Hi Jerry.

Although I had the Engel-Tank ready, I started with the first trials as a dynamic diver, but with fully operating bow- and stern-divingplanes.

I did not have too much confidence in the softsoldered central seal-mechanism, but it seemed to be OK. I could "blow up" the the watertight cylinder without losing any air somewhere.

From my scuba-diving searches after the boat I found out, that the lake is like
5 Meters deep around the diving location. With rather hard, rocky ground.

I had to use really high speed too dive the boat (as usual for dynamic divers).
So maybe it did touch the ground hard with the stern first, which probably crashed the rudders, or worst case:

...the groundcontact tilted the front- and sternsection, opening up a gap between the seal of the two parts. I noticed that earlier in shallow water. I had a lot of water in the boat within seconds.

Anyway, the boat did look great, but maybe the sealingsystem is not the best. I found some articles in modellingmagazines about conversions for robbe´s U47.

These articles suggest:
1. not to soft-solder
2. conversion to static diving
3. Making a wider "collar" on the stern half, close to the central seal.

But hey, maybe I´ll retrieve the boat before the lake freezes.


greetings

Jimmy


P.S.: A good U47 review can be found at subcommitee (Merriman jr.)