It was a fruitful day at Haydock on Saturday, many thanks to Dave and co on the AMS stand who looked at my Dorsal fin sub. They identified a few problems.
First the fins are all wrong. I had made them from solid depron, covered in glass cloth. It was pointed out, when the sub dives, they then start to act as ballast, which then messes up the whole thing. Whilst things are not working correctly, I was advised to disconnedt the leveller, until things get sorted to a fashion, then reconnect. The "o" rings on the end caps need replacing, they where not tight enough, and when things are sorted seal up the motor end cap.
We discussed ballast and cog at length, and the guys said get a level attitude on the water, using blue foam to ballast, I was using a foam that was holding some water.
After all that, They where confident it should work!
So this morning it was back to the lake at 8.30am.Perfect day, sunny, warm, no wind, and no audience
Fins removed, all ballast removed, I started to balance the boat. After 3 hours, gave up
When level on the water, its a real struggle to maintain surface running. If I induce a dive, even with very gentle change in plane attitude, its an immediate crash dive, so I then have to throttle off and wait for it to surface. Even with a vastly increased surface area, and maximum movement, the rudder still has little effect, so I am bored of it now and need a break from it as I have other jobs to do, so its now in the attic.
I am sure this will work, but I'm too fed up with it now.
Ill say it again, anybody fancy taking this on as a commission build, Ill do it!
For now, its a shelved project