hey mc,
i can think of two people who might be considered to be "bully boy" on this
forum, and given the nature of the rest of your post the list narrows down to
one.
as with all my posts, any reference to scat performance is in relation to other
hovercraft designs i know about. yes, i HAVE driven a stock (i think stock)
scat. i've also driven ralph's heavily modified one. i took both of them slow
as to not break another man's toy.
you're right, everything is relative. if a scat is what you want, then go to
it. there are a lot of people who have them and a lot who like them. that's
fine, it's a free country and you can do that if you want. you obviously have
and like yours, i don't have a problem with that.
any warnings i give are to make the potential buyer do research before
committing. if they want a cheap (inexpensive) hovercraft that works, a scat is
fine. if they think they're getting a high performance machine, then they need
to be warned off. i can't think of a single way that a stock scat as sold in
the united states could be considered to be high performance. that was the
nature of my comments. it doesn't go fast or carry a heavy load compared to
other crafts of similar size and power.
as far as a scat going too fast for me or anyone else, i have a hard time
believing that. looking at the whc2002 time trials results, the f3 (250cc) top
guy was only a second or so slower than the f2 guy, (500 cc) and that guy is
only a few seconds slower than the f1 guy. if i remember correctly the
calulated average speed for f1 on that track was in excess of 60 mph, including
more than 360 degrees of turns. so the lead in f3 had to be at least averaging
around 50 mph on a track with a lot of turns.
flying off cushion and nosediving like a submarine under anything like normal
driving conditions is, in my opinion, enough to cause a craft to fail any
standard by which most people would buy a hovercraft. ejection of the driver in
those conditions would be cause for a class action suit if the company still
existed. i routinely deliberately induce plow-in at 60 mph, and it's only
slightly more exciting than hard braking in a car.
doug pendleton was a great guy. he and i occasionally butted heads on this
forum but usually we got along fine. he knew a lot about scats and had at least
one which was fairly heavily modified. he drove a stock scat faster than anyone
else i've met. he would also have to be considered an expert driver of his
chosen craft, which can't be considered in the same light as someone buying
their first hovercraft.
there are a lot of hovercraft brands out there that i like. nearly every
hovercraft i've ridden in or driven, i find something to like about it. this
includes scats, which you might find hard to believe. no doubt if i were to get
a ride in a sevtec, i would find things to like about those as well, which would
probably be hard for a lot of the readers of this forum to believe.
when i hear about people who want to buy or build a certain hovercraft model
that i know something about, i will help them in whatever fashion seems
appropriate. this includes warning builders of universal hovercraft designs of
some of the unpleasant aspects of those models, which is something some folks
seem to ignore.
most of the folks who build uh-12r's contact me privately, but i have a lot of
warnings for people who want to build those. i obviously have a lot of good
stuff to say about them too.
-- bully boy.
Post by M***@webtv.netHi Halo. You need to take the advice you get on Skat hovercraft with a
grain of salt. If you will notice some posters admit they have no
experience with a Skat, but say they dislike them because of their bad
habits. Same way with the blade tip clearance on the duct. They state
that it is the worst commercial duct ever made.
One of their greatest critisisms is the noise. Well, compared to what?
A feather falling in the breeze? Maybe an airplane getting ready for
take-off. Everything is by comparison. I have a Skat. When reved up it
is no louder than a four-wheeler ATV, and the kids and young adults ride
them all over America and nobody complains. As far as the duct
clearance, yes there is an uneven gap in places between the blade tips
and the inner surface of the duct. Now who says that it must be
symeterical and within a few thousands of concentricity? The main
concern is--Does it work. It does, and does it well. Otherwise they
wouldn't complain of it having "bad habits". It gets going to fast for
them!! It flies off the cushion and tends to nosedive like a submarine.
Experienced riders sense the approaching trouble and adjust the balance
by sliding aft on the seat. It will run about 30-35 MPH, which is
plenty to have a bunch of fun. There are people on this newsgroup that
fly them regurlarly. Others have modified them to gain perfection. One
great fellow, Doug Pendleton, had a great website full of information
and modifications on the Skat.
It is not made by Universal Hovercraft so certain people never pass up a
chance to bad mouth the competition.
Now if Bully Boy takes exception to this post he needs to get a pair of
asbestos britches, because he sure as the devil ain't going to like the
next one.