seanychen

My Feedback: (4)

Looks like I took the GP Seawind plunge too early. Should've waited for this one...

willsim

My Feedback: (4)

I ordered a NitroPlanes Seawind it should arrive this Tuesday. I'm planning on using either a OS .60 two stroke or a new borrowed Magnum XL-91FS. Using the latter will depend on how well it runs as myself and others in our club have had mixed results with Magnum engines over the years.

TooLow

My Feedback: (5)

Im the one who did the photo comparason of the two Seawinds. On the nitro Seawind I am puttin in an OS70FL which is lighter by a few oz than the Mag or OS 91. The reason is to keep the ship as light as possable without going to a 2 stroke and the 70 4 stroke is a powerhouse for its weight. I am mounting the rudder and elev servo in the main hull bay and running ridgid nyrods for the controls.---a little slop Ill just count off as my flying style!The beast is comming out lighter and seem like Ill have no prob ballancing it without adding any excess weight---- should have had it done this weekend but spent the two past mornings flying my completed GP Seawind! Tom

Dale Campbell

My Feedback: (6)

I tried another take off on water with my GP Seawinds. It was a little choppy and it bounced in the air before it was ready to fly. It stalled and cartwheeled back in at 3 feet over water and broke the left wing. Thats it for this summer on that bird. I got out my Ace Sea Master and flew 3 times on the same chop with no problems. I think I will buy my Nitro Planes Seawinds now. Dale Campbell

ADSala

My Feedback: (2)

Dale,

It looks like the GP Seawind just can't handle the chop like a Seamaster. Sorry to hear the bad news. Lets see how the Nitro does.


Toolow,

I'm interested to hear what it takes to balance it and what the overall weight comes out to be. Thanks again




Dean

willsim

My Feedback: (4)

I just received my Nitroplanes Seawind. First impressions, no missing parts very good fiberglass, paint and covering, instructions are only fair. I went to the Great Planes web site to get their manual in order to figure out the water rudder installation as Nitro was using the word fuselage instead of rudder in their instructions. There are a number of screws, nuts, clear soft washers and other assorted items I have no idea what there for and were the go. The only real ploblem that I found is that the rudder does not fit properly and will have to be modified or replaced. I've e-mailed Nitro to inform them of this and asked what brand of covering they use so I can match colors after fixing the rudder. Our club has a float fly scheduled for June 23 so I'll have a test flight report if I can finish it by then.

Skyventures

I'm anxious for the first flight report and final total weight of model. I would also like to know how the water rudder is mounted.

willsim

My Feedback: (4)

The rudder mounts just like the GP Seawind go to their web site and bring up their manual. I've found out a few more things sense my last post. Nitroplanes does not stock spare parts at least for this airplane and they use an after market covering which may make it difficult to match colors if a repair is needed. There isn't any servo or control surface recommendations in the manual so go to the GP Seawind manual for these. The nylon bolts that are used to secure the wings to the fuselage are right behind the wing tube and are very hard to get at. I've added some balsa to the wing tips in order to get a solid foundation for mounting the wing tip floats and the rudder and elevator mounting points very hard to find. I'm going to add some foam to the canopy cover and the tip floats so they don't sink in an accident as I won't be able to get replacements. If this plane flies and handles well all will be forgiven.

Fast Freddy

[8D]Willsim and Others,
Really looking forward to water handling, flight report critique. Hope it all goes well. Thanks for the frequent updates!

willsim

My Feedback: (4)

Well it looks like UPS has either lost or misplaced my Tower Hobbies order. It was supposed to have arrived on Friday. With this development it doesn't look like the Seawind will be ready for this Fridays float fly. I won't have much time to work on it next week. I live in a rural area and I'm 70 miles from the nearest hobby shop so I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Skyventures

Hello willsim,
Seems like the shipping companies don't know that there are people that don't live in a city. I'll never have a street address, because I'll never live in a town or city, they have too many people and bylaws for me. I always have to have my orders shipped to a townie freind's address.

acmcelroy

My Feedback: (12)

I have built and flown the Nitro Seawind. I'll just address the flying now. Three flights have been off of land and one off of the water. That was not my preference but while doing taxi tests with the supplied LG the internal wing blocks holding the gear uprights both split. This left the mains with no fore and aft support although the horizontal gear support stayed intact. I was left with trying to figure out a jury rig for the problem since I did not want to cut into the wing. With some strapping tape I was able to give the Main LG enough support fore and aft for five takeoff runs, three of which were successful. I'm running an old but good OS 61 SF which does not seem to provide the grunt for anything but slow agonizing takeoff runs -especially on grassy fields. The plane started off at 10.5#
Once in the air it became obvious that the elevator was both extremely sensitive and needing a lot of up trim. (The prop blows straight over the elevator.) I had set the CG at 90mm back from the leading edge as directed in the instructions. The plane was a handful to trim and wanted to pitch up and down. However, after getting under control and the pitch problem resolved I found the airplane needed only minimal power for flight and seemed to be quite stable. It needed only slight right trim.
Landings were the same for both water and land: the plane started to have severe pitch problems again at slow speed. I was lucky enough to get the thing down all four flights in one piece. I obviously hate to add more nose weight but I finally did and the plane now comes in under 11# for the next flight. Incidentally the flaps create a great deal of pitch- up in flight but may actually help on takeoffs.
If adding weight does not solve the pitching problems then I will have to conclude that the combination of the short- coupled tail and the narrow wing may make the Nitro Seawind flyable but a handful. That would be too bad since overall the plane is quite a looker.

acmcelroy

My Feedback: (12)

I should've said that I had to add considerable noseweight to the nitro seawind get it to balance per the instructions. In fact I had 5 sub-c cells and 1/4 # of lead stuffed in front of the front bulkhead prior to the first flight. The plane was still well within it's weight range though.

viper21

My Feedback: (9)

I think that I will just build my new ARF Sea Master with my just broken in OS 61 SF ABC and a Graupner 3 blade 11x7 prop the engine is perfect for the plane and prop.
I had a previous Sea Master and I had just done a major rebuild on the 61 SF(I need to rebuild my back up) if you scroll back a few pages you can read how the cable guy killed my Sea Master.

Roy, I hope you get the problems worked out and Willsim I hope you have better luck.
OH and those two OS 61SF ABC's are the best engines I have ever owned
Viper

Fast Freddy

I've wanted to purchase the Seawind since it was released last November. I have not done so due to this discussion forum. At the moment I'm not gettting the reassurance and confidence I need to hear to make an investiment in this plane. Number 1 the plane is pricey, number 2, the plane is tricky to operate on the water. 95% of my flying is on water and I can only fly during from May through October. I'm going to wait. Maybe GP will get around to addressing the problems discussed on this forum. Then again there's the NP Seawind and we're still waiting for more reports on that plane as well. All in all this is a very healthy discussion so let's continue!

rhklenke

My Feedback: (24)

For those of you thinking about a Seawind, I can state that the GP one flys GREAT! There is a problem with water takeoffs in catching a tip, but once in the air the GP Seawind is a joy to fly. Balance it as per the plans and it is not at all pitch sensitive (I actually increased the elevator throw over the recommended and use 30% expo.), slow speed flight is very nice, and with the recommended mix, flap extension has no pitch up or down.

As far as the takeoff problem, with careful technique, it can be handled and even touch and goes are possible. However, to make it better, I am planning on making the tip floats of mine look like the Nitroplanes ones. I.e., I'm going to glue a foam block on the bottom of the float and carve it to a similar shape - at least 1" lower down in the water at the aft end tapering back up to the original float in the front - and then glass it in place. In the other thread, someone reported on adding "extra" tip floats to the bottom of the GP Seawing one held on by velcro similar to the Seamaster and he reported that it made water handling much better.

I like the looks of the Nitroplanes Seawind, but after reading this, I'm glad I got the GP one. I'm betting that few hours work modifying the tip floats will make it an all around great seaplane...

Bob

cap21r

My Feedback: (27)

We put one up this Sunday GP with a Saito82.
Take off was not easy and landing bouncing bad.

rhklenke

My Feedback: (24)

Takeoff can be a pain with those little tip floats. The best bet is to point it into the wind, get it tracking straight, and stay OFF the rudder - but ON the ailerons...

Landings are a breeze generally as long as you use full flaps and keep it off the water util it stops flying - which is fairly easy to do. I never caught a tip on landing - only takeoffs and touch-and-goes...

Bob

acmcelroy

My Feedback: (12)

I had 2 more water flights with my Nitro Seawind. On the first one there was a nice breeze to takeoff into. It required a long takeoff run again with 1/3 flaps but got up okay. On the second takeoff there was no breeze at all and I had to chop throttle even after a long run to avoid a collision with the pond's shoreline. I came to the conclusion that the Nitro plane requires some headwind to get airborne at all. On landing I learned that it requires a long smooth approach while trying to avoid any last second pullouts due to the pitching problem. Once in the air it flies quite well. Also in its favor is that it seems quite sturdy. I actually hit the bank on the last takeoff try quite hard with no damage to the hull or wings.
Another quality control issue: the fuse paint bubbles or comes off completely when raw fuel gets on it. All in all I'm sure that I can sort all these issues but I am disappointed in all the work required to get it off and on the ground.

wollins

Latest Update on this? Tom? Anyone else?

Colin.

RVman

wow, that sucks, how are you gonna go about repairing the bubbling? I guess this is what you get for $215. I find at least with the GP a lot of elevator is needed to rotate on takeoff since the engine thrust tries to bury the nose. I'll stick with my GP seawind.
Tom

ryan_m

anybody tried adding in a degree or two of upthrust on the engine to counter the takeoff problems?

viper21

My Feedback: (9)

Tom, do you use the flaps for takeoff and landings I would think they would really help? One could even have the ailerons come down with the flaps granted you need a good computer radio and would need some mixing involved?
I will probably going to get a GP Sea Wind in the Fall, I need to build and fly my Sea Master. It has none of the problems stated above.

Tom, do you think a couple of washers under the engine mount would help with your take offs? In several sea planes I have owned a couple really would plow the hull or floats under. I installed flaperons and man they made a huge difference on takeoffs they kept the nose from plowing under.

Roy, that really sucks about the paint peeling from raw fuel, if you cant get help from Nitro Planes Home Depot has paint in spray cans and I used them on the custom made larger fuel and throttle servo pod when you let the colors dry for at least a day between colors and I waited five days and used the same brand gloss clear.
Once dry for a few days its totally fuel proof I run 15% nitro too! The paint is Painters Touch!
Hope that helps?

Oh almost forgot the red,white and dark blue are almost perfect matches to the colors of Ultracote on my SM.
Viper

jrf

My Feedback: (551)

Since the engine is behind the CG (and the center of drag) adding upthrust will tend to pull the tail up, rather than the nose, and make it even harder to get off the water.

I accelerate slowly and I have several times had the GP Seawind take off by itself (50% flap, but no up elevator) at about 2/3 throttle. Instead of upthrust, try a little less power.

Jim

RVman

If you take out the (edit) downthrust it won't fly properly, you will get much more pitch change with throttle etc. I use half flaps, flaperons would be no good, they reduce the effectiveness of the ailerons.