Buy a hovercraft without training first? “Bad idea!” says airline pilot.

Bill Holzgrove knows a thing or two about flying – he was an airline pilot for 30 years. And he grew up with airplanes. “My dad was a crop duster, so I knew about airplanes,” he explained, “But I wanted nothing to do with them until I was about 25-26 years old. Then I discovered flying on my own, and I got into it, hook, line and sinker!”

When Bill came to Hovercraft Training Centers in August, the closest he’d come to flying a hovercraft was watching YouTube videos. Why did he choose HTC? A big reason was that we train exclusively on Neoteric hovercraft. “I’ve watched so many videos and I’ve been researching for several months, so I’ve done my homework,” he said. “I checked other companies, other products, but I kept going back to the Neoteric craft - the reverse thrust buckets, that makes the difference.”

Bill Holzgrove (left) accepts his Hovercraft Pilot Certification

from HTC Senior Flight Instructor Chris Fitzgerald.

And why would a former airline pilot want a hovercraft? “I have the best job in the world – I’m retired, so every day is Saturday!” he said, “Originally I was considering an airboat, but it’s too tall for the bridges on the river where I live, but a hovercraft isn’t as tall, so it’ll go under them with no problem. And I live in Minnesota, so there are lakes everywhere.”

A hovercraft will also give Bill year-round access to Minnesota’s waterways; he said the primary surface he’ll be hovering on will be ice. “In the spring and fall, when the water’s going through the transition, I’ll be the only guy out there. And then there’s the winter time on the lakes – looking forward to that!”

Bill launched on his training day with great enthusiasm. “I want to leave here with a captain rating!” he said. “I want to see what a hovercraft can do. As opposed to leaving here knowing what little bit is possible, I expect you guys to show me envelope to see all I can do!”

With Senior Flight Instructor Chris Fitzgerald in the pilot’s seat, Bill Holzgrove

begins his pilot training session – and his first flight in a hovercraft.

Former airline pilot Bill Holzgrove flies a hovercraft for the first time,

with HTC Instructor Chris Fitzgerald providing guidance and feedback.

Bill finished his training day with even more enthusiasm. “It was great! I learned a lot, stumbled a lot, learned from mistakes. That’s part of the learning process: do something wrong, then see what’s right. Every time Chris grabbed the controls, the craft just went where he wanted it to go, then I stumbled through my attempts at it. We went to places I never would have attempted on day one!”

Then the airline pilot in him added, “It’s a matter of experience. I’m guessing Chris would be unable to land a DC-10 with 305 people on board in a thunderstorm without being able to see the runway!”

At the end of the day, Bill decided a hovercraft was just what he needed. He even decided to assemble it himself, from a Neoteric Partially-Assembled Hovercraft Kit. Here it is, nearing completion at the Neoteric factory …

After this experienced airline pilot spent a day at HTC learning to fly a hovercraft, what were Bill Holzgrove's words of advice to someone who wants to buy a hovercraft without undergoing training first? “Bad idea!” he said, “Even if you have some flying background.”

Experience what you can do with a hovercraft ...

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Weather is No Obstacle for a Hovercraft – or for Flight Training

Larry Borland may not be a postman, but the postal creed, “Neither rain nor snow nor sleet nor hail shall keep the couriers from their appointed rounds” certainly applied to his training day at HTC!

Just like a hovercraft can handle any sort of weather, so can Larry, a 71-year-old retired farmer from North Dakota. Braving a gray, rainy day and a fast-flowing, flooded Wabash River, Larry enthusiastically completed thorough – if soggy – pilot and maintenance training in his new Neoteric hovercraft last weekend at HTC headquarters.

Here Larry (center), accompanied by his son Brent (left) receives his hovercraft pilot certification from HTC Senior Instructor Chris Fitzgerald. Of course, the rain let up after drenching him during his training!

Larry first thought about buying a Neoteric hovercraft kit and building it himself, with some help from his son, Brent, who owns a repair shop, but then he decided to buy a fully-assembled craft. Judging from his expression as he starts his flight training, he seems to be pleased with it! 

Why a hovercraft? Larry, who lives on a lake, says, “I don’t walk so well anymore and it’ll be nice to step into something on dry ground – I’ve watched people trying to launch their boats – and hover right out into the lake. It’s easier access. I can give my grandkids rides and do some fishing and maybe some hunting in it.”

Brent, an avid outdoorsman, has a camper in a marina on the same lake, and another of Larry’s sons has a camper on another lake, so you can bet this hovercraft is going to be a family affair!

While learning to conduct a preflight inspection, Larry said even though he’d never been on a hovercraft before, he’d flown airplanes and had a “pretty good idea about how aerodynamics work," so he thought training would be fairly easy.

Before they launch the craft on the flooded Wabash River, Chris demonstrates to Larry the Neoteric HoverTrek’s patented reverse thrust system, which gives the craft the ability to spin, fly backwards and brake. “The brakes will be nice!” Larry observed.

Out on the river, Chris shows Larry the extreme boat-like floating stability of the hovercraft – it’s certainly much more stable than the weather!

At the conclusion of his training, Larry said, “I’ve read that hovercraft are similar to airplanes in some ways, but in many ways they’re not. It was a lot different than I thought it was going to be; they operate very differently and the training was really unique. I have a lot of things to think about at 3 o’clock in the morning when I do my best thinking!”

What would Larry say to someone who wanted to fly a hovercraft without training? “I think they’d better rearrange their thinking. Without training from someone who has experience, they can kiss their you-know-what goodbye!”

Now a fully-trained hovercraft pilot, Larry is ready to take his new craft back to North Dakota for some fun times ahead – hopefully in better weather!

See for yourself why a hovercraft is the perfect all-weather recreational vehicle …

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Walt Sitz, Eagle Wings, Inc. – A Man on a Mission

Walt Sitz is a man on a mission – and he’s making a hovercraft part of that mission.  He signed up for training at HTC before his hovercraft purchase. “Training should be the first step in any vehicle. You don’t just jump in a plane and say ‘I think I can figure it out.’ If you can’t, the alternatives are not good!”

His wife Pat, who listened to Walt's entire flight training via wireless headsets, adds, “It’s like flying an airplane; you have to fly so many hours before you can solo, and can’t get a license until you’ve done 40 hours.”

They should know: Walt has been in the aviation business for 25 years – from piloting planes to aircraft maintenance and repair to marketing powered parachutes and more. “I was raised on a ranch, and when a plane would fly over, I always said ‘That’s what I want to do,’” he explains. “It’s in my blood.”

Even though he’s one of those lucky people who’ve turned their hobbies into their life’s work, Walt doesn’t see recreational vehicles as just for pleasure. He says, “From way back I’ve always first thought, ‘How can it be used to help people.’ Boats, parachutes, snowmobiles, motorcycles, four wheelers – they can all be used to help people.”

His company, Eagle Wings, Inc. in Burns, Oregon, is affiliated with Crisis Response International, a non-profit organization that provides rescue and relief support to humanitarian missions worldwide. Walt explains what sparked his interest in hovercraft: “I deployed to New York for Hurricane Sandy – loaded our Forest Ranger with all my tools and equipment and used it to set up a base camp. You can try to row a boat through the flood debris, but if I could deploy with a hovercraft, that’s what would be used. It’s a natural addition.”

After thorough classroom training, Walt began his flight training with a complete preflight inspection, guided by HTC chief instructor Chris Fitzgerald ...

With  a thumbs-up, the training craft is launched onto the Wabash River, where Walt will soon take over the controls. His positive attitude serves him well - as his wife Pat describes him, "Don't tell him he can't, because he can!" ...

And he did! His day at HTC boosted Walt's "can-do" confidence: "We got into one spot that you could never get into with a boat or anything else, and we turned around right in this tree with barely enough room for the craft and the current running fast through the tree. You could have rescued someone off that tree. That showed me right there what a hovercraft can do. It was pretty unbelievable!"

After a productive training day, Walt receives his pilot certification from Chris Fitzgerald ...

Now on to his next mission: with his natural mechanical bent, Walt has chosen to build his own hovercraft from a Neoteric Partially-Assembled Hovercraft Kit.

Meet more HTC rescue hovercraft graduates ...

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