Acknowledgements

My loving wife, For putting up with my every waking hour on the computer!

My brother, Rick. The instigator of all the mistakes in this website! Rick is the wizard and magician of this website.

My mother, Thank you so much for all the proofing reading and editing. You have been a faithful editor.

Reggie Lord, Hovercraft Alaska recognizes his huge contribution to the archives for Alaska's history of hovercraft. We are looking forward to posting his writings. His historical knowledge of the birth and growth of hovercraft in Alaska is extremely unique. 

Dee Anders, As the founder and "Hovermother” of the Hoverclub of America, her contribution has brought us to a common place in the United States in sharing our interest of Hovercraft. Hovercraft Alaska wishes to thank you for being a faithful member for many years and may God grant you many more wonderful hovering days!

Judi LeSuer-Johnson, CIC, and Paula Frackman of Denali Alaskan Insurance, LLC.  Judi and Paula have managed to make history in the United States for making hovercraft insurance available to all hovercraft users. Their efforts, coupled with those of the United States Coast Guard and HOVERCRAFT ALASKA, have now paved the way to better regulate and safeguard hovercraft for hire.

Mr. Dan Reyes of the USCG, Chief of the Regional Exam Center, Anchorage, for getting the Hovercraft School into the proper hands for signing it off as a national school format to implement in the United States.

Thanks to these gentlemen who helped us in formatting the curriculum for the hovercraft school:  Mr. Paul Huber, Mr. St. Germain, Mr. Higgins, and Mr. Cavo, all of the 17th Coast Guard District of Alaska.

Thanks to hovernaught Alaskans who have shared their experiences and knowledge base with us at Hovercraft Alaska so we could inform others.

Outside of Alaska, we want to acknowledge Universal Hovercraft, Neoteric, Weber Hovercraft, and other manufacturers and their various websites, message boards, and miscellaneous correspondence. Barry Palmer, designer of Sevtec, and Bryan Phillips of Amphibious Marine, have been playing a major role in our State with their hovercraft design.

Thankyou! To all of you for your dedication that has gone towards the betterment, and education of hovercraft in Alaska and the USA.

Thanks

About Us

We, the staff at HOVERCRAFT ALASKA have been going strong since November of 1998, and this includes our 28 years of hovercraft flying experience. Our goal was to keep the general public in the loop with information about hovercraft in Alaska. We believe we accomplished that goal with our club, and then moved onto the internet. This took us to a higher level world wide, but we kept Alaska our primary focus.  We are dedicated to the education of hovercraft, and are continuing to strive to improve our knowledge base just to keep you better informed.

When we first started our venture into the world of hovercraft, we decided to have these goals as follows; a club, a national hovercraft school, insurance, historical archive in an anchorage museum, and a memorial to the dedication of Alaskan hovernaughts! Our members and associates now number over 500, and wish to thank all of them for corresponding at one time or other. We have had the opportunity to help hovercraft entrepreneurs around the World in selling, buying and finding the hovercraft for their needs in Africa, Netherlands, Europe, Australia, and Russia, and we are proud to have served them.

A brief history of events about some of the upcoming accomplishments we are putting into effect for 2007. We spent years researching to find ways to get insurance for hire. This led to other things that were required before insurance could happen. Hovercraft has no regulations in the United States except by a simple boating regulation under the USCG. It became necessary to set a format up to combine these two entities. One could not work without the other. Back in the late 1970’s when Alaska Hovercraft built hovercraft in Alaska; they also used the United Kingdom version of a hovercraft school manual. This was only in favor for a couple years. Hovercraft was a new entity and the USCG temporarily allowed some trial runs using this format of a school. This school format was tried a couple of times after, and did not find favor with the USCG.

January 2000, we took that UK manual and began Americanizing it to the USCG standards part 5-95. We spent two long years and wore out a lot of keys on the typewriter. We worked with the 17^th Coast Guard dist. in Anchorage and had many sessions with them, as they would critique the formatting to make it a much simpler school. We got all the work done and copyrighted the manuals into the Library of Congress, Washington DC. We were set to get this school signed in nationally, except that following day, 911 happened, then two more wars, and then homeland security. It has been a long 5 years waiting. The insurance issue began at about the same time; with a little more enthusiasm it seemed a bit easier. This did not go as well as we expected because of the uncertainty of hovercraft having no-regulations.  

Now 2006-2007, things are taking off as we persist in getting these goals set up for hovercraft in formatting for size, passenger relationship, location, and many, many other considerations. The insurance companies and the USCG now have common relationship to hovercraft that will play a role in setting standard rules, so that hovercraft now have regulations that we can build on. We need your input as hovercraft owners to help in setting these regulations!

We are a family of four generations in the state of Alaska. The early generations were pioneers of Alaska’s gold rush and notable contributors to the State’s aviation history. Emitt Soldin; notably known as Alaska’s aviation historian and a pioneer aviator of Alaska.

The age of the bush pilot is fading, and new generations of bush-country pilots are emerging. This new group of flyers is conscious of their surroundings and has concerns for the protection of our fragile environment.

During the past 30 years, concern for our natural world is one reason for our intense interest in hovercraft and it’s multitude of possible applications. We are currently using our fourth hovercraft. Our grandchildren like to hover with us, and enjoy flying over the pristine country that is the Alaskan wilderness.

The technology of the composite materials today far outweighs what was available during the past few decades. Today we can use the newly developed materials and create a much more quiet and efficient hovercraft.

Hovercrafts do have their limitations. We hope that you recognize this website as having definite purposes: 1) to promote the safe use of hovercraft, and 2) as a means of gathering support to help regulate our laws so that we may continue to enjoy this adventuresome sport as well as to use these versatile machines in every practical way possible.

The need for cohesion is at hand. A few years ago, we started an organization to help keep Alaska’s hovernaughts informed (some without computers and remotely located had to be contacted by "snail mail,” i.e., USPS). For various reasons, we abandoned the club, but informed the membership that we would be reorganizing. We enjoyed working with the members and other interested parties, and wish to thank everyone that was involved. We hope this site will fill in the blanks the club left, and add a great deal more to your enjoyment of hovercraft. May God bless you all and grant you safe hovering.

We hope you will find this site interesting and informative and decide to be a part of this endeavor. We have many years involved in research and will share the results on this website.

--From the staff at Hovercraft Alaska