Thanks guys. Sounds like people are using everything from 1250's to 2200's with no loss in performance!

You know you can hand launch the Seawind! I have seen it done, I have not done it. I like flying off the water more and more with the Seawind. I also have a Super Cub, LP, BNF on floats. They are my two favorite float planes. I also have a TL-2000 which I have not flown yet. I have to paint the wing tips, secure the rec and stuff.
I really enjoy my Seawind now.
Conehead
Orrin Eldred

Thanks for the advice DGhutt. I also have a TR 28-26 16A 1900Kv Brushless Outrunner
lying around. I guess I will try that one first and prop down to a 7x4 or 8x4.
And if I feel the airframe can take it, I will get out the bigger motor.

I will get my seawind next week from my LHS so we'll see.

Cheers

Dave,

I would agree with you. I don't have any plans to fly off the grass anytime soon. I guess I was unsure of my abilities to fly it off the water. The water is were it belongs (or snow, but I'll never know living in Texas).

Take care,

Cool Hand Luke

Maybe the smaller one is forgiving but the 71 incher is very unforgiving if you let a wingtip dig in on take off or landing.

I just have to show off my "landing strip or runway". It used to be a lot more open, but alas summer has finally come this year, docks and hoists are in and now I have to avoid the obstacles. Now if I want a kit, they need not be avoided, but I don't need no stinking kits, I want to fly, fly, fly.
Conehead
Orrin Eldred

Thanks for looking. I got another hour of flying in tonight. I love float planes.
This is Platte Lake Michigan, just outside of Honor. West of Traverse City. Blue Angles are coming for National Cherry Festival, first weekend of July.

I recently built one of these from the RxR kit. It is all stock and I use a 1000 mAh 3 cell which gives 8-9 minute flights. Overall it flies very well - I was impressed at how nicely it flies. I did have a couple of problems with the kit though.

First off I flew it on grass before the water and on one landing I hit a thick spot in the grass and it decelerated fast, and the wing came off! Turns out the wing mount was just stuck on with some lousy glue that didn't stick. I'm just glad it didn't happen in the air.

With the wing off and the mount attached, I could see how much it was deflecting the aileron pushrods. I've attached a picture of it and you can see that it is just about ready to snap off the servo arm. I put the connectors on the bottom of the servo like suggested in post #1036 and it was much better. After that experience, I trimmed the wing tips too as suggested in the post.

I just flew it off the water a couple of days ago and it is even easier than flying it off the grass. It runs on the water so smooth. I've attached a video with clips of two flights I got on it. You can see from the water surface that the wind was variable and it was a bit bumpy at times, but the plane handled it well. On one landing I even touched with the wingtip first with no tendency to water loop.

This is my first sea plane and I really enjoy flying it!

Great Planes Seawind RC Plane (1 min 46 sec)

So we flew the seawind for the first time. Flew great on landing I hit a boat wake and got the plane wet. The ESC and receiver had corrosion X treatment. Everything works but the motor, it will faintly beep the correct tones but the ESC will get hot and motor wont turn.
I corrosion X all three (motor, esc and received) after the incident, no change.
Questions:
Is there an easy way to test if the motor or ESC is bad?
Is there a better way to waterproof everything? Should I use corrosion X on the motor as well?
Thanks for any help!

I'd bet the motor is fine, and the ESC went bad. Any way to try another motor? It doesn't have to be mounted, or even have a prop on it. Motors generally take getting wet a lot better than ESCs or receivers. We used to break-in our brushed motors under water, with a little dishwashing detergent added to the water. You may want to lubricate the motor after a dunking though.

It's possible it may come back to life after drying out thoroughly.

Had my Seawind on the water a few days ago, and had glitching, so the takeoff was aborted. Turned out to be a bad rx. Funny, I had it encapsulated in silicone, but it went bad anyway.

John, Try blowing out the motor with compressed air, from compressor or from canned air for electronics from Radio Shack or similar. Also, wait awhile they very often come back to life.

A hairdryer on warm does a pretty good job too. If you have another brushless ESC around you could try (after drying out the motor) hooking it up to test it that way. Just be sure to dry it out well first so you don't end up with 2 fried ESCs!

Hope that helps

Just got my seawind. Bought it used. Tried flying it off the river yesterday and it felt very funny. I aborted a takeoff. I think I have my CG off. How can I find where it is supposd to be set?

thanks for the help with my motor/ESC issue. Went to my LHS, they first said, "the motor" is never the problem", it was!
They were nice enough to troubleshoot the problem, seems the motor went then took out the ESC. I don't believe water was an issue as I tried a go-around after bouncing off a wake on the very first flight, nothing happened powerwise.
Questions:
I have the same stuff that came with the PNP version, the SS25 ESC and the GP outrunner brushless.
Should I corrosion X just the ESC and receiver or the motor too?
Can anyone confirm that these ESCs and motors can take getting wet? I can't imagine we'll need a new motor every time it gets wet, it is a seaplane!
BTW, we fly in brackish water.
Thanks again for the help!!

Originally Posted by Red5

Just got my seawind. Bought it used. Tried flying it off the river yesterday and it felt very funny. I aborted a takeoff. I think I have my CG off. How can I find where it is supposd to be set?

The model comes with a balancing stand but fingers work too.
The owners manual says the balance point is 1" or 25mm behind the leading edge (of course fully provisioned with the battery you will fly with and all).
It goes on to say that you should start there and that you can move 10MM (3/8") either way to experiment with what flight characteristics you'd like.
We had to add a half ounce to the nose.
Here's a link to the owners manual on Tower Hobbies site:
http://manuals.hobbico.com/gpm/gpma5750-manual.pdf
Best of luck, happy flying!
JT

Originally Posted by johnt26

The model comes with a balancing stand but fingers work too.
The owners manual says the balance point is 1" or 25mm behind the leading edge (of course fully provisioned with the battery you will fly with and all).
It goes on to say that you should start there and that you can move 10MM (3/8") either way to experiment with what flight characteristics you'd like.
We had to add a half ounce to the nose.
Here's a link to the owners manual on Tower Hobbies site:
http://manuals.hobbico.com/gpm/gpma5750-manual.pdf
Best of luck, happy flying!
JT

JT,

Thank you very much. Oddly enough I had just found the online manula and was about to come back here and paste my own answer. Thanks.

It's a bit odd that it has to be upside down, but I guess that would be the only way.

Can't wait till tomorrow when i go fly.