Wetlev – Build and test flight

Me and Dom (mostly Dom to be honest)  have been building our homemade copy off the american Jetlev.

First we made the feed pipe and bends to direct the water back down to earth (some exhaust tubing we got bent locally)

 

Next we mounted some aluminium for the back support,   (this was trimmed down later to save weight)

 

 

Next we put some cuts into a straight tube and folded the ends together to form the nozzles

 

 

After making some pivots for the nozzles we gave it a quick coat of paint

After putting it together and putting on a harness made out off seatbelts and 4 point harness.  Strechy CV boots were used as covers for the nozzles – ready for it test flight

 

And here we have the videos off the first ever wetlev test flight

Dom with his first test flight

More pictures check out the set on flickr

 

  1. Kevin Reply

    Awesome! Could you send me an email with details such as where you sourced parts such as the jet ski adapter and such? Also what size piping did you use throughout?

    Thanks so much

    • Toby Gardner Reply

      The adaptor we used is the Zapata flyboard U bend with a custom adaptor to bolt the jetski pump bolt pattern,
      The Hose is 4″ high pressure fire hose 15meters long
      This splits into 2x 3″ hose on the y piece
      Then drops to 2″ for the nozzles

      other than the U bend all parts were sourced from the internet

  2. Pingback: T49.net Blog » Wetlev Version 2

  3. Drumy97 Reply

    Is this something anybody with some technical knowledge could do?

    • Toby Gardner Reply

      Were no experts.
      I would say you need a welder and someone who can machine some odd bits for you but other than that most parts can be brought from Ebay or internet

  4. Pingback: T49.net Blog » Wetlev V2.01 – First test flight

  5. FIlter Reply

    Great job guys, very fun to watch your progress! Any more details would be awesome, go ahead and show as much detail as you can.

    Thanks,

    Filter
    .

  6. Pingback: T49.net Blog » Wetlev V2 – more testing

  7. Heinous Hex Reply

    How do you control the throttle? or is that someone doing it for you?

    • Toby Gardner Reply

      The throttle is still controlled by the person sitting on the jetski. We are currently looking into type off fly-by-wire throttles and seeing if a wireless or wired would work best.

      I’ve been looking into arduino mini mounted inside a handle bar grip using a I2C to arduino uno controlling a servo inside the ski (this would also let me put safety like soft shut throttle to stop you falling out the sky)

  8. Chip herendeen Reply

    What did you use to keep the hose from twisting? Is there some sort of bearing? I used a PVC Union in my flyboard attempt but I’m wondering if there’s anything better

    • Toby Gardner Reply

      We run the hose direct with no bearing,

      we are designing a bearing at the moment to work with the new homemade flyboard we made

  9. john Reply

    That looks good..but ya lil expensive…i was thinking of reducing down to 3″ after hose then go with the 3″swivel…..maybe a bit cheaper…what do u think ..I’m starting with the pvc style flyboard as my first project..then i will go stainless with the next as i don’t have the means to a welder as of now..yours looks great..thx for the info!!

  10. john Reply

    Also which swivel joint did u use?

  11. Henry Reply

    Hi.
    I came up to this website because some years ago I wanted to build one for myself, the pics and the information are excellent and I have a question for you, Do you think the same system will work but with a 76mm (3″) pipe or it’s too small? With that, next I would attach a cone/reducer from the hose that comes from the jet ski to the jetpack.

    Keep up the good work!

    Thanks!

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