"Perilous rescue shows need for hovercraft, firefighters say"

The article below from the Bellevue Leader in Nebraska is worth attention from fire departments everywhere.

The city of Bellevue and surrounding areas have dealt with extreme flooding multiple times in the last decade. And those areas are not alone. The fastest growing and most costly natural disaster is devastating floods. The National Weather Service, which has kept records for 124 years, reports that there has never been a wetter 12 months than the period that recently ended. And every reporting agency predicts, “The frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation events are projected to continue to increase over the 21^st century."

The Bellevue article shows that 'where there's a will, there's a way' and may help your department prepare for faster, safer and more frequent flood, ice and water rescues. And, with a hovercraft, you'll never have to worry about damage to propellers or to traditional rescue boats. As our customers report ... 

 "The hovercraft gets us into areas that before we weren't able to reach, areas that our jet boat can't get into because we ingest debris into the impeller." ~ Central Fraser Valley Search & Rescue Society, Canada

“It’s awesome being able to operate in deep and shallow flood water without having to worry about destroying a motor or a boat.” ~ Council Bluffs Fire Department, Iowa

“Regardless of the weather, our hovercraft can fly over water, ice, mud, sand, grass or wetlands, allowing us to get to those places you can’t reach either by boat or by foot. It can save people under the most difficult conditions that prevent the use of a helicopter.” ~ WOPR, Poland 

“The benefit of having the hovercraft is we do not have to send our personnel into the water to retrieve victims. It can also hover over logs, car tires and any other debris, unlike boats, that could be a hazard in the water. A hovercraft is the answer to a faster rescue – a safer rescue.” ~ Mansfield Fire Department, Texas

Perilous rescue shows need for hovercraft, firefighters say

By Eugene Curtin Associate Editor

Mar 27, 2019

“The craft the Bellevue Fire Department hopes to buy is a six-passenger Hovertrek Rescue Deluxe offered by Neoteric Hovercraft of Terre Haute, Indiana.”

The sight of firefighters trying to rescue a flood-stranded resident in a paddle boat was just too much for members of the Bellevue Fire Department.

“We were contacted,” said Bonnie Knutson, president of the nonprofit Bellevue Public Safety Foundation. “We sent it out to the board and the board said, ‘Yep, let’s do it.’” She said the board agreed to help raise the money to purchase and fully equip a hovercraft that can be used to rescue persons stranded in floods or icy rivers and streams.

The Bellevue Fire Department hopes to buy a six-person hovercraft similar to the one pictured above, which belongs to the Council Bluffs Fire Department and was on display March 20 at Bellevue’s District 1 fire station.
Photo by Eugene Curtin

The foundation was contacted after two firefighters paddled to the rescue of an 85-year-old man in the Sands Trailer Park south of LaPlatte.

Firefighter George Lee, one of the two firefighters, said they responded to a 911 call from a man who ignored orders to evacuate and decided to ride the flood out. When they arrived on the scene, Lee said, a civilian let them borrow a paddle boat and oars, and out they paddled. Lee said the rescue took about 25 minutes.

Bellevue Fire Department Battalion Chief Joe Gibilisco, who is also a board member of the Bellevue Public Safety Foundation, said during a March 20 press conference at the District 1 fire station that firefighters should not have to risk their lives in such flimsy equipment.

“The only thing they had was a private person’s paddle boat and a couple of oars,” Gibilisco said. He said the department’s flat-bottomed boats are suitable for river rescues where the water is deep and outboard engines can function without getting stuck in a river bed, but they cannot be deployed in the shallow waters of a typical flood.

“Right now we don’t have a feasible means to do that,” he said. “With those hovercraft we believe that we will.” Gibilisco said the hovercraft will be made available for water rescue missions around the region and would not be restricted to Bellevue.

Justin James, Chief of the Council Bluffs Fire Department, traveled to Bellevue with his department’s hovercraft in tow. The hovercraft is very similar to the one Bellevue hopes to purchase.

James said Council Bluffs bought its hovercraft some years ago after losing a resident during an ice rescue where hovercraft response might have made a difference.

The craft the Bellevue Fire Department hopes to buy is a six-passenger Hovertrek Rescue Deluxe offered by Neoteric Hovercraft of Terre Haute, Indiana.

Knutson said the Bellevue Public Safety Foundation has kicked off the campaign with a $5,000 donation and will donate the proceeds of Friday’s Supper fundraiser to be held 5 to 8 p.m. at the Bellevue Firefighters Hall, 2108 Franklin St.

##

Read what your fellow first responders say about

Neoteric Hovercraft in flood rescues ...

and

Learn more about Neoteric Rescue Hovercraft ...

#ThrowbackThursday: Neoteric has come a long way since the 1960s

For #TBT, these excerpts from a 1966 Australian newspaper article give you a glimpse of the origin of Neoteric Hovercraft …

Successful Hovercraft Trials on Lake Colac

Two days of hovercraft trials climaxed yesterday when a blue and yellow experimental hovercraft skimmed from a paddock at Cororooke across Lake Colac and up the shore near Ross’ Point.

Aeronautical research technician Chris Fitzgerald swings the propeller of the hovercraft for a trail run

in Mr. Ted Boylan’s paddock at Cororooke. In the cockpit is pilot Rob Wilson. 

More than 20 carloads of people went to the lake yesterday afternoon to watch the craft … it rose gently on a cushion of air and with the slipstream from its aircraft propeller fanning the onlookers, it skimmed smoothly across the grass – for about 100 yards.

Then it came to a sudden halt “aground” in a slight depression in the paddock. It took four men on the end of a rope to get it moving again. “Far too rough,” muttered the leader of the team, 22-year-old Chris Fitzgerald. “We’ll keep getting stuck.”

But he and his assistants were not out to turn on a display. The purpose of their visit to Colac was to carry out final trials with the one-man, 16-foot hovercraft to iron out technical problems before going ahead with building a larger hovercraft capable of carrying four people and skimming two feet off the ground. Their present hovercraft has a clearance of little more than 4 inches.

Then the hovercraft struck a heap of rocks in the paddock, tearing the fiberglass curtains which retain the air under it and damaging the bow. This affected the performance of the craft but the team decided to go ahead with runs over the lake … finally the hovercraft glided in a wide arc across the smooth water and up onto the shore. Cameramen and photographers recorded the run.

The idea of building the hovercraft originated in the minds of a group of former ATC cadets who were studying at the School of Mechanical Engineering at Melbourne University four years ago. They joined forces under the name of “Australian Air Cushion Vehicles Development”, which they hope to register soon as a company.

The original group of about 20 University students has dwindled to three, but they are keen to push ahead and have already prepared plans for a larger 100 hp hovercraft. They are Chris Fitzgerald, a technical assistant at the Aeronautical Research Laboratories; Rob Wilson, 21, an automotive technician with the Gas and Fuel Corporation; and Ron Davies, a Melbourne fireman.

Check out today’s Neoteric Hovercraft …

#TBT: World’s First Hovercraft Race

For #ThrowbackThursday, let’s go back to March 14, 1964 when Chris Fitzgerald, Neoteric’s future founder and president, participated in the World’s First Hovercraft Race in Canberra, Australia ...

The Age Newspaper, 14 March 1964: This hovercraft will take part in the world’s first hovercraft race over Lake Burley Griffin today. In the cockpit, Edward Thomas;
from left, Ron Davies, Christopher Fitzgerald and Robert Wilson.

The race was a remarkable success. It drew more than 30,000 spectators and received extensive media coverage. London’s Flight International magazine reported: "March 14, 1964, may become a famous date in ACV history, for on that day, at Canberra, the world's first competitive hovercraft trials took place. An analogy may be drawn between the Canberra trials of 1964 and the Rheims air meeting of 1909: both mark the beginning of competitive development in their respective fields.”

Watch a video filmed during the race ...



In a 2001 article, journalist Eric Shackle related Neoteric’s evolution since the World’s First Hovercraft Race  ...

Melbourne Entrant’s Success Story

One of the entrants in the World's First Hovercraft Race, Australian Air Cushion Vehicle Development, vigorously pursued its interest in hovercraft, transferred to the US, and is now one of the world's leading manufacturers of the craft: Neoteric Hovercraft, Inc.

In 1964, the company competed in the first world hovercraft race. As experience mounted, the Rotary International Foundation awarded AACVD's president, Chris Fitzgerald, a scholarship for a world hovercraft study tour which resulted in contact with virtually every hovercraft project in existence.

Innovations continued and, by 1973, a prototype hovercraft, the Neova, was completed and AACVD formed a new company, Neoteric Engineering Affiliates Pty. Ltd., which created staggering world interest when it introduced the Neova at a press demonstration in July, 1974 in Melbourne, Australia. All were anticipating a promising future for this curious new flying machine.

Hoping to sell their technology to the burgeoning recreational vehicle market in the United States, the engineering team made what was intended to be a temporary move to the USA in 1975. After a short time, however, they discovered that there was a virgin market for the manufacturing of hovercraft and began reorienting their company's focus in that direction. This spurred the spin-off company, Neoteric Hovercraft, Inc.

Today, Neoteric boasts a clientele that spans 50 countries and includes Disney World, local and national [and international] rescue departments, dive teams, gold mines, environmental and fishery research departments at universities, oil-spill clean-up, the US Army Corps of Engineers and, of course, numerous people who enjoy exploring remote areas that cannot be reached by any other means.

They've come a long way since taking part in that historic 1964 race on Lake Burley Griffin!

Hovercrafters help feed hungry children

Yes, hovercraft are fun, but they also serve the greater good – and not just in rescue operations.

Organized by the Hoverclub of America, a group of hovercraft adventurers will come together on July 29 for a unique 500 mile Hover for Hunger journey up the Wabash River to raise funds and awareness for charities combating childhood hunger in Indiana.

One of the charities that the Wabash 500 Hover for Hunger will benefit is the food pantry of the Goshen Middle School. A similar program at South Vigo High School in Terre Haute will also benefit from the funds the hovercrafters raise.

“These are kids that are identified by their teachers or counselors as being at-risk of going hungry when they go home over the weekend. Through the program, once per week the kids are sent home with enough nutritious food to supply them with weekend meals,” explains Dave Reyburn, Hoverclub President and organizer of the trip. “The food pantries are stocked entirely by donations from local churches, individuals, and grants when available.”

All participants are covering the costs of their trip, and 100% of the proceeds raised through donations will go to the charities. If you would like to make a donation to this worthy cause, click here and then click on the “Donate Now” button under the graphic. 

The participants will be flying hovercraft from a wide variety of manufacturers, including Neoteric. They’re coming from all over the United States to participate, and even from as far as Australia.

Their trip will cover the entire navigable portion of the Wabash River. The downriver trip has been done by boat, but never by hovercraft and never upriver. Reyburn explains, “This will be the first attempt ever to complete the entire journey by hovercraft in one go. The hovercraft is ideally suited for navigating the shallows, sand bars, rapids, log jams, buried debris, and low head dam and shoals found along the Wabash.”

If you’d like to meet up in person with this amazing group of people, you can see their full travel agenda at the bottom of this page. They’re launching the trip at 8 a.m. Wednesday July 29 from Old Shawnee Town, Illinois 10 miles south of the confluence of the Ohio and Wabash Rivers, and ending it around 5 p.m. Sunday August 2 in Fort Recovery, Ohio.

“We hope to cover about 100 miles per day, stopping at many towns along the river to raise awareness and tell the story of our journey,” says Reyburn, “This is hovering with purpose.”

This is a great opportunity for you to “pay it forward”!

Your donation will help feed a hungry child …

Hovercraft: The novelty never ends

Here’s a familiar scenario: someone buys a vehicle for recreation – a jet ski, a boat, a snowmobile – to use it a few times, then the novelty wears off and it ends up languishing in their garage, or they sell it.

This is rarely the case with a hovercraft, and Barry Eison’s story is the perfect example. Barry, a 56-year-old mechanical engineer from Tennessee, purchased a 4-passenger Neoteric HoverTrek™ a year ago and his enjoyment of his hovercraft continues to grow.

Barry bought a hovercraft because “Every time we go out hunting, fishing, exploring, we see places we can’t get to. So many areas are inaccessible. Duck hunting is big in my area and one of the biggest frustrations for duck hunters is you have to be able to go from water to land to water – a hovercraft makes that possible.”

One reason the novelty of his hovercraft hasn’t worn off is that Barry entered his new adventure wisely - first, by purchasing the right hovercraft. “I’ve been looking at hovercraft for five years,” he said. “I’ve looked at every hovercraft company out there … Neoteric is the only one that doesn’t have a single negative review.” And next, by undergoing pilot training at Hovercraft Training Centers.

Barry Eison (right) accepts his Hovercraft Pilot Certification from
Neoteric President/HTC Senior Flight Instructor Chris Fitzgerald.

As do most of our customers, Barry stays in frequent communication with us at Neoteric. You can see from a few of his emails over the last year how his hovercraft is definitely not going to end up languishing in his garage! …

August 27, 2014:

“My overall thoughts to date are:

1) I love this machine. The more I use it, the more I realize the engineering and research & development that went into its development.

2) I want to experiment with different material for the bags.

3) This craft would be easy to learn to drive if someone drove it who had never driven anything else.

4) I am becoming quite confident with it and absolutely cannot wait to get it out hunting this winter. It has already opened up areas that I have hunted my entire life but have never been able to access. Well done, Neoteric, well done.”

November 12, 2014:

“The hovercraft has performed very well on the Mississippi River and in and around the barge traffic we encounter. I was able to harvest my first deer from an area that I was previously unable to access but can now using the hovercraft. The state game wardens think it is fascinating and have given me the green light to use it freely on land or water within their motorized vehicle guidelines.”

December 15, 2014:

“I took the hovercraft out on the Mississippi River on Friday afternoon and deliberately targeted rough waters (barge wakes, small whirlpools, traversing small rapids over rock dikes, swift current) and the craft performed absolutely flawlessly. The more I use it the more impressed with it I am. My only regret is that I wish that I had ordered the six person craft versus the four person. 

You may want to pass this on to other clients who purchase your hovercraft in the future. Do not take the training manual home and set it on a shelf. Print it, put it in a notebook and READ IT. Everything you need to know about the craft is enclosed! It has been a godsend for me.”

Read more comments from Neoteric customers …

HoverWorld Insider newsletter now online

If you haven't subscribed to HoverWorld Insider, the World Hovercraft Organization's newsletter, you're missing out! There's no better way to stay connected to the global hovercraft community. The newsletter is published quarterly and with your free subscription you'll receive an email linking to the complete online version with photos, videos and full coverage of hovercraft news and events from around the world. Subscribe here

But don't just read - get involved. The World Hovercraft Organization asks all hovercraft users to keep them updated on their activities and news, and also let them know what you'd like to read in the Insider. Just send your email to Insider@WorldHovercraft.org.

Here's a brief review of the featured articles in the May 2013 issue of HoverWorld Insider:

Bubba’s Hover: A Global Boost for the Hovercraft Industry

Read the backstory of how a quirky brainstorm from the NYC viral video agency Thinkmodo and golf pro Bubba Watson's sponsor, Oakley, evolved from a quick napkin drawing to a top secret production to an internet sensation. After what he calls a "media tsunami", Neoteric President Chris Fitzgerald, who manufactured Bubba's BW1 hovercraft golf cart, has been flooded with calls from prospective buyers worldwide and expects the publicity blitz to have lasting effects throughout the industry.

The tsunami is best illustrated by the Bubba's Hover case study from Thinkmodo's website:



"The absolutely fantastic thing is that it is spreading the word that this technology exists and it can be used for doing lots of different things," Fizgerald explains. "I've been in this business for 50 years. You can pull your hair out trying to figure out how to get the information out ... In one fell swoop this has introduced light hovercraft to the world."

Mike Glanville, owner of U.K.-based manufacturer HovPod calls Bubba's Hover "the hovercraft scoop of the century," adding, "The viral effect of the story has given hovercraft in general a boost and we are eternally grateful."    Read the full story with photos and videos in HoverWorld Insider online ...

World's First Hovercraft Flight Academy

Hovercraft Training Centers LLC has launched its flagship location in Terre Haute, Indiana USA, offering light hovercraft flight training and maintenance instruction for rescue, military, commercial and recreational hovercraft pilots worldwide. HTC also offers franchise opportunities, a great way to make your next venture a true adventure and to get in on the ground floor of an expanding international industry. Read the full story in HoverWorld Insider online ...

Visit the Hovercraft Training Centers website

and follow HTC on Facebook and Twitter.

Hovercraft in Rescue Operations

The Mansfield Fire Department in Texas has joined the ranks of first responders throughout the world who can now fly across any surface in a state-of-the-art hovercraft. Read what first responders have to say about hovercraft making their rescue missions faster, safer and more successful in HoverWorld Insider online ...

Hovercraft in Commercial Operations

Canair Hovercraft manufactured light commercial hovercraft in Canada from 1988-2000 and produced only seven of its largest model - the Canair 512. Now two of them are finding new life in the tourism industry, with Cool Breeze Hovercraft Tours, opening this summer in Iowa USA and Hovertours Bremerhaven, soon to launch its second season in Germany. Read the full story with photos in HoverWorld Insider online ...

Hovercraft in Military Operations

The U.S. Navy plans to replace its fleet of LCACs (Landing Craft, Air Cushion) with the newly-developed SSC (Ship-to-Shore Connector); the U.S. and South Korea recently conducted joint military drills with light and heavy hovercraft in an atmosphere of heightened tensions; China has purchased four Zubr-class LCACs from state-owned Ukrainian arms dealer Ikroboronprom ... read the full stories with photos in HoverWorld Insider online ...

Hovercraft in Sport and Recreation

Every issue of the Insider includes a full listing of upcoming local, regional, national and international hovercraft events, along with reviews and photos/videos of recent events. See what's happening this summer in HoverWorld Insider online ...

Hovercraft in Education

Auburn University's Hovering Tigers bested the University of Alabama's Hoverteam on April 27 in the inaugural University Hoverbowl Challenge, the world's first intercollegiate hovercraft race. Read the full story with photos in HoverWorld Insider online ...

Hovercraft Manufacturer News

Every issue of the Insider publishes the latest news from hovercraft manufacturers throughout the world. Read the current news in HoverWorld Insider online ...

The next issue of HoverWorld Insider will be published in September.

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