Alberta man's hovercraft creation odyssey 'an incredible experience'

Have you ever seen videos of hovercrafts online or on TV and thought, 'Wow, I wish I could ride one of those.' One Alberta man did, and then built his own.

When Robert Tymofichuk was a child, he saw a hovercraft on TV and was mesmerized.

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"At that point, I was captivated," Tymofichuk said. "There's no question in your mind that you have to have one of those crafts, but you don't go to the local power sports dealer and say, 'I'd like to buy a hovercraft.'"

So what's an enterprising youth to do? Build one.

Tymofichuk grew up on a farm, learning about carpentry, welding, plumbing, and whatever else was needed to repair buildings and equipment.

"I enjoyed taking things apart, I enjoyed fixing things, and it led to a creative life," Tymofichuk said.

When he was in junior high school, he ordered plans for a hovercraft and over time built one.

"The first time that dad had it out with the front end loader, it was all painted, mom had the camera ready, and we put it on the front lawn and revved up the engines, and it didn't move," Tymofichuk said.

"It was a five-year project, so a little bit of a letdown, you might say. Essentially, it was too tail heavy."

It took some work, modifications and different parts, but eventually Tymofichuk got it working, and had it working for several years.

Some time later, he got a call from the mayor of Myrnam about parts for a hovercraft that were slated to go to the dump.

"I said, 'No, no, please, don't do that,' and went over there and what was there was the mould for the craft, this fibreglass part" Tymofichuk said.

He was also given a car engine, but at the time, didn't have the knowledge to use it for a new craft.

"I had to devise a system that would transfer the power up, and then you want really tight tolerances between the fan and the duct … and you don't want any vibration, because if you have the slightest bit of vibration, it will make contact, and then some really bad things are going to happen," Tymofichuk said.

For around seven years, the project didn't go anywhere, but eventually, others started figuring out how to do more with hovercrafts, and Tymofichuk was able to adapt what he saw online into his new build.

"Over the course of a year, I spent about 1,800 hours working on the craft," Tymofichuk said. "Every day that went by it got closer and closer to actually something workable."

Eventually, it was workable and he and his wife brought it out to Lac Bellevue for a test.

Robert Tymofichuk driving his hovercraft on Friday Oct. 4, 2024. (Evan Kenny/CTV News Edmonton)

"I was going to take off on the water and my wife Shelley says, 'I'm going to join you, because if something happens, at least we're together,'" Tymofichuk said.

"I had no idea whether it's going to work, and we transitioned from the beach onto the water, and it took off and not a ripple."

He said he felt anxious before the test, but when it was working, he was grinning ear to ear.

"The whole project's been a leap of faith. Your gut is telling you, yes, this should work, and you spend all this time and finances to go make it happen, and you hope it's going to happen," Tymofichuk said.

"It's such an incredible experience to create something with your own hands, spend that amount of time and actually have it work with minimal problems."

He's posted videos of the craft online and people were concerned that if the engine quit, the craft would sink, but it does float.

"It's like a raft, the only bad part is you can't paddle it, it's not hydrodynamic," Tymofichuk said.

His advice for people looking to try new things is that there may be a lot of trial and error, but keep at it.

"That's life, you try some stuff, most of the time it works out and sometimes it doesn't … you go ahead at it again," Tymofichuk said.

"You've got to have faith that things will work out, and just have the determination."

Tymofichuk is a teacher and assistant principal at the New Myrnam School and enjoys teaching students about projects dealing with energy, the environment and ways to improve the community.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Evan Kenny