Akula and the Dawn Patrol Adventures

[Davjacva]

So...In preparation for the upcoming Cahutta event about 4 weeks out, and subtraction a week or so for the Groton event Dave's going to, we've got a little over 2 weeks available. I'd been running into issues with my X18 radio with 900 that worked at the bench, but not at the lake. Figured out that the new antenna just isn't receiving well to the point that it drops out before 2.4ghz does. Had the spanking brand new Scorpion at the lake...twice and it's getting a new WTC not to go into a long story. Got the Thresher out, same thing, figured the radio crap out, got the new one up, next week got the Thresher and Akula at the lake for DAWN PATROL. I get out there slightly before sunrise and run. At the lake we run at the HOA only let's you run on Sundays, so I go ulta-early to beat the crowd and avoid those clowns. Got Thresher out and it worked like a champ, pretty flawless. I just held the radio and it cruised with the sail just below PD until I surfaced it and brought it in after all tests were completed. Now for the Akula. Last year, the first time I had it out was at Groton and it worked great until the pump motors crapped out and it was negatively buoyant which was strange as it had been slightly positive. Figured it was the intense water chemistry, but had to drive it in and beach it as it wouldn't surface. When we got back we had looked at the issues and thought they were corrected, in fact, the next month it ran very well at the Fleet Run in Rocky Mount. So a week ago, I had tested the WTC in the bathtub and saw it wasn't pumping. The hose you could feel drawing a vacuum, but absolutely no power to move water. No obstructions, etc. I had Dave look at it Saturday and he got them back working and the same thing. It drew a vacuum. We were both kind of wired, but this was one of the mistakes...we never re-verified in the tub that it could push water out of the ballast tank. Another mistake was I had assumed we had made it properly positively buoyant. I have no answer here as it worked the last time it was in the water. Foam gets removed, falls out, etc. I should have been checked. The next mistake that we'd been making ourselves accustomed to was running without charging the air flask. We have all the other fail safe's set, but this caught us with our pants down for the second time with the same model. If you read this as a self-indictment...guilty as charged. Got so used to every sub running buoyant that lightning was going to strike. I guess you go through all this testing before each run, and you get overconfident to a degree. So the Akula was the second boat in the water and it performed on the surface like a champ, really awesome. I've got photos and video of it that Dave's going to put with his video and stuff, so you can see it. I was running maybe 4-5 minutes in about 2.5ft of water out to about 5ft when I'm on the surface. Running about 25-30ft then turn and come back. Now it's time to dive and I bring it in to where it's about 2.5ft deep. It's having a time slow venting and some air is in the superstructure so I give it some speed and increase the stern planes some, time for a turn to get it back and the motherf*&%*r dive's at about 25-30deg angle for Hell itself. I immediately go back on the planes, full reverse, and blow...and the lady on the radio that speaks for the 'Office of all things bad 900mhz' says I lost signal. I wait for the sub to come up...nothing. Turn off the radio wait a bit...nothing. So I mark in my head where it had been, heading, blah, blah, blah. I go to the truck and take all my important crap out of my shorts and start walking the shoreline for about 75ft. Rule of thumb for subs is that once the little *******s are underwater the Seahag and some gremlins mysteriosly transport the sucker 180deg in the other direction. So I proceed to work my way away from shore in 2ft increments up until I get to my neck. So I go back in and remember my wife has a kayak. The water is placid, so I got a plan. I get back 45 minutes later and the wind has kicked up. I have a 10ft length of PVC to prod-search for it. That was great when there was no wind, now it was impossible. So I had been e-mailing Dave and he and his son are going to come out later and do a proper search. I give him all the pertinent details and the work for a couple hours without success. I work the backshift and get off at 10:30am, and Dave said to meet him at the lake and he's got a new mask and fins to properly attack this problem. He said that he saw that there was a lot of clarity at the bottom despite the mud. I went over exactly where the sub dove and what it was doing when it dove (30deg down and in a starboard turn). I've got to say this. Dave got there 15 minutes early at exactly 12pm. We would be leaving at exactly 12:35. Most of that time was going over the plan, and then Dave went to change and fight with the doofus packaging his new dive gear came in. He said he didn't want to use the cord method, so while he went out, I untangled the cord at the shore adjacent to where the sub went down so he could use me as a bearing marker. I saw him go down, then I go to winding the cord and about 35 seconds later something caught my eye and it was the Akula. Dave came up and I was laughing my ass off. I told him to put it back so we could have a proper search. Took photos and videos, and was surprised to see no water or damage. Now...if you all thought that was fast, the first time I went out with Dave in 2002 to the lake near Mount Trashmore, he had built a Japanese midget sub for a client and forgot to put the bulkhead on (probably as people were talking to him). Anyway, we're standing in knee-deep water and he puts the sub down and starts driving it out. Some smoke/gas/ other came up and I thought that it was supposed to do that. He says something and throws the radio over his shoulder (I caught it) and dives in after it. Immediately he's back in like 10 seconds with the sub. The water there is 30ft right off the shore. Same year another sub goes haywire and he's in after that one. The third time I show up and he's coming out of the water with someone else's sub...that had been there for about a year. Remember, I'm an RC tanker. I told him that 'I WILL NEVER GET INTO THE RC SUB HOBBY'. 20 years later here we are 4 years deep into it. One thing we talked about today was that conditions were perfect. The water was incredibly warm and semi-clear, and not a bunch of nasties in it at all. Sorry it's long. See you all at SUBFEST!!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

So...In preparation for the upcoming Cahutta event about 4 weeks out, and subtraction a week or so for the Groton event Dave's going to, we've got a little over 2 weeks available. I'd been running into issues with my X18 radio with 900 that worked at the bench, but not at the lake. Figured out that the new antenna just isn't receiving well to the point that it drops out before 2.4ghz does. Had the spanking brand new Scorpion at the lake...twice and it's getting a new WTC not to go into a long story. Got the Thresher out, same thing, figured the radio crap out, got the new one up, next week got the Thresher and Akula at the lake for DAWN PATROL. I get out there slightly before sunrise and run. At the lake we run at the HOA only let's you run on Sundays, so I go ulta-early to beat the crowd and avoid those clowns. Got Thresher out and it worked like a champ, pretty flawless. I just held the radio and it cruised with the sail just below PD until I surfaced it and brought it in after all tests were completed. Now for the Akula. Last year, the first time I had it out was at Groton and it worked great until the pump motors crapped out and it was negatively buoyant which was strange as it had been slightly positive. Figured it was the intense water chemistry, but had to drive it in and beach it as it wouldn't surface. When we got back we had looked at the issues and thought they were corrected, in fact, the next month it ran very well at the Fleet Run in Rocky Mount. So a week ago, I had tested the WTC in the bathtub and saw it wasn't pumping. The hose you could feel drawing a vacuum, but absolutely no power to move water. No obstructions, etc. I had Dave look at it Saturday and he got them back working and the same thing. It drew a vacuum. We were both kind of wired, but this was one of the mistakes...we never re-verified in the tub that it could push water out of the ballast tank. Another mistake was I had assumed we had made it properly positively buoyant. I have no answer here as it worked the last time it was in the water. Foam gets removed, falls out, etc. I should have been checked. The next mistake that we'd been making ourselves accustomed to was running without charging the air flask. We have all the other fail safe's set, but this caught us with our pants down for the second time with the same model. If you read this as a self-indictment...guilty as charged. Got so used to every sub running buoyant that lightning was going to strike. I guess you go through all this testing before each run, and you get overconfident to a degree. So the Akula was the second boat in the water and it performed on the surface like a champ, really awesome. I've got photos and video of it that Dave's going to put with his video and stuff, so you can see it. I was running maybe 4-5 minutes in about 2.5ft of water out to about 5ft when I'm on the surface. Running about 25-30ft then turn and come back. Now it's time to dive and I bring it in to where it's about 2.5ft deep. It's having a time slow venting and some air is in the superstructure so I give it some speed and increase the stern planes some, time for a turn to get it back and the motherf*&%*r dive's at about 25-30deg angle for Hell itself. I immediately go back on the planes, full reverse, and blow...and the lady on the radio that speaks for the 'Office of all things bad 900mhz' says I lost signal. I wait for the sub to come up...nothing. Turn off the radio wait a bit...nothing. So I mark in my head where it had been, heading, blah, blah, blah. I go to the truck and take all my important crap out of my shorts and start walking the shoreline for about 75ft. Rule of thumb for subs is that once the little *******s are underwater the Seahag and some gremlins mysteriosly transport the sucker 180deg in the other direction. So I proceed to work my way away from shore in 2ft increments up until I get to my neck. So I go back in and remember my wife has a kayak. The water is placid, so I got a plan. I get back 45 minutes later and the wind has kicked up. I have a 10ft length of PVC to prod-search for it. That was great when there was no wind, now it was impossible. So I had been e-mailing Dave and he and his son are going to come out later and do a proper search. I give him all the pertinent details and the work for a couple hours without success. I work the backshift and get off at 10:30am, and Dave said to meet him at the lake and he's got a new mask and fins to properly attack this problem. He said that he saw that there was a lot of clarity at the bottom despite the mud. I went over exactly where the sub dove and what it was doing when it dove (30deg down and in a starboard turn). I've got to say this. Dave got there 15 minutes early at exactly 12pm. We would be leaving at exactly 12:35. Most of that time was going over the plan, and then Dave went to change and fight with the doofus packaging his new dive gear came in. He said he didn't want to use the cord method, so while he went out, I untangled the cord at the shore adjacent to where the sub went down so he could use me as a bearing marker. I saw him go down, then I go to winding the cord and about 35 seconds later something caught my eye and it was the Akula. Dave came up and I was laughing my ass off. I told him to put it back so we could have a proper search. Took photos and videos, and was surprised to see no water or damage. Now...if you all thought that was fast, the first time I went out with Dave in 2002 to the lake near Mount Trashmore, he had built a Japanese midget sub for a client and forgot to put the bulkhead on (probably as people were talking to him). Anyway, we're standing in knee-deep water and he puts the sub down and starts driving it out. Some smoke/gas/ other came up and I thought that it was supposed to do that. He says something and throws the radio over his shoulder (I caught it) and dives in after it. Immediately he's back in like 10 seconds with the sub. The water there is 30ft right off the shore. Same year another sub goes haywire and he's in after that one. The third time I show up and he's coming out of the water with someone else's sub...that had been there for about a year. Remember, I'm an RC tanker. I told him that 'I WILL NEVER GET INTO THE RC SUB HOBBY'. 20 years later here we are 4 years deep into it. One thing we talked about today was that conditions were perfect. The water was incredibly warm and semi-clear, and not a bunch of nasties in it at all. Sorry it's long. See you all at SUBFEST!!

Idiot! There's this new thing going around in the 21st Century. It's called... a PARAGRAPH!! You rambling so-and-so!

Your AKULA is dried out and cleaned. Bring your transmitter tomorrow and we'll find what kept the ballast system from doing its *** job. (Love the weathering job you did on that old war-horse).

David
Partner in Crime

[Fishb0y]

TL;DR.....