RED can is the correct CorrosionX.

The stock,bent tip blade, prop is way out of balance as it's shipped with the kit. Some of our club members "don't beleive" in balancing electric props and have broken the motor mount on their Seawind the first time they went to full throttle. I balance EVERY prop before I fly it. Only about 1 in 40 are close enough to fly as they were shipped from the factory.

Son,
Were you and your family impacted by the recent fires in Southern Australia? Hope all is well Down Under.

Mike McD

Hi Mike ...no we are in South Australia , the fires were in Victoria....600miles away
I get very angry with our government and sent emails to them ...How many people have to die before we buy some water bombers......181 dead and 1800 houses...so far
P/S ...they are STILL burning

Ian

Prop is balanced now, hopefully she will be a bit smoother now! I usually balance my props, but was in a hurry to get this one flying while I was on holidays.
Fires have been horrific over here. Had temps of 115 F+ two Saturdays ago with howling winds, never had heat like it before. We had a small fire go through about 10 houses away that took out 3 houses and a car. That Skycrane was busy dumping water all around it.
Glenn.

I found that every prop that I got for the Seawind is not even close to balancing. I talked to my buddy who has flown for just about as many years as I am old, I am no youngster, and he said he balances all his props before flying, whether they be gas or electric. So NOW I have to go balance my props that I have in the prop box. Got a ton fo props, so looks like I will busy for weeks.

I did balance all the one's for the Seawind, seems to run much smoother and I am sure that will help a lot.
Conehead
Orrin Eldred
Honor, MI.

Hope they get the fires out "down under" soon. What a mess. So much destruction for no real reason.

some of the fires were "lit"
too many people with too much fuel close to their house...(trees shrubs grass ect)
we havent had decent rain for a very long time (drought)
weve had a record heat wave before the fires "started"
latest death toll 198

Ian

Ian,
We got some of those "nut jobs" here in the USA. Out west many of the fires are "lit" others are due to weather. Again many people have too much fuel too close to their homes. Also many subdivisions have contracts that require certain roofs be installed which are wood and of course, sparks fly and land on those homes, thus an instant fuel source.

I have seen some of the fires on the news, really terrible.
Conehead
Orrin Eldred
Honor, MI.

Got a used seawind the other day, after balancing the prop, I flew it with a 2200mah pack, (what I had) at around 23oz. It tends to drag one or the other float on mid speed taxi, causing wild direction changes. Has anyone tried cutting the tips down a little for more clearance? My seamaster had tip floats, but they don't dig like these.

Other, bigger problem:
When in the air, it seems to want to lean one way or the other, slowly going into a bank. I am an experianced enough pilot to keep on top of it, but it is very disconcerting. I have lots of planes, including a couple of IFO's, but none of these do this.

I have tried a couple of different ballance points.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Balance on the CF spar. Use FULL UP elevator for the WHOLE takeoff run. Release the up only after the plane breaks free of the water. This will help keep ground effect under both wings and keep the tips out of the water. Check to be sure you do not have a bind in either of the ailerons that cause them not to return to the same neutral point after a turn command.
McD

Originally Posted by lupy

Got a used seawind the other day, after balancing the prop, I flew it with a 2200mah pack, (what I had) at around 23oz. It tends to drag one or the other float on mid speed taxi, causing wild direction changes. Has anyone tried cutting the tips down a little for more clearance? My seamaster had tip floats, but they don't dig like these.

Other, bigger problem:
When in the air, it seems to want to lean one way or the other, slowly going into a bank. I am an experianced enough pilot to keep on top of it, but it is very disconcerting. I have lots of planes, including a couple of IFO's, but none of these do this.

My model had VASTLY improved water handling and easier takeoff runs when I removed a tapered wedge off of the tip floats, 3/8" at the back tapering to nothing at the front. Leave it flat bottomed.

Another gent in one of the threads also added some thin plastic tapered plates to the trimmed tips to help the tips plane and stay up out of the water. I do not see the need for this based on how mine worked so well, but to each their own.

I still use nearly full up for takeoff, when helps offset the high thrust line effects (nose down under power) until the airspeed has built up.

A basic tenant of flying boat design is that you should hit a happy medium on the tip float height. When the aircraft is at speed on the takeoffrun, the tip floats should be clear of the water by a decent amount, to allow minor roll corrections without a tip float contacting the water accidently. The little Seawind does not have this and in fact has much longer tip floats than the full scale aircraft has.

Originally Posted by lupy

Got a used seawind the other day, after balancing the prop, I flew it with a 2200mah pack, (what I had) at around 23oz. It tends to drag one or the other float on mid speed taxi, causing wild direction changes. Has anyone tried cutting the tips down a little for more clearance? My seamaster had tip floats, but they don't dig like these.

Other, bigger problem:
When in the air, it seems to want to lean one way or the other, slowly going into a bank. I am an experianced enough pilot to keep on top of it, but it is very disconcerting. I have lots of planes, including a couple of IFO's, but none of these do this.

I have tried a couple of different ballance points.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

===========================================
I just bought a RealFlight G4.5 simulator. And guess what? It does exactly the same thing. Took me about 8 tries to take off. Found I had to hold full left rudder and full up. As soon as it moves a little immediately readjust the flight controls. Adjustment varies each and every time. Takes a long run to lift off.

The plane is very heavy and flys fast. One of the worst planes to fly on the simulator. Landing is hot, not good for water.

Sure glad I didn't buy one cuz I'm not that good a pilot.

Originally Posted by dusty IV

===========================================
I just bought a RealFlight G4.5 simulator. And guess what? It does exactly the same thing. Took me about 8 tries to take off. Found I had to hold full left rudder and full up. As soon as it moves a little immediately readjust the flight controls. Adjustment varies each and every time. Takes a long run to lift off.

The plane is very heavy and flys fast. One of the worst planes to fly on the simulator. Landing is hot, not good for water.

Sure glad I didn't buy one cuz I'm not that good a pilot.

Dusty, the Seawind on Realflight is the big .60 powered glow fiberglass ARF, not the lightweight electric parkflyer. The large fiberglass one does fly a little heavy in real life and has some takeoff issues of it's own.

The little electric Seawind is a delight to fly, light and crisp on the controls.

Originally Posted by Thomas B

Dusty, the Seawind on Realflight is the big .60 powered glow fiberglass ARF, not the lightweight electric parkflyer. The large fiberglass one does fly a little heavy in real life and has some takeoff issues of it's own.

The little electric Seawind is a delight to fly, light and crisp on the controls.

===============================================
In another thread I posted it was the big fiberglass plane on the left. I'll havr to take another look at the little one. Thanks.

I plan on building Laddies new plane Sheerwater. I've messed around a bit with fiberglass and foam and while it's very strong every time the plane was a lead sled.

Here's my Seawind, finally all finished. It took me a little longer getting it all finished than I had thought, all that pesky flying kept getting in the way!

Anyway, build went together good, used CorrosionX to waterproof, and using Fusion Pack 1800's and 2200's for power. As you might be able to see in the pictures, I airbrushed on a couple of coats of Future Shine floor acrylic. Gives it a very nice shine, and puts a protective coat on the foam for durability. It adds a little bit of weight to the airframe, but not too much in my opinion. AUW is 24.5 oz with the 1800's, and 26.5 with the 2200's. My thrust is right at 30 oz. so thrust to weight should be ok, and I have read others here who have some similar weights with no problems.

Plan to maiden on Friday if the winds cooperate. Only one question, my wing bolt seemed to go in to the fuse tray fine, am I missing something? Is this something that will fail on me in flight if I don't mod it to be more secure? Is there even a nut in there, or does the wood screw just thread into the plywood?

Thanks for all the valuable info I gleaned from you guys who went before me!

Eric

Good work Eric. You will love flying that baby. Just be ready for that little dip when applying power while flying close to the ground. Just apply gradually and you'll be fine.

I thought I'd be flying mine off snow this year, but laziness kept me grounded. I'll make up for it on the lake this summer.

As far as the wing bolt, if I remember correctly it's a piece of plastic that can be tapped. I tapped it and used a hex bolt. If you routinely remove the wing as I, you may find it more convenient to do it that way.

Funny, on one flight I misaligned the wing and screwed the bolt down, completely missing the hole. It was probably up against the side of the plastic and grabbed well enough to fool me into thinking it was in. I don't know how I did notice it. Once in the air the trim was gradually going way off. I landed immediately, to find the wing wasn't even secured. Wow, what a great flying plane, to be able to land safely without the wing secured. Definitely blew my mind!

Not only can that fool you , also if you over tighten the wing SCREW the ply plate can come OFF , I recommend taking it off and EPOXY IT BACK ON with some bamboo dowels
For the money its a POS