SeaStar Test Flight
 

I test flew the SeaStar (TwinStar on floats) this morning at our monthly float fly. One good flight.

Airplane: Hobbico TwinStar with floats. I added a sub fin to compensate for the forward area of the floats.
Floats: Niagara, balsa sheeted foam floats. Dual Ernst water rudders using a separate servo mounted in the left float.
Engines: GMS .32, 10-6 props

Weather: Temperature in the 80s, light wind.

-Take off was straight as a string with the plane getting on the step as soon as I hit full power.

-The plane always did fly fairly well in the air. If is no different with floats although the rolls tend to barrel out. I had already changed out the ailerons for 2" aileron stock with 1/4 triangle on the leading edge. I am using 45 degrees of travel with expo.

-The GMSs are plenty of power, but aren't that reliable in a twin. One engine quit in flight after I throttled back to check how she handled at slow speed. On adding power, the left engine quit. I have 4 of them and 2 have already been replaced. I have one on a Little Stick and will trade it out and work on the one that quit.

-The landing (on one engine) was good. I was holding right rudder all the way.

RE: SeaStar Test Flight
 

cool !! I see you have started to recover yours.....mine (now a tri-star) is getting prety tattered with the cheap covering peeling off in several places.......

RE: SeaStar Test Flight
 

I don't know what the TwinStar is covered with, but it doesn't have much sticky on it. I have ironed and ironed. I am beginning to think the original that was covered with sticky paper was better. First the trim peels, then the rest. Now my nacelles are peeling.

With all the clouds we have here in Florida during the summer, white is hard to see for me so I prefer yellow. That is fluorescent yellow-very easy for me to see.

RE: SeaStar Test Flight
 

Yeah, I'm going to have to finish stripping it this winter and recover it. It looks really good on floats BTW...!

RE: SeaStar Test Flight
 

Ed - Why did you have to hold rudder the entire way when you had one engine out? I thought that your technique of having engines set at 8 degrees outthrust (each) was to overcome this need. Didn't you have this outthrust set up? You may recall that we exchanged emails on this with regards to the 104" WS PBN Nomad I have under construction now.

RE: SeaStar Test Flight
 

The TwinStar has a few degrees out thrust built in. I have been told and they advertise that it flies fine on one engine so I gave it a try. I hardly notice the effect of the little out thrust it has. In addition, the rudder is small so I ended up holding a good bit to control the yaw.

Another reason I didn't put in my usual 8 degrees is I would have had to cut off a cheek cowl. I don't know, but the seaplane configuration seems to show the effect of an engine out more so than the land config. I thnk I'll go ahead and put it in, cheek cowl or no.

jrf showed me a photo of his TwinStar on floats with a larger rudder. I'm also going to do that.

And I'm going to fix the covering-it's all peeling off. Does anyone have one of the newer TwinStars with iron on covering that has it staying on? First my trim started peeling off, now it's everything.

RE: SeaStar Test Flight
 

Glad to see that you are still on the 8 degrees bandwagon. There for a while I was concerned that you told me to use that much with your tongue in cheek just to see how gullible I was! :)

It was an interesting exercise in getting the engine mounts in the right place for my Nomad considering the out thrust, cowls, nacelles, etc. It made me use trigonometry for the first time since college 40+ years ago!

RE: SeaStar Test Flight
 

8 degrees is correct. I have done too much testing to miss that. One problem I have had is with the angle, I am breaking blind nuts. The bolt pulls at an angle, forcing the threaded part of the blind nut to be bent and with vibration over several flights, it fails. I really need to angle the firewall or sue an angle shin on the rear, too, so the blind nuts would be square to the angle of the bolt. I guess I could use Ernst thrust plates on the front and the rear of the firewall. I might have to try that.

Some planes like the Dual Ace, it just isn't possible to use any out thrust. The fiberglass cowls with spinners preclude it.

It is also hard to use engine mounts that are the "T" type. The ones with the solid back or the telescoping back like the Great Planes mount work well.

RE: SeaStar Test Flight
 

Ed - Here's a couple of pictures that I just took of my method of getting the right out thrust set up. I used lite ply and sanded the angle in then epoxied to the firewall and then inserted the blind nuts with the mounting bolts through the engine mount, etc., so the pull on the blind nuts ought to be straight. Since I haven't flown the plane yet, I'll make sure to keep an eye on the nuts since you mentioned your problem. By the way, I am using Dave Brown engine mounts.