Sorry guy's i just now realized there is an entire section for the seawind later on in the forum. (Moderator, please feel free to move this post if you want to.) I just got the GP Seawind EP and set it up on 1500 mah 3s ,and i must say she is sweet. I hand launched it from off a knoll so it had some distance it could drop before getting into trouble. Good thing i did this because it DID drop quite a bit before i could get on the elevator after launching. I set the trim to full up before lauching and i feel that also helped alot. I was initially worried about the cg because with the recomended 1500 batt she definately balances tail heavy according to GP but that is only if you want very conservative cg settings. In summing up it was a totally windless evening when i maidened it and it flew absolutely beautiful. I'll probably try a 2200 mah today from the hand lauch and if all well will proceed to the river later on next week. One last thing i did increase the aleron throw out to the last hole on the servo horn as i felt the roll rate was very slow.

Yea, this little airplane is a sweetheart!

But no need to hand-launch... just set her down on dry grass and go!

Thanks for the nice words but I'm afraid where i fly it the grass is probably a little tall. Hey have you used a 2200 mah on it yet?

I have not, but I do need to add a small amount of weight with the 1500MAh pack, so a 2200 should be just about right.

Here's the review I did on the Seawind 3 years ago (and I'm still flying it)

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...article_id=917

I have used both 2100 and a 2200 mah packs with my Seawind EP and both fly great but you end up with a very conservative CG. I got something on the order of 15 minutes of flying with the 2200 and still had 600 mah left. The lighter packs come into play when you want to get off the water quickly, but the larger packs work well as long as you're not fighting too much chop.

Bob

I am using Rhino 1750mA.hr packs in my Seawind and it balances perfectly at the 25mmfrom LE as teh manual recommends.

I find the Roll rate VERY SLOW>>. Is this a characteristic of the plane?
Also with the RimFIre 28-30-950 I find it has barely enough oomph to pull vertical. I'm a little disappointed with performance.
Aileron rolls are nearly impossible due to the slow roll rate and little rudder authority.

I mayhave to fit a Tower PRo SG91 servo for the Ailerons to some performance inthe roll.

What motors are people using?

I'm using a 28-30-950 and I find it is plenty of power. Check out the video in [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/article_display.cfm?article_id=917]this review[/link] and see if the roll rate is better than yours. I was using the stock setup.

Something just occurred to me... My brother had a Seawind EP where the two torque rods were too close together and were binding on the block of foam where the wing bolt ties down. Maybe you need to trim that foam block

oklet me check that out , the ailerones move quite slowly too so maybe there is some binding going on.

TimBle,

I am using the ST .10 motor, available from Tower for < $25. Its rated at 1250KV and over 300 watts. With a GWS 9x5x3 (three blade prop) I can get it off the water in about 15 feet, but you do need to cut off the existing motor mount, then add a spacer, to make it work. You might want to move the CG back to get a better roll rate, I typically fly mine at 31 mm and others have moved it back to the spar to achieve more control response.

Bob

excellent, thanks guys. This is the info I'm for!

Adding a little upthrust to the motor mount will help offset the tendancy to pitch down when you are at high throttle settings and low airspeed. Up trim that works at low speeds on the stock mopdel causes some issues as speed builds up. Works great on my EP Seawind.

Also, I have found that trimming the tip floats to a flat bottom, removing about 1/8" at the back and about 3/8" at the front vastly improves the water takeoffs...the wingtip will skip along a ripple instead of digging in and turning the Seawind.

Ok the ailerons are sorted, there was defnately binding on the foam block.

The thrust of the motor is fine. It's just dog slow thats all. Also mine has now developed the ability to shriek. Not sure if its a dry bearing or if I bought a motor made on a friday afternoon...
any way I have a couple of other motors at home that I could try and mount via the conventional means. Wht was great plane thinking making the motor mount specific to their rimfire range?!!
oh yeah, lock you in to their product...

I have sealed teh ESC with liquid electrical insulation "tape" (a red rubber rtv type substance), receiver is mounted far back. Just need to wrap the batteries in some of the wifes kitchen sticky wrap and I should be good to go for flights number 4 through to 6. (flight 3 ended up in a spectacular on board fire after the canopy popped off on landing and the battery shorted......OUCH

Anyways the Seawid is a nice little flyer and she's inspired me to acquire a few more electric seaplanes since I live about 100m from the shore of a lake. Only issue is wind...

update: i fitted an EMAX 2215 20 motor that i removed from my deceased wilga. Performance issues solved. Through a suppo 30A ESC it pulls 17A with the Electrifly 8x6. Take off from water is about 15 to 20 ft. Throttle can be used with sensitivity and not just an on off switch. Still using the Rhino 1750mA.hr 3s packs. still rolls gently right in flight so perhaps the aileron servo is not up to the job. Thats the next mod.awesome little bird for just horsing about the flying figure 8's. Loops are now possible. Feeling happier with it.

After you make sure that the ailerons are not binding, try moving the CG back. Although the manual lists the preferred CG as 25 mm back from the leading edge, I typically fly with it back 31 +/- mm and the seawind is still pretty docile. Landings become easier too. Others go as far back as the support spar.

Regards,

Bob

Ihavemoved the CG back to 33mm, Roll rate is improved but there is still an annoying tendency to drop the right wing. Wing weight is not the issue

When does the wing drop? Slow speed? Or when going from slow to fast?

it drops during steady flight kind of gradual then gets past a point and it speeds up. I trimed it out wth rudder but thats not ideal..

I have had a Seawind EP for over 4 years. When I first bought it there was no place good to fly it from water, but it took off great on grass. I have been able to fly it from water a couple of times now, and enjoyed that too. Last year we moved from South East Texas to Colorado and our first winter we got a good enough snow to turn our backyard into a large flying field. Because of the move I hadn't been able to fly rc for over a year, but the Seawind worked great on the snow and I was able to baby it around for a while and make a safe landing. Since then I have gotten back into RC flying big time, and got a lot of flying this summer. The one time I tried to fly my Seawind on water here, the wind prevented it from turning on the water. It wasn't that it weathervaned into the wind, almost the opposite, it seemed bent on staying on a crosswind heading. So I tried a crosswind take off, and it hit a wave and buried the nose in the water. It was salvaged and still in good shape. (looking back, I'm pretty sure I wasn't holding enough up elevator in the rough water as I made my takeoff run)
Now this winter we had a good snow. I took the Seawind out, made a great take off, but got a little too far away with my turn and guess what? White snow, white sky, and white airplane mix very well, meaning I lost reference to the plane. Every time I tried to turn it and bring it back to me, I could not maintain the reference and it got farther away. Finally in a last ditch attempt to bring it back, I still didn't know its orientation, and flew it into the snow. The plane is damaged beyond repair, but all the electronics and servos still work.

It was just so much fun, I am about to order another one, and this time I will put some offsetting color on the bottom of the wing.

I do have a couple of comments about the airplane. In my few experiences in water, the water rudder does next to nothing. I have never been able to taxi crosswind or downwind with anything over a one or two knots of wind. Second, in flight the rudder itself seems to have no effect. The first few times I flew I tried first to see if it would approach doing a knife edge, and when that didn't work, I tested the rudder effectiveness by trying to make rudder turns. Not only did full rudder not cause it to turn in flight, it actually seemed to want to turn the opposite direction of my rudder input. Has anyone else experienced these problems? If so, is there a fix I can try on my next Seawind?

Anyway, with all my problems, I still like it. It does great basic aerobatics, and is very stable. So I should have another one in a couple of weeks. I just hope we get enough snow to try it in the back yard again.

RoyR

About the only way I have been able to make the water rudder work on the Seawind EP is to apply a bit of power and full up elevator. That in the past has done the trick for me.

Bob

Seawind quality update.

After my last "fun" fly in the snow with my Seawind (described above) I ordered another one. I bought the first one a few years ago right after they came out.
Today I began putting the new one together and I must say I am disappointed in what GP has done with their kits.
The first thing I noticed was the Styrofoam used in it. In my old one the balls of styrofoam are around 3 mm or 1/8 inch. From a couple of feet you don't notice that it's made of Styrofoam because it all blends in smoothly. The new one is made of the foam balls at least 1/4 inch. It makes it look like an octagonal pattern all over the fuse. and wing. And I don't mean that in a good way. I also wonder if it will be as strong as the smaller balls.
The next thing I noticed. The old plane had the motor wires pre-installed in the fuselage. This one did not and I had to thread them through. It would have been very hard to do except I used a trick I have done before to get aileron wires through the wing. I put a string inside the motor mount and sucked it down through to the radio compartment with a vacuum. Then tied the string to the wires and pulled them through. The next thing I noticed was the cowling. After getting it aligned with the spinner centered, the paint trim did not match up with the engine pod trim. No biggie, just looks bad.
That is as far as I have gotten. Hopefully I won't run into any big problems. I just hope it flies as good as the last one. It's just that the new foam formula makes it very ugly.


Incidentally, do you guys that fly from grass remove the water rudder before flying? I finally got wise after noticing the water rudder was almost knocked off after a couple of grass flights.

Mine exhibits similar characteristics. Rudder is useless in the air and at slow speed on water. You need throttle and lots of up elevator to get any authority from the water rudder.
Fprget taxing in any wind. or make sure you end up up wind so it gets blown back toward you.

I scabbed a larger, thin plastic sheet onto the existing rudder, problem solved.
(I'll post a pic tonight)
Also trimmed off some of the wingtip sponsons, a very good mod.
The pictures below tell the story of the hard "landing" that broke the nacelle, then the water
in the hull shorted out the ESC and my propeller proceeded to chew up the plane while
it was floating out of reach. It's all fixed, and flew it again just this last weekend!
Dave