Oct 24th - I am going to run 1 of my boats.

[Ralph --- SSBN 598]

All this staying at home.
Only going to the grocery store and the VA hospital.
Has me down.
My Gato build is going very slowly and making be nuts.

So tomorrow, I am going to check out a couple of my boats and see which one is ready to go.
Last boat ran was my Akula II.
It runs very well and only needs a small ballast weight moved to get the boat vertical.
It leans to port about 1/4" surfaced and not moving in the water.

Going to check it out and the radio stuff.
If it can be made ready, I am going to Yorba Reginal Park this coming Saturday. Oct 24th.

Gate opens at 7 am.
I will be there at 7 am or shortly after and will be there to about 11am or so.

Anyone who wants to join me is certainly welcome.

Maybe this will renew my interest in getting the Gato and GW finished.

I would send out an e-mail but I do not thinnk I have everyones address that comes to Yorba Reginal Park.

[secrtwpn1]

I would have joined you, but we have several family things scheduled that day. Next time!!

Farlan

[salmon]

I will be in LA area the following week (annual cancer check), so I sadly will not be able to join you.

[cgbillb]

Ralph
Did you go sailing today
Bill

[Ralph --- SSBN 598]

Bill, my plan is for Saturday the Oct 24th.

Today was spent doing a little work on the Gato and preparing the Akula II for Saturday.

[Ralph --- SSBN 598]

Got every thing done for today.
Even gathered up the tools needed in my boat lake kit.

All that is left to do is take it all out to the car.
Already set my morning alarm.

Good to go.
It has been 8 to 9 months since I last ran at the lake.
I need this to save my sanity.

[Ralph --- SSBN 598]

Of course there are those who will say that is not possible.

[salmon]

Hahahaha - Ralph all of us at the pond can have their sanity questioned!

[Ralph --- SSBN 598]

Yes, that is true but I have had a day pass since the late 70's.
Not allowed out after dark even if there is supervision available.

[Ralph --- SSBN 598]

October 24th ===============================================

I made it to the lake about 7:15am.
Had my Akula II in the water about 7:30am.
I spent about an hour trimming the boat.
I started by diving the boat and surfacing about 3 times to get all the air out of the piston ballast tank.
This is done about 2 feet from shore just in case I have to go in after the boat.
These are staticdives. No forward motion at all.

Here the boat is on the surface.


Submerged down to the top of the sonar bulb on the rudder.


Submerged down enough to cover the sonar bulb.


Continued down to periscope depth.


Down and hovering at about 12' below the surface.


What I was looking for was the fore and aft trim (pitch) at different depths.
The boat, from the surface to the bottom was level.

This was very good.

After doing this over and over for about 30 minutes or so, it was time to drive the boat out and back, at different depths.
What I was looking at while doing this was the heel of the boat.
Last time out, I noticed the boat leaned to the starboard side. (right)

Seeing how the boat leaned, I would take the boat out of the water and open it up.
Move a small lead weight I have mounted on the side of the ballast tank piston cylinder.
The weight is small.
1/8" x 1/2" x 1/2"
Mounted with a small amount of silicone, it's easy to twist it off.
Clean the silicone off the tank and remount the weight in a different place.
Because the boat is trimmed in pitch, I only had to move the weight vertically on the tank.

I did this problem 6 or 7 times.
I have it very close and decided to leave it.
I think just the placement of the battery wires will change this trim.

Now I can run the boat.
In the lake where we run boats is a small cover.
Maybe 75' across and then out to the big part of the lake.
There is a aerator out about 100'.
Try to stay away from that thing.

I run at periscope depth for an hour or two.
Did some surface running.
Did some down to the middle of the sail running.

Came in close and did some fully submerged runs past my chair.

Can't go too deep in this area of the lake.
There are weeds down about 18" or so.
Managed to stay out of the weeds today.

Then the problems happened.
I do not carry a phone or a watch.
So I have to guess on the time.
My guess is the boat ran about 3.5 hours and maybe a little more with out being turned off.

Now the problems.
I am running at periscope depth as I turn out towards the right side of the aerator.
All of a sudden, the boat pops to the surface.
? Why did it do that?
While thinking and moving controls, I notice I do not have main motor any more.
I still have rudder and planes as I can see the rudder moving.
I thought about operating the ballast system but also thought what if it works going down but not going up.

I changed the battery in the TX.
Still no main motor.

Boat has come to a stop about 100'+ from shore.
There is no wind. (normal early in the morning)

So I planned to sit and wait for the morning wind.
The boat was moving towards shore very slowly.
Using a background tree across the lake, I could see it moving.
The fear is the wind will come up and blow towards the other side which is about 400' out and a long walk around the big lake which is about 1 mile long.

I decided to sit down and be patient.
After what seemed to be 30 to 45 minutes the boat came close enough to shore to get my radio antenna (off the Tx) on to the rudder.

A little pull and boat came to shore.
Reached down and lifted my boat out to safety.

What I learned? 2 things.
Have a watch to time the run so I stop before the battery BEC kicks in.
Take a second boat even if I do not plan to run it.
This would have given me a rescue boat to push the Akula II in to shore.

This is not a problem when running with others.
But I was alone today.

It was a very good day at the lake.
I got needed trimming completed.
The boat ran well right up until I ran the battery down.
I learned some things to do before going to the lake.

MY boat did not sink and made it back to shore.
A really good day.

A passerby asked if I had a spare battery?
I said I do but until the boat reaches shore I can not use it.

[Ralph --- SSBN 598]

I wanted to make sure the battery problem was a low battery and BEC cut off.

Charged the boat 12 volt battery to full.
Put it in the boat.
Turned on Tx then Rx.

ALL IS GOOD with the world.

[Ralph --- SSBN 598]

There was a person who came by to ask questiosn.
After about 5 minutes, he asked the question.

"How deep will it go."

We all want to hear this question.
The answer being, "All the way to the bottom. It's getting it to come up that is the trick."

[salmon]

Ralph, Still you got to run! So, 3+ hours is a great run. Congratulations on getting trim worked out.
You ROCK sir!

[sam reichart]

Nice recovery work, Ralph. I always have both phone and watch on me these days.
The boat looks great....you say you’re running a piston system in it? Home built?
I just grabbed a 1/96 Aluka II from Matt; it’s looks like it’s the same one you’re running. It looks like a nice model.
I’m hoping that it shows up tomorrow.

[Ralph --- SSBN 598]

This boat is an Engel's kit in /125 scale.
The only extra I ordered was the Hall's Sensor which controls the ballast tank piston by counting the piston screw revolutions and allows me to move the piston is very small steps.
Smaller than anything my Futaba CAP 9 Tx can do with it's knob controls.

https://engel-modellbau.eu/shop/en/Submarine-Kits/AKULA-II/

After running the boat about a year and not very often because the boat had a very large turning circle, I modified the lower rudder and now it turns in about 20 feet.
I think I showed the modification in the Akuala II build thread. (I fish tailed the rudder extension)

The engel's kit has everything in it.
It is more of an assemblykit than a build.
One I had it in hand, I spent 3 hours a day and in 21 days I was in the water running the boat.
There were some instruction issues but there was Will in our group who had just finished 2 bof these boats and was a lot of help in getting past the issues.

I like the Akula II ballast system so much, I rebuilt my Skipjack using the Akual II system with a larger piston tank.
My Skipjack has gone through I think 8 complete modifications over the years.
This is the last one because I think it work very well.

Skipjack log http://www.cliffhangershideout.com/s...ack-log-7.html