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
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
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
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Is this something anybody with some technical knowledge could do?
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
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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
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How do you control the throttle? or is that someone doing it for you?
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)
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
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
hello there..im racking my brain trying to figure out what to use for a bearing on my flyboard also..have you come up with anything?? any help greatly appreciated.
Hi John
So far we have not been running a Swivel joint
We have found this http://www.amazon.com/Dixon-420FXFAL00000-Aluminum-Single-O-Ring/dp/B007D55EZ6 but have not ordered one yet as it quite expensive.
Cheers Toby
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!!
Also which swivel joint did u use?
We dont run a Swivel. The pipe goes straight onto the tube and if we fall off we have to unwind the tube. We plan to build one this year as we have now made a surfboard style one – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1DoDeVf73c
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!