drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

ARE HERE.
I just ordered the Great Planes Electric Foamy SEAWIND.
Tower Site has a deluxe Video, and you can Download the manual.
Ill post more when it shows up.

AJ1202

Please post more about it once you get it, I am VERY interested in this plane.

Thomas B

My Feedback: (4)

On the way to try mine in the water...did the land maiden yesterday....it is a great little foamie and flies as well as it looks.

I did a little mini review over at R/C Groups in the Waterplanes area, if you want to drop in and read it.

I predict the water handling will be awesome, but will confirm it in a little bit.

Here is mine zipping by the local schoolyard:

theo555

Great to see a forum on this plane. Mine arrived yesterday by UPS but I wasn't home so redelivery is tomorrow and I can't wait. I have a few other electric planes (Stryker A/B/C, Funjet, Brio 10, Twister, V-diamond, and a Sunracer), and this one looked liked a winner from the video. We will see.

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

Thomas: Did you just land in the Gass? I think it is going to be Fantastic little Plane. As cute as it can be.

Did you use suggested Rimfire 28-30-950Kv? and what battery?

Thomas B

My Feedback: (4)

Yep, at the school...it lands jsut fine in the grass. The forward hull is nicely armored with plastic edging and covering.

I used what I had around...did not use the Rimfire, but used a same sized GWS outrunner of 1050 Kv and a 1700 mAh Dualsky 3S lipo. The little GWS outrunner is flying the heck out of it, but is running a little warm. Mine weighed about 21.9 oz.

I made it to the local park pond Sunday evening and had some water fun with it, as you can see below. It does like to dig in the wing tip floats on a take off run unless you are fairly careful in keeping the wings level.

This little guy is a keeper, I think.

AJ1202

That is excellent news, I'm likeing it more and more

I through together a little plane this weekend out of a bunch of old parts I had laying around, I designed it after the seawind, I'm going to maiden it today. I think I may have to look into getting one of these as my home built lacks a certain,,,,,,,,,,, lets say finess or style , but it should fly OK

The reason I bring that up is my wing tips turn down like the seawinds, not as much but the same, I took a set of GWS float skins, the plastic part, and put the center of the float on the bottom edge of the tip putting the point of the float right at the LE of the wing, then cut it to fit the wing, this created wing tip floats. they are very small as it's only 1 half of the sode of the float but should prevent the wing tips from being able to dig into the water,but rather skip on it when the tip leans over

Thomas what prop are you using and how much room do you have in relations to prop size
I look forward to hearing more about this plane.

Thomas B

My Feedback: (4)

I am using the 8/6 GP prop that comes with the kit. You can actually fit a 9" prop, but that only clears the top of the fuse by about 3/32 to 1/8 inch.

AJ1202

OK thanks, looks like I'm going to be buying this little gem soon. Keep posting, how about some vid

ppike

Did anyone else have to add any nose weight to get this thing to balance?? I am using their suggested rimfire motor, and a TP 1320 3s pack. The thing is tail heavy when you put it on their balancer. I guess I can add some led shot inside the nose and get the thing to balance that way. Just wondering. If I use a TP 2070 3s it is just a tad nose heavy. Any idea's???????

Thanks,

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

PPIKE: Keep us posted on the weight and Balance. TP2070 sounds like a fix to Me. Id reather carry Battery than lead.

krproton

Even with the 1500 LiPo the EP Seawind will probably need about 1/4 - 1/2 oz of nose weight. I dare anybody to claim they can tell any difference in performance or flight time with and without the weight (other than the model being tail-heavy without the weight). Just use some stick-on, segmented weight.

Thomas B

My Feedback: (4)

I think some folks could tell the difference, when you add 5-10% to the gross weight of the model. It will mostly show up in the landing speed and slow flight characteristics. I will let you know if I can tell the difference later this week...

It is known that even a slight nose heavy condition can aggrivate this models tendancy to pitch down at takeoff, due to the high thrus line.

I used a Dualsky 1700 3S and my model balanced perfectly with no nose weight, all up at 21.9 oz. At that, it "feels" a little nose heavy to me and I plan on trying a 3S 1320 without extra nose weight.

jrmdjr

Any more real flight experiences with the foamy? Anyone using the recommended set-up? Im anxious to purchase one, as I no longer have a field to fly my gassers. There is a pond behind my house with about 20 other houses on it. Do you think it is stable enough to control around fancy houses? I think the foam/electric would cause minimal destruction when I crash...

Thanks,
Jason

Thomas B

My Feedback: (4)

I swapped out to a Balsa Products 2212-13, APC 8-6 slow fly prop and also moved the CG back 1/8=3/16" behind the factory suggestion.

It gets off the grass better and is flying a little better with that prop and motor....and the motor only costs 15.95.

Some have moved the CG back as much as 1/4 to even 3/8" behind the facoptry....I would proceed with caution that far back.

Thus, you can likely easily fly the Seawing with the 1320 3S pack and not have to add nose weight.

Heading out to another pond at 6PM tonight..

chopper man

I'm not well versed on electrics but I can't resist the seawind. I can't really afford the package either. What can I use as far as a motor and esc and battery that would do the same job but cheaper. I have the servos and the radio. Please help me figure a cheaper way to get the Seawind.
Thanks in advance!

Chopper man

Xpress

I'm thinking about getting one. And I have plenty of placec to fly it from. But I'm wondering how well it flies, and what is the glide performance. And is it just me, or is the box HUGE?

chopper man

I'm seriously thinking about ordering this thing. Still not totally sure if I feel confident in it because of some of things that I have read. How big of a pond do you think you need to fly in. Any final thoughts?
Chopper man

northof49

Took mine out for her first maiden yesterday, all the guys at the flight line were amazed. It was by far the most stable craft I had ever flown. Added 1/2 ounce of lead to the front but am running a 1200kv Hyperion with 1800Mah backing it up so I am not noticing any loss of performance. The glide in on landing is so smooth that it is going to surprise anyone who is smart enough to pick one of these up. Time to take it to the water today. :-)

chopper man

northof49,
How did the water flight go. I'm getting close to ordering and your report could put me over the edge
chopper man

bzyguy01

Just picked up one of theese little guys! Put her together two nites ago and put it in the water the next morning....Results......( with recommended power )

1, The plane went together well and everything fit very good. The seawind only took me about 3 hours total or so and I was playing with CG for another hour or so.
2, I put all electronics on the wood plate and it CG'd perfect with a 2100 3 cell lipo. I didn't want to run that heavy of a battery but I figured I would rather run usable weight than lead???
3, mine weighed in at 23 oz's with a 2100 mah...the manual states 24-26 oz's fly readyusing I would guess a 1320 or 1500 lipo. HUH???? Whatever? Not the first time i've seen different than factory suggested weights.

I tossed her in the water and was learning the water handling tricks. I found that the wing tips will grab and turn the plane alot and requires carefull atention to using ailerons to keep the tips out of the water for takeoffs. The little guy will take on water if you spend much time dipping the wings or are in rougher waters so be cautious and bring her in after a min or so of taxiing to empty the fuse!!! OK ...Mashed the sticks and she came up on stepp and took off. Flew great! very stable......Landings were great as well, did 7 take offs and landings before I decided to change things a bit.

I think that the CG is alittle nose heavy at the factory specs....I'm now going to use a 1320 3 cell lipo and add 3/4 oz of weight to adjust my CG 1/8th to lighten the nose alittle for better takeoffs ( seemed to want to plow some and didn't pop right off the water like the video showed. I also thing that it was alittle "Mushy" with the recommended CG ) I will post my results on the different CG settings ....hopefully she lives long enough to test these settings!

I personally would rather use a Hacker A20-22L and have better power ....but the stock power tugged it around fine.

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

Thanks for your report. Havn't had mine out yet, but will shortly.

Thomas B

My Feedback: (4)

The factory CG location is very conservative.

I am flying mine about 1/4" back from stock, using a 1320 3 cell lipo all the way forward, but no extra ballast on board...flys better.

Some folks on R/C groups discussing this model are flying it with the CG as far as the wing spar.

Mine is fairly bad about crabbing a wingtip on takeoff...I am going to try a slight shortening of the tip flaots, so they are less likely to touch when the model is on the step and moving out for takeoff.

bzyguy01

Ummm...The wing came off in flight as the wood block seperated...You can guess the results.

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

Remember that that GP Speed control is NOT water Proof. My first flight was What I thought to be a bit Tail heavy so added weight to the front,
First takeoff run was as streight as an arrow. I had about a 1/2 inch chop on the water. The plane will automatically point into the wind.
Second attempt the Nose caught a wave berried itself. The hatch came off. No airplane damage, but it got the speed controller and receiver WET.
I blow dried everything as well as I could. But when I reattached the Speed Controller. It Smoked it.
The rest of the radio survived. SSSOOOO , Im serious when I say: " Waterproof your Speed Controller". Period. this is a $45.00 Lesson. and it is needless.
Guys: Lets see some Pix of how to best protect the speed control.