Tag Archives: hovercraft

Looking Around Solent Express on the Beach

In a previous post, I discussed how the hovercraft, Solent Express, made a visit to the beach at Lee on Solent. Once they had parked her on the beach, the public was encouraged to come and have a look around her. Plenty of people took the opportunity! She is a large hovercraft compared to the ones that run the Ryde-Southsea service with a capacity of 130 passengers. Her size is apparent when up close. Also, because she was on the slope of the shore and on a ridge, there was a large drop from the bow to the ground making her look even more sizeable.

There was plenty of time to have a look around. I got both close and also up on the embankment above the beach to get a wider view. Having so many people walking about really gave some scale to her. She was a little way out of the water when she landed, and the stern was on the beach. However, the tide was coming in and, by the time they departed, this was well in the water. More of that at a later stage.

I did get to take a look at some of the design features. The skirt is an integral part of the hovercraft and, while it looks flexible and flimsy from a distance, when you get close up and see how thick it is and how it is joined together, you appreciate it is a lot sturdier than it initially appears. Given the conditions that is has to experience, this really shouldn’t be such a surprise.

The ducted props at the rear are substantial. The props are large and the ducts with their flaps for directing the flow are big pieces of engineering. The carbon fibre drive shafts looked particularly cool to someone with an engineering background. All in all, she was quite the craft.

Reappearance of Something Long Gone

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I saw a post online about something coming to Lee on Solent near the Hovercraft Museum on a Saturday morning. A silhouette was posted which looked like it might have been Solent Express. This is a hovercraft that was built nearly twenty years ago and operated for a while on the Ryde-Southsea route with Hovertravel. It is a BHT130 and was found to be too large for the route and not commercially suited to the operation. In 2011 it was laid up pending an alternative operator being found. Since then, it has been stored at varying locations. I got photos of it when it was originally in operation and had wondered whether I might see it stored but hadn’t really pursued that idea.

Then, recently some images of it showed up on the pad at Ryde as it was being used for some testing and demonstration ahead of a potential sale to a new customer. The idea that it might be the subject of the Saturday event seemed pretty plausible. Sure enough, the announcement was made that it would come to the shore at Lee on Solent, everyone would be able to get a good look at it on the beach, then it would do a short demo on the water before heading off. I figured that this was definitely something I would like to do. Sure, I had a guest for the weekend, but they weren’t going to miss me for a few hours.

The weather was pretty ideal. The sun was out but the air temps weren’t very high. A bit of a breeze but nothing too serious. I wasn’t sure how busy it was going to be so got there in plenty of time to scope it out and find a location. I had plenty to work with. People gradually drifted in but there was never a completion for space. I decided to start out slightly up the bank near the slipway for the arrival. I would change later on.

While the hovercraft wasn’t due in until 10:15, it was visible for quite a while before. I saw it off in the distance heading in and thought it was going to be early, but they were busy doing some manoeuvring out in the Solent and weren’t coming ashore just yet. It wasn’t too long to wait, though. Soon they were heading for the beach. I was split in my mind about what I wanted to get. I love stills but the motion of a hovercraft really shows well in video. I decided video would be the main focus, but I would get as many stills as I could. Fortunately, unlike aircraft, hovercraft are not so fast that you can’t switch back and forth without creating a massive disconnect in the video timeline.

There was a large ridge in the shingle on the beach, but a hovercraft doesn’t have any issue transitioning such a discontinuity. They pulled up on to the beach and then settled down. A shorter time while they shut down and then the beach was back open to allow everyone to get a closer look. I think I am spending enough time on this post already, so I am going to split it into multiple parts. More to come.

Some Video of the Hovercraft

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I posted some shots of the Hovertravel operations previously and, at the end of that post, I mentioned that I had switched to video. Sometimes, when the lighting isn’t great, the photos can look a bit dull. However, video seems to work better in such conditions because the motion is more dominant than the colours. It also gives a better impression of what is happening. A still shot doesn’t easily convey that something is drifting sideways or turning tightly. Video gives you that.

The wind meant that the motion was pretty dynamic for the approach and departure from the terminal. Also, there were a few other vessels in the vicinity and that needed to be routed around adding a bit more interest. I realised that, while the conditions weren’t great, it was quite clear looking across to Ryde. With the 200-800mm on one body and a steady support on a post, I was able to video the departure from Ryde and the whole transit. The Wightlink catamaran did time it really badly crossing in front of me just as the hovercraft was rotating on the slipway but never mind. Since it was 4k footage, I was able to do a bit of stabilisation and zooming in when processing the footage afterwards. It would be nice to have had more natural sound, but the wind was so strong, the footage only has the sound of buffeting of the microphones. Here is the video I pulled together from all that I shot that day.

A Windy Day with the Hovercraft

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On a quiet Saturday morning, I had a desire to get down to the coast. There were a few photo ideas I had been thinking about and, with no competing things going on, I decided to head down. The downside to this was that the weather was not going to be great. Potential for some showers and definitely some strong winds in the forecast. This might thwart some plans, but the lack of sun might also mean some angles were less problematic from a backlighting point of view.

A trip to Portsmouth means it is unlikely I will miss out on some Hovercraft photography. High winds can mean that the hovercraft service gets suspended but, on this occasion, luck was on my side. Moreover, instead of the regular schedule, they seemed to be running a shuttle with the one hovercraft running back and forth almost constantly. This gave me more chance to get some material without waiting for too long.

Southsea seafront has been undergoing a major refurbishment, and it had reopened on this weekend. The beach had been inaccessible for a long time so now it was possible to get back close to the operations at the Hovertravel terminal. I started off getting a bunch of still shots. The tide was not too high when I got there but there was a bank of shingle on the approach to the slipway. This meant the hovercraft was climbing over this bank before getting on to the concrete. It made for an interesting motion although the skirt accommodated the different sections with relative ease.

Having got a few photos, I decided that I would switch to video for the next rotation. That video will get its own post in due course.

Some Features Show Better in Video

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I was at Ryde one Saturday morning watching the Hovertravel service on a windy day. Because hovercraft are not in contact with the surface, there is no grip to counter any crosswinds. The technique for operating is therefore like flying a plane. You have to yaw into the wind to offset the drift the wind produces. When taking stills, you don’t really show this but, when watching it happen, the drifting is very obvious.

Consequently, video is the way to go. I got some clips of the hovercraft coming in, first over the water and then as it transitioned to the sand flats. For the hovercraft, the change of surface makes no difference. It does mean, when the wind is right, you can get head on shots when they aren’t coming straight at you!

A Couple of Military Hovercraft

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No shock to regular readers that I might swing by the Hovertravel facilities when on the Island. A pleasant surprise was to discover that it wasn’t just the Hovertravel craft that were present. A couple of smaller military craft were also parked up. I had seen pictures of these online but didn’t realise that they were still present. I don’t know whether they are ex-military that are being repurposed or new builds for the military. Whatever the story, here they were. It would be better to see them moving but it was the weekend so not a surprise that they weren’t going anywhere.

I Can’t Resist a Little Time Watching Hovercraft

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A previous post showed a couple of military hovercraft that were on the Hovertravel pad at Ryde when we were on the Island. It will shock no one that knows me to know that, since we had time, I stopped around to see the return of one of the Hovertravel services. On the ferry across I had managed to get some shots of one of the crossings and now I was able to get an arrival. The tide was quite low so there was a lot of the sand flats to cover. This is one of the unique features of the hovercraft that the service doesn’t mind whether the tide is in or out.

There were some strong winds on the days we visited and this shows itself in the way a hovercraft approaches. Because it has no significant physical contact with the water, its only way to counteract any crosswinds is to crab into them like a plane. Consequently, It looked like it was coming straight at me as it made its approach to the pad. Now we are more local, I suspect I shall aim to make a trip across just to spend time getting some more hovercraft images.

A Wardroom on a Hovercraft?

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In the 70s, the potential for hovercraft was unknown and there were many types being developed. The BHC-7 was a military design that was tested by the British Interservice Hovercraft Trials Unit. It went through a variety of modifications as different roles were evaluated. I think some were exported but the UK never bought any more of them. However, the thing that I found amusing was that, because the Navy were involved in operating it, there was a wardroom.

It might not be the most glamorous of locations and I suspect other warships have nicer wardrooms. The sofas looked a little rough and the tea facilities were basic. However, it is fun to see that the important things were taken care of while the trials programme was underway.

The Super 4 is a Beast

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When I was a small kid, BHC was stretching a couple of the SRN-4s to the Super 4 configuration. Despite living in the same town, I never saw them while they were being tested. The late 90s and I got to travel on one for a Channel crossing as we went on holiday to France. Not long after that, they were withdrawn from service. The two hovercraft made their way to the Hovercraft Museum at Lee on Solent. One has since been scrapped but the other survives and is on display.

Getting this close to it, you really appreciate the size of the machine. It is interesting to wander through the passenger cabins on the side, up the main ramp, through the car deck and around the outside. It really is a most impressive piece of engineering. It dominates the grounds of the museum and gets you thinking about what it was like when it was in service rising high up on the massive skirt.

It was a cold and dreary day when I was there. The grey skies don’t provide a nice backdrop to the exterior vie and I will have to try and go back on a nicer day at some point. However, it was worthwhile having the chance to view it when few other people were around so a cold and gloomy winter day might have had it advantages.

My Usual Hovercraft Spot is Out of Bounds!

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The family was gathering for lunch for my birthday and my mum was coming across on the hovercraft to join us. Whenever I have previously been down at the hovercraft terminal, I have been on the beach just to the east of the slipway. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that there is a large infrastructure project underway along the shoreline and that section is cordoned off. The only option is a small path on the other side of the terminal.

This was not an ideal spot as things are more backlit. I decided that video might be a better bet given the conditions. Even when mum was making her return trip, the light was still not great. We both stopped by to watch an earlier trip arrive and depart. As the departure headed out, the blast of propwash was a bit more than expected and my hat departed my head! Got to focus on the shot and then grab the hat later. Someone had caught it for me anyway!