Lost radio contact with my Seawind flying it from the pontoon boat this morning. Predictably, it crashed, doing a slow roll and dove in from about 40’ altitude. One wing hit first, the canopy flew off but floated. Model filled with water so that esc and battery were completely submerged. We fished it out with the “hooker” (my friend’s pvc pipe invention for fishing models out of the lake from the boat deck which is about 30” off the water). I would guess the model weighed 5-6 pounds with the fuselage completely full of water...the hooker bent to an alarming angle, trying to lift the model, but it held. Rx light was still on and solid!
Back to shore to begin the crash investigation and model assessment and then some huge surprises. One wingtip was hanging on the light leads, the wing had pulled away from the fuse, nose wheel was partly extended, but it still looked like an airplane!
The battery tested normal on all three cells! Left the fuse upside down to drain for 1/2 h and then turned it right side up to let the sun have a go.
Okay, battery’s fine, ...tx on, plug in battery, rx lights up, servos centre...and the motor ran! Hot damn...didn’t figure on being that lucky! Even the nav light and strobe on the torn off wingtip lit up! Only reason I can think of for the esc surviving submersion was being previously dunked in Corrosion X.
Here’s my theory about radio failure.
Rx used two diversity antennae and I stupidly oriented both longitudinally in the fuse. Signal loss occurred when the model was flying directly away from me...and the antennae were both pointing directly at the tx...but the model survived and will be back in the water and the air on the next calm day!...with a revised antennae configuration...
Watched a full size Seawind take off from a local airport last week...that makes two Seawind survivors!

Hello to all.
I just traded for a used Seawind. Everything seems to work just fine. It has been patched at the top of the canopy, where it attaches with the center "arm"to pivot when raised.
I plan on flying with an eflight 3s,2200 battery.
Any suggestions on setups,rates,expo,ect? Im using a Spektrum rx,no stabilization.
Thanks in advance.

I fly mine with 3000mah 3s. Works fine. Lipo goes in very tight I fly with a Horus and use the ways from the Manual. Works fine. But I use a rudder aileron mix. Because If you fly curves it looks like the ass falls from the heaven so give 10% rudder with aileron.

Gesendet von meinem VOG-L29 mit Tapatalk

I will 2nd that. 2700 to 3k 3S battery. Also flying with Horus 12 and a S8R Rx. Beautiful plane in the air or on the water. Mixes or thumbs to keep the tail tracking when banked. I do not think it took much of a flap/ele mix tho. I did see one crash when the cockpit opened in flight. Becomes a giant scoop of a brake, and just would not stay airborne. Some tape or add a magnet or 2 more to the hatch. A bit of a complex plane to setup, but if already done, should be fine. PITA to replace the stock maingear servo, but these tend to go bad right out of the box, so yours is probably already done. I put red racing stripes on the hull to enhance visibility from below. Enjoy.

Okey Dokey.
2200mah,3s. My maiden. 7minutes,landing with 3.70 per cell. Battery cool. Esc also cool.
Needed lots of up trim. After i got her trimmed out, what a beautiful sight at 8:45pm. Strobes flashing,Nav lights visable.
Landin was great. Throttle to idle,glided like s gliger. I had to give her down elevator just to get the nose down. Belly landed into a field.
I may have just found my favorite "go-to "to fly in the empty field next door.

Yep!

Originally Posted by Mike14B25

Hello to all.
I just traded for a used Seawind. Everything seems to work just fine. It has been patched at the top of the canopy, where it attaches with the center "arm"to pivot when raised.
I plan on flying with an eflight 3s,2200 battery.
Any suggestions on setups,rates,expo,ect? Im using a Spektrum rx,no stabilization.
Thanks in advance.

From the manual:
Aileron - Low - 5/8" High 15/16"
Elevator - Low 3/8", High 1/2"
Rudder - Low 7/8", High 1 1/2"
Flaps - 3/8" for half, 11/16" for full

I fly mine on a Turnigy 2200 mah 3S 30C and get decent flight times, although I find the plane just a little sluggish getting off the water. I recommend half flaps. You can loop and roll it, but don't try anything extreme. I strongly suggest running tape around the canopy, as water can enter the plane around it. A little water will enter the plane because of the retractable nose gear, and they provide a plastic squeeze bottle to suck it out with the kit. I put a couple of strips of red packing tape on the bottom of each wing to make it a bit more visible in flight. It does tend to bounce a bit on water landings. I've found it likes the water better than flying off the ground. The gear is a little weak and the wheels are small, especially if you fly from a grass field. The most fun thing about the plane is taxiing down a boat ramp into the water, retracting the gear, and after the flight doing the same thing in reverse!

One more thing - I removed the servo slower from the plane, choosing to control the landing gear up/down speed with my transmitter, a Spektrum DX8 Gen 2. It's a little hard to get the gear to go down and lock, so you may have to twiddle with it.

I picked up a Seawind a month or so ago. I was shooting some touch-n-go's (wheeled, on a grass runway) and on the last one, I let the Seawind get a touch too slow and she stalled a foot or so off the ground. Everything was fine, except for the NG retract pushrod had become disconnected. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to reconnect it to the LG. Thanks to this post, for showing a photo of the NG Retract Pushrod:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...t-Scale/page18

I put an E/Z link on the pushrod end to help keep it in the retract control horn. Turned out to be an easy fix. I'll take easy fixes whenever I can get them.

I still haven't put my Seawind in the water yet. The lake on which I'd planned to fly it forbids 'drone flying' from the shores of the lake. Doh!

Originally Posted by Oxotnik

I picked up a Seawind a month or so ago. I was shooting some touch-n-go's (wheeled, on a grass runway) and on the last one, I let the Seawind get a touch too slow and she stalled a foot or so off the ground. Everything was fine, except for the NG retract pushrod had become disconnected. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to reconnect it to the LG. Thanks to this post, for showing a photo of the NG Retract Pushrod:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...t-Scale/page18

I put an E/Z link on the pushrod end to help keep it in the retract control horn. Turned out to be an easy fix. I'll take easy fixes whenever I can get them.

I still haven't put my Seawind in the water yet. The lake on which I'd planned to fly it forbids 'drone flying' from the shores of the lake. Doh!

If you haven't already done this, find the lake mucky muck and with plane in hand ask him if the "drone" ban applies to model planes? And is there a way that you can apply for permission. Can't hurt!

Originally Posted by azzir

If you haven't already done this, find the lake mucky muck and with plane in hand ask him if the "drone" ban applies to model planes? And is there a way that you can apply for permission. Can't hurt!

A few weeks ago, we were camping in a National Forest, which bordered on a reservoir. I talked to several Forest Rangers, one of which called the Regional Supervisor. That area is weird with 3 JHAs in play. The National Park Service owned the land adjacent to the lake and declared that the entire shore line is considered an ’improved area’ in which drones can’t be flown. This isn’t codified anywhere that I could find; so, I probably could’ve done it anyway and won the court battle. The reservoir is owned my the State of Tennessee, and I don’t think that they would’ve cared (as long as I wasn’t around people). The somewhat nearby dam is under the jurisdiction of Homeland Security, and they view anything fun as a serious threat to the security of the Homeland. So, I haven’t had her on water yet. Thank goodness that she’s an amphib.

Originally Posted by Oxotnik

A few weeks ago, we were camping in a National Forest, which bordered on a reservoir. I talked to several Forest Rangers, one of which called the Regional Supervisor. That area is weird with 3 JHAs in play. The National Park Service owned the land adjacent to the lake and declared that the entire shore line is considered an ’improved area’ in which drones can’t be flown. This isn’t codified anywhere that I could find; so, I probably could’ve done it anyway and won the court battle. The reservoir is owned my the State of Tennessee, and I don’t think that they would’ve cared (as long as I wasn’t around people). The somewhat nearby dam is under the jurisdiction of Homeland Security, and they view anything fun as a serious threat to the security of the Homeland. So, I haven’t had her on water yet. Thank goodness that she’s an amphib.

Looks like this is an "ask for forgiveness rather than permission" situation.

Originally Posted by Tahoed

Looks like this is an "ask for forgiveness rather than permission" situation.

I honestly thought very seriously about that. Dealing with two federal law-enforcement agencies, though, I decided to actually use some discretion... for once. LOL

Originally Posted by Oxotnik

I honestly thought very seriously about that. Dealing with two federal law-enforcement agencies, though, I decided to actually use some discretion... for once. LOL

Hi and Welcome to the incredible seawind fun.

Since it's so much fun to taxi her in and out of the water, besides the choice to take off and land on different surfaces, you should really keep any possible stress of your mind.

(disclaimer: "different surfaces" does not mean - power lines, fence posts, barn doors, water falls or rapids)

Enough "adventures" awaiting you anyway.

Sewind in the water, first contact (6 min 21 sec)

Seawind in the water, next flights and rescue mission (12 min 7 sec)

Have fun
and save any possible homeland sec encounters for when you get your long awaited WWII Dora.

CCC

Originally Posted by cpt.chaos canada

Hi and Welcome to the incredible seawind fun.

Since it's so much fun to taxi her in and out of the water, besides the choice to take off and land on different surfaces, you should really keep any possible stress of your mind.

(disclaimer: "different surfaces" does not mean - power lines, fence posts, barn doors, water falls or rapids)

Enough "adventures" awaiting you anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyw2cs8lh_w&t=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2ok5azcsbi&t=1

Have fun
and save any possible homeland sec encounters for when you get your long awaited WWII Dora.

CCC

Dora... oh how I dream of you at night... :-)
Do-335, too.

I took the Seawind to the field today. Unfortunately, my NG fix didn’t survive the taxi, and the NG unexpectedly retracted, ending the flight before it’d ever begun. E/Z Clip wasn’t strong enough to keep the pushrod in the NG control arm. Will have to engineer something else more robust. So, I had to content myself with a zillion touch-n-goes in my ElectroStik, did a bit of warmliner soaring in my Cunscento, and a couple Baby Dora (800mm FlightLine Toss-n-Boss) sorties. Bummer that I couldn’t get the Seawind in the air.

Oops, just fixed the video links in my former post.
CCC