Tetra Tech tests hovercraft for ordnance removal project

Sometimes a commercial hovercraft is the only vehicle that can get the job done. There’s a sure way to discover if that’s the case for your company: follow Tetra Tech’s lead and take a training course at HTC to experience hands-on what a hovercraft can do for you. It’s the logical first step.

Based in California, Tetra Tech is a global consulting, engineering and construction firm with 330 offices worldwide. Tetra Tech also provides disaster management and Homeland Security services; it has responded to more than 2,000 chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive events, as well as natural catastrophes such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and tornados.

Tetra Tech personnel David Bennett, an ordnance removal specialist, and Richard Funk, a geophysicist, traveled to HTC headquarters to undergo a Training Course and test the capabilities of a hovercraft …

From left: HTC Flight Instructor Steve Stafford; Richard Funk; HTC Senior Flight Instructor
Chris Fitzgerald; and David Bennett.

Tetra Tech has a military contract to conduct an ordnance removal project in Puerto Rico that will involve transporting equipment over coral reefs. Boats are typically used to carry the equipment, but boats can damage the coral. Hovercraft, however, will enable them to fly 9 inches above the surface of the water, pushing or pulling the equipment on a raft - working safely and efficiently while protecting the coral reefs.

As Bennett explains, “A hovercraft is for going places you can’t go with conventional craft, places that are too shallow for a boat, places you can’t walk. I develop systems for detecting munitions. We try to push it to the next level so we can go places other people can’t go.”

Their day of training definitely ‘pushed it to the next level’ – at the training site, the Wabash River was encrusted with flowing broken ice …

But HTC's Neoteric training hovercraft mastered these extreme conditions with ease, sailing across moving ice chunks and debris like no other vehicle could possibly do ...

After challenging day of training, David and Richard felt even more strongly that hovercraft were up to the tasks facing Tetra Tech. They’re now working with Neoteric who will custom-design their craft with special accessories to meet their needs.

See a complete photo gallery of the day's training session on Facebook.

Learn more about Commercial Hovercraft Pilot Training ...

Learn more about Tetra Tech ...

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Cold is cool when you have a hovercraft!

It’s now official: this is the coldest January in a century. But hovercraft pilots aren’t stuck inside huddled before the hearth – they’re outside indulging in some ice-capades! Watch Dirk Lohry soar over the broken ice last week on McCook Lake in South Dakota …

Want to see for yourself why hovercraft are the vehicle of choice for ice fishing, ice rescues and other ice operations? Schedule an HTC Test Flight before the Spring thaw!

Note: Dirk Lohry built his own hovercraft from a Neoteric Partially-Assembled Kit. Check out the photo gallery of its construction in the Neoteric Hover Garage …

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HTC graduate John Wright: "Training is invaluable. Without it, you're gonna smash up!"

John and Maureen Wright live on an island in Buckthorn, Ontario, Canada. Sounds like a dream for these two retirees from law enforcement, right? Well, it is – now that they have a hovercraft!

The problem with their dream life has been ice. During much of the year, the partially frozen water surrounding their island makes it difficult for them to travel between their home and the mainland. “We’ll use the hovercraft to get back and forth from island to mainland when the water’s not hard enough to walk on or it’s too hard to put a boat on,” says John.

But before they took their new Neoteric craft back to Canada, John and Maureen first went through training at HTC. As John explains, “I took training to learn how to drive a car. And I’m a scuba diver; I wouldn't think about putting on a suit and tanks and going to a hundred feet without training. You don’t fly a plane without taking some instruction – you’re gonna crash. Same thing goes with this.”

Maureen agreed, “I need to be in it and see it explained for me to be comfortable. Training is just a commonsense thing to me.”

At the Wabash River training site, instructor Chris Fitzgerald teaches the Wrights how to unload their hovercraft from its trailer.

John takes the controls, while instructor Fitzgerald provides constant direction.

Back at HTC headquarters after a successful training day, John and Maureen receive their hovercraft pilot certifications from Chris Fitzgerald (center).

At the conclusion of their training, John had some words of advice for those who would venture out in a hovercraft without training: “It’s like a bar of soap on a bathroom floor – you’d be crashing into everything! Without training, I can’t even imagine starting off on my own.”

Describing his first experience in a hovercraft, John says, “The training was excellent! It was a lot different than I imagined – kind of like an airplane or helicopter that can spin on a dime and go backwards and forwards and sideways. I was surprised at how maneuverable it was. We’re going along the shore and I was able to maneuver around stumps and through things and with the reverse thrust buckets to come up and touch the bank then back away and come up and touch it again. You’re nine inches above the ground – it was great!”

A few days after returning to Canada, John sent us an update and a photo of him easily flying his hovercraft across partially frozen water …

After getting out on the ice, John really appreciated his training. He wrote, “Chris, you were right – the craft on ice is tricky. I liken it to a rocket ship in space where the inertia is exponential. But it worked beautifully, across the ice to the water.”

No smashing up for the Wrights, after training at HTC!

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