Holiday Build Hydro and Marine Intruder MK II

[megalops]

I wasnt really impressed with the Rudder water pickup hole in the FDM rudder so i bought 2 of these Octura streamlined water pickups. Does anyone have any experience with these? If so what are the actual results. I know that by looking at the design of these that they will solve any water flow issues. Looks like installed they will protrude below the bottom of the sponson about 7mm. They might even provide some grip like a small turnfin.

waterPU.jpg

[megalops]

Ok now i have the boat pretty much ready for the maiden. I dont have the battery trays in yet since i have no idea where the need to go. What I do is make a temporary battery holder out of Pool Noodle foam. I use this sort of setup with noodle foam and velcro straps on the first 1 0r 2 days of shake down runs. I try to get a good starting point for the trays, strut height and prop size. At this point I am ready to apply power then stick it the pool for an inital float test.

Vid of first power up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6g9sYG99VE

Here are some pics of the first of a few float tests. At this point i took the loose packs out capped of the water inlet and stuck it in the pool to see where, if any, the leaks were. Of course at my house my male "Brittany" does not like things that float in "his" pool especially RC boats. So i have to put him away so no unexpected capsizing occurs.

I found one leak at the lower left bolt on the bracket adapter. I just tighened all the bolts well and that seemed to fix it.
apply power1.jpgprefloat.jpgpreFloat2.jpgpreFloat1.jpg

[megalops]

Now for the good stuff if you havent seen it when looking at the video above this is a link to one of the shakedown runs in the small pond behind my house. I wasnt really able to get this rig to "stretch its legs". However we were able to get a 52mph reading on the gun. It definitily has more in the tank and this coming weekend I will hopefully be able to "let er eat" and post some results and vids!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd5x9sbLRE8