well after a great and VERY VERY hot weekend we inch ever closer to the goal. some of you may know i was down at the Blacktown Inn car show over the weekend. and as usual still working on the board. were i could. the heat got a bit to much for me later on. 

The biggest problem i faced was having the Port side engine sheer on the afterburner when it expanded with heat. it's a very fine science with turbines and the clearances are very minimal. so i had my brother bring the grinder down so i could take off a couple a thousandths of a inch. sadly i took off enough in one spot but to little in another and the impella sheered on the afterburner again. by this stage it was way to hot to work on any more and i just had to leave it for the day. after all i still had the Starboard engine... or did i? 

well the starboard engine ran fine until i had problems with another relay. this could become an expensive exercise in correct wiring haha. so basically i was left with a very large and heavy but cool looking paper weight at the end of the show. 

Now you ask yourself this sounds like a horrible day. but in fact it was a great day. most importantly because i got to spend it with some great blokes. but also because i did get to test fire the Port side engine and we now have the ECU programed perfectly with the other engine. also, the starboard engine ran great while it was running and was smooth as butter.

the following day i was sent a link to a few photos taken at the event by Scott Cummings. thank you for passing that along Scott.
 
Follow the link to see them. HERE all the Jet Luge stuff starts about a third of the way down.

you can also see a video of the event in the Video section shot by David Cameron

what a great evening i had. for the first time i took the jet Luge out and showed the public. i took it to Sydney Speedway in Parramatta and not one person knew what it was. others would look at the board, then back at me, and back at the board, then just walk away shaking their heads with a grin.... i think they knew. 
once people started to understand what it was, and what i am trying to do, they laughed and told me how mad i am. but, strait after that, it was followed with a sincere good luck and a hand shake. this is one of the things i like about living in Australia. it's the mate-ship you share with you fellow man. even if they think your crazy for attempting something dangerous, i think they understand it's something that is bigger than that one event and yourself and genuinely want to wish you luck. 
i started one of the engines a couple of times and spent the night trying to keep people clear of the jet wash. by the end of the night i couldn't keep them away so the resulting video is what you get. it was the last run for the night.

I would like to introduce you all to my new high speed wheels. these wheels are drag race tested and proven to be top of their class when it come to speed in excess of 250+kph (155 mph). the crew over at Proline Performance have been great enough to come onboard as one of the primary partners, and together with this new partnership, we are now assured the world record for fastest luge. the wheels themselves are just a little over 100mm in diameter and 50mm wide and as you can see have an alloy core. i have big plans for these wheels and i look forward to working with the crew at Proline at breaking some records together. 

It certainly is a first for me. building fairing that is, now on the home stretch of having a completed jet powered luge i am having to work on getting the board ridable. and in doing that i need fairing. this will protect my legs and body from debris  as well as add a little more aerodynamics to the board itself.  now this would be easy if you have done something like this before, but i have never EVER done anything like this. so you can imagine the challenge that lay before me.

so the first thing i did was to lay out some ply board to see roughly how it should go. i learnt this by watching youtube haha.

i had no idea how to get a good corner so i cut off some cardboard and taped it in. i knew this would go hard when i fiberglassed the inside.

after glassing the inside it now had the rigidity i needed to shape the outside how it needed to go.

getting a nice layer to work with i found out was key. as you have to layer it then take of a layer. add another then work it back. and so on and so on. did i mention i hate this job. i was up till the early AM's working on this. i think i worked it out to be about 16hrs strait.

but all in all for a first time the final result is not too bad. i have no idea how to do the next steps but i am sure youtube with have some answers for me haha. i also still have to work out how to attach the fairing to the board once i get the final product complete.

This is just the completed plug. it is what i mold off to get the final shape. 

At the end of the day it's not exactly what i want or what i wanted it to look like. but it is something i most definately need. if i can get help i will make a much better one later on. 

By the way. did you notice the board is now painted?! yup! just finished it myself after two days of breathing spray can fumes. i did it this way for two reasons. #1: because i'm broke and it was the most affordable way to do it. i got a quote from the powder coaters and it was rather too large for my anorexic wallet. #2: if i get a ding or a scratch i can easily go to the store and get some touch up paint to bring her back to looking all evil again.

the middle of the pan isn't painted as i will be trimming it to make it a little more comfortable to ride and allow a bit of grip for control.

this moment has been a very very long time coming, today with only a few hiccups we did the first start up test of  the starboard side engine. we tried it the first time and things went kinda wrong and it then wouldn't start again. it turned out to be two relay switches. these control the starter motor allowing the engine to spin up to speed. After a quick spin down to the auto parts shop i managed to get two new relays and install them and below is the result of years or hard work and lots and lots of debt. 

the film begins just after we did an ignition test and we just decided to go all the way. 

you will see a lot of smoke coming off the heat shielding  this is normal. the engine was only spun up to about 30% capacity as we were unsure of what it would do.

if you have any questions feel free to ask away. also please like and please share.