Back when I received my x500 kit from Palaform it arrived with a lift duct to play with. I decided not to use it at the time as I just wanted to build the kit as standard but I decided it was time to experiment with it.
I started by deciding on the location of the duct and making it out with a compass. I cut two semi circles out of the hull leaving a rectangle where the piece of wood containing the motor will sit across.
Next I sanded down the wood until it fit nicely into the slots in the lift duct. Using a reamer I made 3 holes in the wood. Two for the screws and one for the back end of the motor shaft. The motor was then screwed onto the wood. (Note the prop is on upside down at this point but corrected later)
Next I added a couple of strips of correx as the prop was sitting a bit high in the duct.
I soldered the connectors onto my esc and motor and wrapped them in heat shrink.
This step is important I cut the positive cable from one of the two ESC’s to stop both trying to power the receiver.
By luck one of the off cuts from cutting into the hull fit pretty neatly into the lower half of the thrust duct (where the craft used to get its lift from). I used a glue gun to seal this in place and filled any remaining gaps in with glue.
Things got a bit messy here but I siliconed the lift duct onto the hull.
The craft ready for testing.
Here’s a quick video of it in action. As the way its controlled as change I need to get used to it as evident in the video. My next job will be to tidy everything up and add the cabin back on although I am tempted to model and print my own one.
Shane's Shed 
Hi Shane, I noticed that the green lift prop on the X500 craft is up-side-down in the close up picture of the fan, if you flip it over you will get more lift power, do make sure it rotates the right way. Jag@Palaform
Hey JagsThanks, I have already corrected it. Someone on the model hovercraft Facebook pointed it out a while back. 🙂
Hi, Is the lift esc and motor on the same channel as the trust, or have you assigned two different channels one for lift, one for thrust?
Two channels. I use a helicopter RC system to control it.
So is the lift esc at one constant speed or variable speed, or have you done a mix with the trust?
Both are variable. I have a dual stick transmitter where the left side does not snap back so I use the up down channel on that one for life and up down on the right stick for thrust.
Thanks for the reply, I also will be using a two stick controller. But hoping to have more channels, going to install lights and stuff on mine.
Hi, I have bought the kit, looked threw all the instructions, which do not seem to much of a problem. Only problem I might have is fitting the skirt, Have you got any pics or vids on how you fitted the skirt. I really don’t want to make a mess of this as I only got one skirt.