Allen
Hoopes of Freedom, Wyoming has been interested in hovercraft since he was a
kid. “I’d read about them over the years
when I was younger. Then I starting seeing articles on the Internet - one that really piqued my interest was the
Neoteric hovercraft deer rescue.”
His
interest was piqued even further by the Neoteric craft’s reverse thrust system.
“It has the ability to reverse, whereas
most of what’s out there is forward only,” he explains, “That’s a unique characteristic.”
So Allen
contacted Neoteric to explore buying a hovercraft – and he was encouraged to
first take a training course at HTC to learn about hovercraft in depth and
learn to fly one before he buys one.
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At the HTC
training site on the Wabash River, Allen checks out the Neoteric hovercraft’s
reverse thrust buckets
– which were a main factor in bringing him to Hovercraft Training Centers. |
Allen is
no stranger to flying – or to boating. “I
enjoy water sports and I have a boat,” he says, “And I’ve flown in the past – I got up to a solo point, but didn’t
finish. To stay safe in an aircraft you need to have at least one takeoff and
one landing per month. There was just too much time involved, so I traded in my
plane for a boat. And my wife was always concerned about my flying.”
He was
quick to recognize that a hovercraft is a flying machine. “It’s definitely a form of aircraft because it’s airborne and has similar
principles to an airplane,” he observes, “But a hovercraft is the best of both worlds because I can fly yet stay
close to the ground.”
 |
After full
morning of classroom training, then learning how to conduct a preflight
inspection,
Allen is ready to take off on his first flight training session. |
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And they’re
off!
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Allen enjoyed
his day of learning to fly safely at HTC. “It
was a great day, very interesting. The classroom session was a good review of
the craft and its systems. It linked well with the afternoon flight training
and helped me understand the principles that were going on, particularly the
physics behind it. Really helpful.”
He added, “It would be hard to control without the
reverse thrust buckets, especially in small spaces where you’d need to stop or
back out or spin around.”
Both Allen’s
sense of humor and Chris Fitzgerald’s were flying as well. “I think I might have made Chris nervous,
flying around some trees and some carp! He said I was trying too hard,
overcompensating, and kept telling me to loosen up,” Allen laughs, “He said maybe we should have brought a
bottle of whiskey along!”
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Smiling at
the end of his training day, Allen Hoopes (right)
receives his Hovercraft Pilot Certification
from HTC Senior Instructor Chris Fitzgerald. |
After becoming
a certified hovercraft pilot, Allen was asked what he thought would happen to
someone venturing out in a hovercraft with no training. His response? “I don’t think I’d want to ride with them!”
Now that he
knows what hovercraft are all about, Allen says, “I’m sure there’ll be a learning curve, but I’m still intrigued and
still very interested in owning one. We have five children and the primary use
will be family time on the lakes and rivers in our area, which we have a lot
of. It will give us better access to some of those areas.”
Want
to fly before you buy? Take a Training Course or Test Flight!
