My Seawind and I are currently separated by about 450 miles, so I cannot supply pictures for a few months. But what I did was pretty simple:

1) cut off the cage, leaving just the plywood that is glued to the foam as a baseplate
2) Reinforce the baseplate with a number of toothpicks covered in glue and inserted through holes drilled through the plywood into the foam. Reinforce the edge gluing of the ply base. When dry, level the surface. (This is an important step, even if you use the cage. Several have reported the plywood motor mount separating from the foam structure in flight. This will chew up the foam on top of the plane).
3) Cut a piece of balsa wood of sufficient thickness to allow the prop to spin freely in front of cowl. This will require a couple of steps of mounting and demounting the cowl.

4) When satisfied with the spacing, mount the motor. I typically use 2 screws of sufficient length that they go through the balsa into the plywood. The other two screws can be shorter. After mounting, remove the motor and use CA glue to harden the threads in the balsa.

Bob

Fabric

This is the motor I have been using for over three years now .

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...Outrunner.html

Best motor for the Seawind to my mind .

You can alo get the smaller one the 2213 that I was using at first .

Both are very good but the heavier is even better . I can use whatever battery between 1350 to 2200 3S batteries .

40A ESC would be better cause there is no ventilation under there and summer is coming .

The motor wasn't difficult to mount . The motor can be mounted either on the stock mount or on the custom mount Bob was decribing ;

Honestly, you don't need to change your mount . I was using two screws only on stock mount and that was holding fine.

I distroyed my mount when I tried a 4 cells on it . That was two much power and stock mount exploded .
Now I am using a custom mount like Bob described .

Just secure the stock mount with epoxy where it attach to the foam . Some who neglected that saw their mount ripped off .

This plane is a real blast . You"ll love it .

Remenber also to cut off some of the wing tips or your wings will touch water resulting in nose first crash at take off .

During take off from water, you"ll need up elevator from the start to point the nose up from the beginning . If you don't, your plane will bounce on the water before taking off .

Jpette,

What prop are you using with that motor and the Seawind?
My motor choices have been colored by the fact that I am flying the Seawind at 6200' and need more rpm to generate sufficient thrust at this altitude. But at sealevel it also means I could use a low pitch prop and avoid prop stall.

Bob

I can use whatever between 8x6 and 9x6 slow fly prop from H.King .

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/s...5pcs_bag_.html

Best for speed was a custom 8,5x6 but I nowodays only take off and land endlessly so I go for longer flight times with the 8x6 .

Stock 8x6 prop should be fine with that motor delivering about 270 W if my memory is correct .

When my motor mount exploded i just pulled off the original ply. I made a new plywood mount and installed blind nuts and then glued it back on. i used the original motor and made spacers from stailess steel tubing ( couldn't find any nylon standoffs). I bought a mount for the motor from my LHS for the rimfire motor. It works great! Heres what I'll fly this summer when the wind is a little too much for the seawind!

failplane - very cool! That gives me a great option for mine!

jpette - thanks for the motor suggestion. that one looks quite powerful, but I'm concerned about the weight of my 3S 2200 lipos + the weight of that motor combined.

Thanks to Bob who pointed me out to a TowerHobbies promotion, I ordered the Seawind EP ARF for $99 shipped (+ I added a $19 prop balancer as well to my order)

I followed up with an order of 4x SG90 servos for $9.53 shipped, an order for a GF 2215/15 1470 Kv motor for $12.95 as well as a 3mm collet prop adapter for $2.50, an APC 8x4e for $2.35 and an APC 8x6e for $2.37

Finally, I also ordered a HobbyKing 30A BlueSeries ESC for $10.47.

I'm going to fly it with my Walkera 2801 Pro which I used as well for my EXI 450 Pro and Walkera V120D02S.

So all in all, I'm in it for close to $150. I'm super excited. I haven't flown a plane since the late 90's and really can't wait. I've always wanted a sea plane, and this little plane looks like it's going to be a blast.

One more question - regarding glue. On some other threads, folks swear by FoamTac over epoxy and CA. Should I use FoamTac for the horizontal stabilizer or just stick with epoxy?

Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys!

Ive used both epoxy and foam safe CA on my seawind. The epoxy yellows with age , but the foam safe CA is unnoticeable and is quicker and easier to use. Ther is one thing you forgot to order- corrosion X or aeroplate to waterproof your electronics. I dunk the receiver, esc but the servos I only spray the boards as when i first started I dunked the servos and had a couple motors fail in the servos-I think the aeroplate caused extra resistance. No more problems since I only spray the boards. Let everything drip for a day or two. I havent ever done anything to the motors

Originally Posted by fabric8

Thanks to Bob who pointed me out to a TowerHobbies promotion, I ordered the Seawind EP ARF for $99 shipped (+ I added a $19 prop balancer as well to my order)

I followed up with an order of 4x SG90 servos for $9.53 shipped, an order for a GF 2215/15 1470 Kv motor for $12.95 as well as a 3mm collet prop adapter for $2.50, an APC 8x4e for $2.35 and an APC 8x6e for $2.37

Finally, I also ordered a HobbyKing 30A BlueSeries ESC for $10.47.

I'm going to fly it with my Walkera 2801 Pro which I used as well for my EXI 450 Pro and Walkera V120D02S.

So all in all, I'm in it for close to $150. I'm super excited. I haven't flown a plane since the late 90's and really can't wait. I've always wanted a sea plane, and this little plane looks like it's going to be a blast.

One more question - regarding glue. On some other threads, folks swear by FoamTac over epoxy and CA. Should I use FoamTac for the horizontal stabilizer or just stick with epoxy?

Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys!

Good call - I've been meaning to order CorronsionX but forgot. So the motor can get wet? I thought it was ok to dunk the motor, esc, and rx into corrosionx.

The other good glue is "white" gorrilla glue. It's one of the glues that foams with moisture, but if carefully applied is easier to get a clean join than with epoxy. Works very well with foam. But there are so few joints on the SWEP that almost any good glue will work as long as you pick foam compatible products.

The other thing you should consider buying is a "watt" meter. Primary purpose is to keep from burning up your setup; once you're comfortable with the basic setup it lets you play with different props, etc. You'll probably get an e-mail from tower giving you free shipping on a $50 order thats good for about two weeks after your primary shipment arrives --- it makes sure you're covered on the things you forgot.
Motors can get wet. But drip some light machine oil into the bearings if they do to protect against rust.

I have dunked my seawind a few times and it never hurt the motor. I'm sure treating it wont hurt it- you can search this thread for waterproofing-I'm sure others have done it-I just never have

Originally Posted by fabric8

Good call - I've been meaning to order CorronsionX but forgot. So the motor can get wet? I thought it was ok to dunk the motor, esc, and rx into corrosionx.

Originally Posted by fairplane

When my motor mount exploded i just pulled off the original ply. I made a new plywood mount and installed blind nuts and then glued it back on. i used the original motor and made spacers from stailess steel tubing ( couldn't find any nylon standoffs). I bought a mount for the motor from my LHS for the rimfire motor. It works great! Heres what I'll fly this summer when the wind is a little too much for the seawind!

Fairplane,

Nice setup on your alternative SEAWind motor mount. If you descide that you want to save a few grams you can substitute carbon fiber tube for the SS. Often it is on sale cheap; every year I pick up a few pieces from CST at the AM espo. I have a similiar setup (SS) on my 71" Seawind but have not changed yet. Are you running long battery wires with the esc near the motor on your "wind plane"? If so, how is the esc holding up?

Yes running longer battery wires but have installed 5 extra 220 mf capacitors to protect the esc. I havent maidened the Neptune yet-have to wait till the ice is off the lakes

Originally Posted by bob93447

Fairplane,

Nice setup on your alternative SEAWind motor mount. If you descide that you want to save a few grams you can substitute carbon fiber tube for the SS. Often it is on sale cheap; every year I pick up a few pieces from CST at the AM espo. I have a similiar setup (SS) on my 71" Seawind but have not changed yet. Are you running long battery wires with the esc near the motor on your "wind plane"? If so, how is the esc holding up?

hey guys just bought the rxr version .As it is difficult to read every page here can someone give me so info on the wing tip mod .Is this necessary and since this version comes with the rimfire can someone tell me what apc prop works well with this stock motor .My next question is what is corrision x how do you apply it and are there any other things I should do tyo make shure no water gets into her.Thanks ,Mark

Originally Posted by bob93447

The other good glue is "white" gorrilla glue. It's one of the glues that foams with moisture, but if carefully applied is easier to get a clean join than with epoxy. Works very well with foam. But there are so few joints on the SWEP that almost any good glue will work as long as you pick foam compatible products.

The other thing you should consider buying is a "watt" meter. Primary purpose is to keep from burning up your setup; once you're comfortable with the basic setup it lets you play with different props, etc. You'll probably get an e-mail from tower giving you free shipping on a $50 order thats good for about two weeks after your primary shipment arrives --- it makes sure you're covered on the things you forgot.
Motors can get wet. But drip some light machine oil into the bearings if they do to protect against rust.

I picked up some white gorilla glue today at Walmart. Still looking around locally for corrosionX.

Regarding the watt meter, is this GT 130a wattmeter a good buy?

Glad to hear the motors can take getting wet. I'll definitely oil the bearings.