{"id":7811,"date":"2017-07-30T14:04:09","date_gmt":"2017-07-30T13:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/?p=7811"},"modified":"2017-08-26T16:49:41","modified_gmt":"2017-08-26T15:49:41","slug":"hands-on-engineering-volunteering-at-hoveraid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/hands-on-engineering-volunteering-at-hoveraid\/","title":{"rendered":"Hands-on engineering volunteering at HoverAid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Stuck for an activity for your teenagers over the school holidays? \u00a0How about once-a-week volunteering in practical engineering, for a Christian charity maintaining its fleet of nine hovercraft? Established twenty years ago, HoverAid<\/a> brings medical help up river to poor, remote communities in Madagascar.<\/p>\n

Every Wednesday, HoverAid<\/a> welcomes volunteers (adults and young people over ten) to its UK workshops. \u00a0There\u2019s lots of work to do, including fitting a new 300 horsepower diesel engine to a 50-foot craft, converting it into a field clinic, plus servicing an engine on a second\u00a0craft, and restoring a third\u00a0hovercraft for static display at festivals.<\/p>\n

Maintenance Wednesdays for HoverAid<\/a> take place on a farm near Uckfield, with geese, hens and pheasants wandering freely outside the\u00a0workshop, a barn next to a pond used for test-flights.\u00a0 Part-inventor\u2019s studio, part-engineering shop, it\u2019s a serious working environment, with electrical and cutting equipment including welding torches and lathes all in use. \u00a0A health and safety briefing begins every session. \u00a0HoverAid welcomes responsible teenagers eager to learn, but it stresses that parents and volunteers of any age must realise that the charity offers no insurance protection. \u00a0Participation is at volunteers\u2019 risk.<\/p>\n

Each Wednesday, Christian farmer Peter Gunning and his wife Faith provide a generous lunch to volunteers. \u00a0Besides farming and evangelism, Peter is an inventor; a quarter-sized, London Eye-style wheel next to HoverAid\u2019s barn was his attempt to build a wind-turbine to generate electricity.<\/p>\n

HoverAid\u2019s nine working craft, ranging from 20 to 60 feet in length, are either entirely self-built, or else are heavily innovated in-house.\u00a0 According to volunteer manager Mario Satchwell, an aeronautical engineer recently graduated from Liverpool University, in its two decades HoverAid has innovated an efficient means of twin-fan propulsion, making the craft more manoeuvrable at lower power through tight river bends.\u00a0 One major engineering firm pays attention; Ford send their trainee engineers to HoverAid\u2019s to learn & innovate.\u00a0 From that arrangement came Ford\u2019s donation of the new diesel, expected for delivery this August.<\/p>\n

For further information contact Alban Thurston\u00a0(Alban.Thurston@gmail.com)<\/a>. \u00a0Or see the website uk.hoveraid.org.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stuck for an activity for your teenagers over the school holidays? \u00a0How about once-a-week volunteering in practical engineering, for a Christian charity maintaining its fleet of nine hovercraft? Established twenty years ago, HoverAid brings medical help up river to poor, remote communities in Madagascar. Every Wednesday, HoverAid welcomes volunteers (adults and young people over ten) … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Hands-on engineering volunteering at HoverAid”<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7811"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7816,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7811\/revisions\/7816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}