Recently Hovercraft Africa we contracted to provide assess for engineers to do inspections of the Well points on a Soda ash mine in Africa.

Due to higher than normal rain fall access was impossible by any other type of vehicle.

The ground conditions encountered were dry hard pack, dry grassland, wet grassland, sticky mud, deep mud, quick sand/mud, shallow water, deep water.

The hovercraft being the only vehicle to be able to seamlessly traverse all of the above listed ground conditions and effortlessly transition between them, made the hovercraft the access vehicle of choice.

Our mission was….

• To access & obtain real time on the ground data as to the condition and serviceability of the well-points and pipe-lines, selected for inspection.
• To access currently impossible to get to well-points & pipe-lines & obtain data.
• Also confirm to the mine that a Hovercraft is a viable access method.
• Compile all the information gathered.

Hovercraft Africa were commissioned by a mining group to clean up a tailings dam at one of their mines. The hovercraft is the only vehicle for this type of operation as it can traverse both land and water and the highly unstable quicksand area in between. A hovercraft is the only vehicle that can stop on the deep quicksand type mud and restart without getting stuck. To ensure the safety of our hovercraft pilots during the clean-up operation, personal protective equipment was worn at all times. With two hovercraft operating at the same time the clean-up was done quickly and efficiently.

The environmental clean-up was a great success thanks to the hovercraft’s unique abilities. Every part of the tailings dam could be accessed, and all foreign objects were removed and equipment that was once thought of as lost was retrieved and put back into service.

Hovercraft Africa can work in the harshest of conditions and with the hovercrafts truly amphibious attributes and our skilled pilots accessing areas that were once thought of as impossible to access is now possible thanks to hovercraft and Hovercraft Africa.

I finally finished the second marlin that I have been working on.

It came out ok, just some final tweaks to do on the engine fan set up… it always the fine tuning that takes time but is so worth it in the end.