After going back and forth on how to rig up the hover test, I decided to go with a large test stand that will enclose Goliath. I've nicknamed it The Octagon cause it has eight sides and saying The Octagon reminds me of Rex Kwon Do from Napoleon Dynamite.

Anyways, I started building the stand Sunday night out of 2x10s in the driveway. It's split into two halves to wrap around Goliath. Below is the top of the first half.

After this it was tipped on it's side and the legs were added.

Here are both halves of the initial frame.

I had today off for Veteran's Day and got started on actually setting up Goliath in the stand. I moved the frame to a spot in the backyard that's surrounded by a fence on two sides and a building on the third. This should help to contain any debris contained for the higher RPM testing.

The next steps were leveling the stands and joining them together with some more 2x10s. Using some rope, eye-bolts and s-hooks, each arm was lifted up to take the weight off the cart.

It's been raining a little bit and it'll be a couple days before I have some time to do more testing, so Goliath will have to stay in the stand and be covered up.

Here's a shot underneath the tarps. I've also wrapped the engine and electronics in plastic to make sure any leaks.

The next step will be lowering it a foot so that it has 2 feet of clearance above and below. Then I'l add two tie-downs to each corner to prevent Goliath from twisting.

When the hover test happens, the plan is to have four ropes tied to Goliath underneath and attached to cinder blocks. Each rope will have a couple inches of slack (all the same amount). As the engine speed increase, the weight on the test stand will decrease and when the thrust is finally greater than the weight, the slack in the lower lines will be eliminated and we'll know if we've had a successful test.

Like I mentioned, the weather's kinda crummy right now, so no date set yet for the next tests, but stay tuned!