Well the day had finally come to swim GPA 2196. As many of you know and many of us were finding out, getting to this point is quite a jorney. I'd like to thank everyone who has helped me in the past to get to here.
I got up to Dennis Francis' Friday AM to test drive and do final checks before our swim. The GPA drove a lot smoother than I expected... The weight of it made it take bumps and the road really well and its a very secure feeling wrapped in that warm cockpit drving on leather seats :) Quite a bit different than my jeep! After checking it out we decided to wait to swim until Saturday based on the weather and mostly wind... The wind was blowing at 20 mph and white caps seemed ready to form... So I decided to paint my USA numbers. I used the TM9 Ordnances company's new Blue Drab. The paint can had some problems so I emptied the contents into a finishing paint gun. I used Robert's stencils from Belgium. They are very nice but since the numbers are whole it took me a while to get the hang of peeling the backing off and keeping the inner pieces on the A, 9, 4 etc in their right place, but patience won the day.
After painting all three numbers on the hull, we took the GPA outside and tested the lifting hooks in case a water recovery was necessary :) Just kidding we wanted to check the clearance on the drag link seal with the axles hanging. We used Richard Sanders extension and am happy to report everything looked perfect, I highly recommend this piece.
This is the clearance with the supension dangling as it would be in the water
Here is GPA 2196 ready for its first swim on a beautiful spring day.
Off to the lake
Water Entry
Concentration :)
Landing
Dennis Francis' Kids
We had a very successful time swimming. After talking about making sure all the plugs were in several times... even on the boat ramp.... we realized after the first swim we had forgotten the two small FSMWO plugs we added in the rear compartment... Luckily the first swim only lasted less than 10 minutes but long enough to see the water hit the boards under the batteries... a quick trip back to the shop solved the problem! I'm glad we caught it soon enough and after checking the from and center compartments we got a little complacent. Hopefully someone can learn from this and I'm just happy it didn't turn into a problem!
We did take on some water in the main compartment. I think it was mainly due to the decision not to clamp the front boot. we had about a 1/4 inch of water and you really had to list the GPA over to get the pickup for the bilge pump to get at it... so I'm pleased there.... We got a bit of water in the front compartment from splashing water over the front deck on some of the entries... we did 5 swims in all.... I will probably close the front hatch momentarily during exits since anything over a crawl will splash over.
One thing I kept forgetting to do was turn off the prop once I cleared the water luckily I kept getting reminded :) Something to keep in mind... guess it was just the excitement of making a good landing :) I plan to post the videos.
Thanks again for all the help I couldn't have gotten to this point without all of the support from you guys and my family.
Thanks,
Tony
GPA 2196