Wetlev Version 2

If you follow my blog you would have seen the test flight off the Wetlev V1

As this seem to work very well for some old exhaust tube and a sheet of aluminuim we have decided to build a Version 2.

The main aims

• Lighter
• More upright when floating
• Better and smaller nozzles
• Water proof metal
• Better seat and harness

We started out by seeing what parts we could buy “off the shelf”, this proved quite sucessful with 90deg bend and reducers all available in stainless steel after ordering everything we needed we set about doing the basic design and layout of the tubes.

90deg bend and reducer

Steering nozzle and jet nozzle

Much was taken from V1 but some changes were made,  the centre Y piece was raked so the pipes split and also move forward very slightly this should bring the nozzles more inline with the person wearing the pack

Making the Y Piece

1 Side of the Y piece

All the parts are welded together using a TIG welder and stainless steel rods.  (It been over a year from the last time we used the TIG welder!  makes up for the ugly welds)

Welding it all together

You can see the offset now

Next job was to make the steering nozzles and weld these together and machine the steering pivot bosses.

Steering nozzle

making sure everything is correct before fully welding

Almost finished thrust assembly

Next we turned to the seat/backing/buoyancy.  We decided to make a design out of foam and then cast a mould from the foam.   This have the option to make copies if we needed to make changes.

Foam being carved out to form the backpack and seat

We then coated the foam in filler and sanded back to a good finnish

This the finnished foam plug covered in a PVA release paint and then a coat off mould release wax

This as then all covered in fiberglass to form the mould,

Once the fiberglass had set we trimmed the side and made a flange to go all the way around the outside, this gives the mould extra strength and also provides and good edge for making copies.

Once the flange was dry we removed all the foam and filler to leave us with a nice fiberglass mould.

Finnished mould

Finished mould

To be updated very soon 😉

I’ve still got to finish the build write up but here some pictures off the finished Wetlev V2

Wetlev V2

Wetlev V2

Here some photos off the test flight:

Video on Youtube

More testing can be found by clicking here