JustFlyIt

All,

I just order my Seawind yesterday and it was in stock. Today it says discontinued but looks like my order was filled. I think that I got lucky.

I am planning to go electric and will use one of the setups that I see in this thread. My question - what is the current conventional wisdom of using retracts. I was planning on the Robart set. I have read the thread and guys go back and forth. From my previous experience I have been able to have large electrics with retracts. The Seawind might be a different beast due to weight and etc.

Any new thoughts about this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Don S.

jet22b

Don S.

Welcome to the family of Seawind drivers!!! The best way to answer your question is to ask another question. Are you fly off land or water?? Now if you just fly off water, no gear and save on weight. Now if you will fly off of both than Robart gear that is made for the Seawind is the way to go. Now my baby is power by a OS 61FX 2 stroke and my weight is 13.8 lbs. As you can see, she is a pig, but, is one of the best flying plane I have in my hangar!! I will tell you to do what is best for the way you fly. There will be people who have gone electric on this bird will post and let you know about their setup and what will work. What ever way you go, you will love this plane. I am happy your order was filled. Lots of good info in this thread and if you need help or answer to any question, just post. If you do fly off water and you have a friend who have a boat, have him drive the boat while you fly the Seawind along side just above the water and you will have a blast!!!

Sonny
aka
jet22b

JustFlyIt

Sonny,

Thanks for the info. I am hoping to fly it off both water and land so it looks like the Robart gear are needed. Probably better get that order in before those are discontinued.

From what I have read the Seawind is heavy so my concern is that will it be too heavy as electric and with retracts. So not I have to consider which is heavier, glow or electric?

Your suggestion of formation flying in a boat with the Seawind sounds awesome!

Thanks
Don

greggK

I just got the Scorpion 4020-12 using 6S and a 75 to 110 V ESC to use. I don't have a prop and I would prefer a 3 or 4 blade, any recommendations on what you guys have found?
Thanks

Bob93447

Funny you should mention that. I have the same motor and hadn't really found the right prop. Yesterday I just found the website www.zingerpropellor.com with a whole variety of 3 and 4 blade props. Replaceable blades too. You might want to check it out. You can optimize your prop to the altitude of your flying site and your flying style. Good luck and please post your results.

Bob

IslandRyan

can you still purchase the GP Seawind arf .60-.90 ...I see it has been discontinued from Towerhobbies...

Bob93447

Local hobby shops may still have it. Sometimes one comes up for sale in the RC Classifieds. Otherwise, good luck.

IslandRyan

I don't have a LHS near me, so I just ordered all the replacement parts to make a complete aircraft....its a costly route, but now I will have one.

Bob93447

If you are going electric, make sure that the fuselage does not have ballast built into it. One member of this thread got a fuse that had a lb of lead pre-installed.

Bob93447

Has anyone measured a stall speed for their Seawind? If so, under what conditions? AC weight, temperature, altitude, flaps, etc?

Tsutomu Mabuchi

My Feedback: (1)

I have started building another GP SeaWind again after a 1st one crash last year.
This time I chose OS FS110-P since it weighs almost the same as FS91-P.
I plan to use 13x8 3 blade for FS 110-P. Do you guys think it is a correct size?
I used MA 12x8 3 blade propeller for FS91-P and it flew fine.
13x8 gives lesser clearence between prop and fuselage, but within a safe zone.
Is there anyone who uses FS110-P?

Tsutomu Mabuchi

Tsutomu Mabuchi

My Feedback: (1)

Moving the tank to the fuselage at C.G affects much to the flying characteristics I think.
I can not compare two since I don't know how standard-built SeaWind flys, but moving
fuel ( more than 10 ounces) to a lower position will give better stability to the rolling axis.
Of course it makes C.G not move during flight. Only one minus point is that we have to
use pumped engine to draw fuel from the fuselage.

Tsutomu Mabuchi

aedwards

Hey guys! Ijust got a seawind from a give away at my club. I have it all together and was trying to balance it but am having a really hard time. The directions tell you to balance it right side up. I am using the GP CG machine but with it right side up, the plane is top heavy with the OS FS-91 and I can't seem to get it to balance right side up. Whichever side starts lower is the one that will drop. I tried it upside downfor sh!+s and giggles and can get it to balance that way becuase the weight is below the CG instead of above. Anybody have any pointers or experience trying to get this plane to balance? Will balancing it upside down work? Am I doing something wrong that would keep if from balancing right side up?

nilsreinert123

Balance it upside down

Tsutomu Mabuchi

My Feedback: (1)

I balanced it upright. It looks the instruction shows upright position to be balanced.
I can't understand what "place the model right-side up on a C.G machine" means which the instruction says.
It is impossible. I use GP C.G machine also.

Tsutomu Mabuchi

Bob93447

I typically balance mine inverted to get things close, then balance it upright to check my effort. But since I am flying electric I have a wider tolerance on the range of the CG. I agree though, the upright balance is a bit frustrating. I guess I could use a level on the airfrane to initialize the balance procedure but it still seems to fall off one way or another according to gentle breezes and how you touched it last. I notice that the EP version, the foamy, is balanced inverted. There can't be that much difference can there?

Bob

Tsutomu Mabuchi

My Feedback: (1)

I sometimes balance an airplane inverted also, when I have difficulty in
placing the airplane upright on a C.G machine.
But what I wanted to say is that I don't know what " place the airplane right-side up" means.[]
Is it possible for us to do that? Does "right-side up" mean upright?
Sorry, it goes to an English lesson.

Tsutomu Mabuchi

Bob93447

Tsutomu,

Yes, "right side up" means "upright" in the way it is used in the manual (a very poor way, I would say). I really don't understand the need to balance the Seawind in the "Upright" position, the CG inverted should be the same as the CG upright. I'm guessing that upright is much more sensitive to the exact position of the cg, whereas inverted there is a range where the airframe can tilt slightly to the front or the rear so the cg will not be as exact as it will be if you could magically find the position were it will stay centered when upright. Since my Seawind is electric, I have a much wider range for the permissible range of CG since I don't have the problem of the CG changing as I use fuel. Several years ago I asked Great Planes where the CG should be for an electric SW; they gave me the stock answer of 26mm which is pure garbage. I't actually closer to 52-55mm and I have seen a post on another forum where someone has actually flown his electric SW with the
CG as far back as 65mm.

I am still trying to understand some of the issues related to porpoising on takeoff. I recently purchased a Robart incidence meter and measured the relative incidence of the rear horizonal stabilizer to the wing as +3 deg. I'm interested in finding out if anyone else has made this measurement and if so, would you please post it on this forum along with your comment on takeoff behavior.

Thanks,

Bob

Tsutomu Mabuchi

My Feedback: (1)

Oh, I learned a new word now. Right-side up, not wrong-side up.
I do not know how we solve porpoise, it may be affected by a step position, design of the keel and hull,
wing incidence, thrust line, etc. I set the C.G at 40mm for my SeaWind, that is almost the halfway of
forward and aft C.G on the manual. My SW has a fuel tank in the fuselage at the C.G position.
The C.G seems it can be moved afterward more, though it flys well with the present C.G of 40mm.
Only one thing I should say is that the more afterward the C.G is, the less porpoise occurs.
It may be wrong, but I feel it right.

Tsutomu Mabuchi

nilsreinert123

I dont have porpoise problems with my nitroplanes Seawind, i have discussed it in the last page of the nitroplanes seawind thread.
It is easy to take off and land, once i learned how to do it right

Tsutomu Mabuchi

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks for the input.
I moved the C.G a bit aft than before. I will see how it goes.
Your T/O and L/D technique will help me fly my Seawind better.

Tsutomu Mabuchi

ALO 111

To solve the bouncing on take off try this. Give full up elevator and slowly increase throttle till she planes,now keep building up speed while keeping plenty up elevator. As speed builds release up elevator and let her build up plenty of speed while keeping wings level. when you have enough speed pull back till she climbs gently. This works for me. Good luck

Bob93447

I think my Seawind Porpoising problems are twofold; 1- I have been trying to take off in relatively rough water. Up until recently I have been relying of friends to take me out in their boats. But these opportunities are limited so usally I try to fly if I go out. The Seawind is not noted for being able to take off from choppy water in most of the videos I have viewed with Seawinds making successful takeoffs the water is either dead calm or slightly rippled. When I am unsuccessly usually there is 6" to 12" of boat induced chop. Recently I found a spot where the bottom drops off very gradually and I can wade out several hundred feet before I am up to my chin. I have been flying my Seawind EP off of this part of the lake and recoveries have been easy when there is a problem. By going out before all of the boat traffic I should be able to fly off relatively smooth water.

My other problem is that I have been using props with too much pitch. In order to extract greater than 1000 watts from my AXI motor (>100 watts/lb) I have been using high pitch props like 12x12 and 13x11. These props are at least partially stalled up to the takeoff speed of the seawind (at least according to the app "extended propellor calculator"). When the Seawind lifts off it experiences a sudden surge in thrust as the prop becomes unstalled due to the lack of water resistance and the resulting speed increase (Usually props provide decreased thrust as speed increases). The sudden thrust increase, coupled with the high thrust line, pushes the nose into the water. To mitigate this problem I am moving to a much higher power, higher rpm motor in order to achieve a 1:1 thrust to weight ration using a 13x8 two or three blade prop. Hopefully these fixes, coupled with the liftoff techniques suggested by others, will allow me to achieve a higher percentage of successful takeoffs. Certainly the Seawind is a beautiful and enjoyable aircraft once airborne.

As for my friends with boats, has anyone been successful at hand launching a seawind from a boat moving 25 to 30 mph?

Bob

HUNTERANDJEFF

I have said this time and time again. The step on this beautiful a/c is too far back, too deep and the v hull really helps it porpoise also contributing to this is the motor being up above the wing too far back with the prop being around the cg. If it had a flat bottom, and a smaller step a bit farther forward it wouldn't porpoise at all. Look at the Neptune, the seamaster and other flat bottom boats - they don't porpoise. Even guys that have went electric with the weight of the battery on the hull and very little weight up on top due to a lightweight motor still experience porpoising although not quite as much. On my Seawind I did alot of experimenting with different combos of props, steps and wingtip floats. The best solution I found was puting two strips of 1 1/2" aileron stock widthwise about 4'' back from the step. No porpoising at all but it was a bit harder to lift off. This also made landing alot easier too because it helped with the bounce if I landed too hard. This problem seems to come up every year about this time cause people want to fly their floatplanes. Great planes could have had an excellent plane but it had some serious design flaws because of being rushed into production way too quickly. I hope that they are re-designing this plane now because if they do, I may get another one.
The things they need to do is:
Carbon fiber engine mount from up top, structured into the tail and forward to the hull, bolted in. (One of the designers of the real seawind wanted to do this)
Longer wingspan and wider wing cord.
Longer nose (to help with cg)
The wings need to be made of sheeted foam instead of built up for help in water proofing. The revolver has sheeted foam wings and they are lightweight and VERY strong.
The canopy needs to fit better for sealing.
get rid of the water plunger thing.
better rudder.
flat bottom, step farther forward.
servos need to be in front - not in back. My tail servo got a bit wet and caught on fire!
carbon fiber wing tube - not the cheezy wing joiner that is there now.
Option of larger wingtip floats for easier takeoffs.
Now, some of you may say that isn't scale but alot of rc planes are tweeked quite a bit because if they were made totally scale they would be almost impossible to fly. Besides, this plane is for fun flying anyway, it's not like someone is going to take this a/c to a scale competition huh?
Jeff

Bob93447

Tsutomu,

Have you had a chance to fly your new setup yet? If so, can you post some flight data and/or a video.

I'm sitting here going crazy because I can't fly my seawind. I just had a total knee replacement so it looks like I will be out of action for most of the rest of the summer. I'm hoping to get mine sorted out at the end of summer but I'm looking for data wherever I can get it to shorten the process.

Bob