on wings for lift and thrust wouldn’t be to needy if wings were adequate. I originally looked at hover route due to ease of trailering. Talk more soon. 4:15
@@Ground-EffectHello James, This is a bold decision. Yes, and it has been tested! But, I will still make ailerons. I'll show you how it looks later. Thank you, Sergey
Sorry James, i do not get this. What is the point of the video, what can world wide community learn from it? There is no explanations to technical challenges, no explanations to the materials used in wing construction, no explanation to the shape of hull. The only purpose that this video serve is to show your music taste.
Lol. Mate I'm not here to educate people. My video is there for people who may be interested in seeing a few pictures of a build from design to completion. I suggest if you want to learn please spend hours and hours researching books and the internet to gain the knowledge to build a similar project. For people with genuine questions and interest please ask all the questions you like.
Seems pretty self-explanatory to me... Plywood and eps foam construction, wings are outriggers stretched with sailcloth. Airplane motor, car seats, airboat prop, manual controls. Green paint, and it flies. Not all of us can be Grind Hard Plumbing Company or Fireball Tool. Some of us need to get our shit done and the video is an afterthought.
@@DerrangedGadgeteer Thank you! Salecloth for wings, awesome. I have never contacted this material so now i will know it exists and can be used in such application with the type of fixings as shown.
@@Ground-Effect "I suggest if you want to learn please spend hours and hours researching books and the internet" - Already following your advice, started with UT videos. Is that counts?
