The Seawind Flyer

The Seawind Flyer
Winter/Spring 2013
“The evolution of an intelligent design.” ™
P. O. Box 1041
Kimberton, PA 19442
Ph: 610-917-1120
Fax: 610-933-3335
www.seawind.net
Copyright Seawind LLC 2013
SPRING HAS COME TO CANADA
We had looked forward to the first day of spring and the hope of good test flying weather and
this is what we got; 6 to 8” of snow.
The snow is plowed into piles until it can be hauled away.
I owe you an explanation why this is a combined
Winter/Spring Seawind Flyer.
to have an SPS. SPS are common on larger
aircrafts - no doubt there will be more G.A.
aircraft having an SPS in the future.
Right after publishing the Fall 2012 Flyer that
the SPS Testing was going well we had a
“glitch” and shot ourselves in the foot.
When the pusher motor starts, a spring clutch
engages and it moves the nose down in less
than 2 seconds. At about the mid-point (1
second) the aircraft has recovered and a short
burst of reverse polarity triggers the pusher
motor to release the clutch almost
instantaneously.
The release time is 0.2
seconds (200 milliseconds) and the controls are
back to normal flight. Having never been
involved in a pusher before, it was decided, for
the test pilots operations only, a separate
manual reverse polarity switch was installed.
No one realized that a helical spring could not
be wound in the opposite direction for more
than a second.
(A quick explanation) The SPS uses a special
wing leading edge transducer on each wing that
sends data to two separate and redundant
analog computers. When either transducer
senses we are getting near a stall it turns on a
stick shatter to warn the pilot of an impending
stall. If the pilot ignores the major shaker
warning and continues to raise the nose, then
both transducers sense a stall the “stick pusher”
mechanism pushes the nose down.
The
Seawind is the first G.A. aircraft under 6,000lbs
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Then somebody held their finger on the switch
too long and deformed the spring, which dug a
groove in the outer housing. In addition we had
to redesign the circuit board. The system now
releases in 0.2 seconds and has done so about
200 times. That cost us three weeks of good
flight test weather. We completed everything
and were ready to fly just in time for bad weather
and the NRC holiday shutdown. The SPS was
our last developmental item required for
certification. It was working and we were close
to the final calibration setting. Then we had
another problem with the clutch, which required
a modification to the unit. Of course all this
takes time. After the modification it is now
working reliably and we have cycled it hundreds
of times.
First and foremost is money; if money is not a
problem then certification will take between 4 to
5 years. If you have a new and unique
composite process that has to be certified, add
at least another two years. If you have a unique
high performance aircraft, especially if it is
amphibious with a high thrust line, add 1 to 2
years for flight test development to meet
stringent regulations.
If your technical people are all use to designing
one part of large commercial aircraft and you
need them to do many parts in a general
aviation (G.A.) aircraft, and English is not their
first language, add at least another year, or two,
or three.
If you run out of money and have to shut down
for a year and 8 months add to that four more
months to ramp back up again.
During winter in Canada there is very little good
flying weather, so without any definitive news
(good or bad) the Winter flyer became the
Winter/Spring flyer.
If Revenue Canada withholds well over one
million dollars and jerks you around for nine
months saying “we only need a little more
information”, then you find out they always
intended to turn you down, and in the meantime
you have depleted all your funds , add 9 months
plus 4 months more to start up again. That’s 11
years.
CABIN COMFORT
In case you are wondering about heating in
these cold Canadian winters, the Seawind has
twin heat muffs which can raise the outside air
temperature 101°F or 56°C. On a 0°F outside
air temperature, the heated air is entering the
cabin at the defrosters and at your feet at 101°F
which will maintain the cabin at 80°F, or 26° C.
So a spin (pun intended) specialist could say
we are right on schedule even though it’s
probably the longest G.A. certification in history.
The Seawind has excellent cooling as well. The
heat outlets can be used for unheated cool fresh
air at your feet and there are separate overhead
fresh air outlets as well. It is quite cool in flight
even in the tropics until you slow down for
landing, and then it warms up. However, you
can taxi with the canopy partially open on the
ground which is very pleasant.
We should have been done with flight testing by
this last November 2012, but you have just
read how we shot ourselves in the foot and now
we need at least 4 weeks of good flying during
the Spring in Canada.
At the end of this odyssey we will have the
world’s most beautiful G.A. aircraft. Add to that
the world’s fastest amphibian with the widest
most comfortable cabin and with unmatched
versatility.
WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG TO
CERTIFY AN AIRCRAFT?
Nobody knows better than us why it takes so
long.
To some people it was worth the wait.
We call them “Loyal Order Holders”.
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HOW ARE WE DOING?
NOW THE GOOD PART BEGINS
Despite not completing the flight test we hoped
to complete in the winter, we are making good
headway with the documentation and have filled
almost all our staffing needs. The flight testing
this past week is the best we have had since
last October.
We have started to look at the latest in Garmin
Avionics. Many of the avionics we intended to
offer in the VFR package have been
discontinued. Even a few items we planned for
IFR and Deluxe IFR, are no longer available.
HOW ARE WE DOING FINANCIALLY?
We have a commitment for the last Phase 3
stock position. This assures us of having
adequate funding for the completion of the
Certification.
We are turning our fund raising efforts toward
Phase 4 production and options. At least in the
area of production we were told that we have
the opportunity to finance by bank loans or
equity, the latter being preferred. If you are
interested, we will be pleased to discuss it with
you. Read on.
PHASE 4
We have updated our business plan for the last
phase. Phase 4 covers the cost of duplicating a
few jigs to have a smooth production line
without bottlenecks. It also covers templates for
cutting and drilling mounting holes and locating
equipment and devices.
A key part of the ramp up of production is the
training of employees and the establishment of
efficient work stations and the inventory to
supply them. Until we produce two Seawinds a
month, we need temporary funds to cover
overhead, advertising and development of
customer options, and establishing a sales
network.
We don’t plan to start Phase 4 until the SPS has
been calibrated and we are certain it will work
properly throughout the flight envelope. With 50
orders still on the books, we know the demand
exists for the Seawind.
Please call or write us if you are interested and
would like to participate.
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We would like to hear from you on the units you
would like to have in IFR and/or glass cockpit.
Our agreements with Garmin and S-Tec still
stand.
SAFETY IS A PRIMARY CONCERN
I must admit there were far more hurdles in
certification than I would have ever dreamed. I
expected the structural testing with two lifetimes
of “damage tolerance testing” and all kinds of
structural tests. I did not expect literally
hundreds of “what if failure scenarios”. Safety is
paramount. That is the reason for the SPS. If
the engine were to quit for some reason and the
pilot were at the same time was to put the
aircraft into a deep stall, the Seawind might not
recover from a spin. We are not allowed to
presume that the pilot is well trained, ergo an
SPS.
The Seawind, because of its amphibious
capabilities, has many options landplanes don’t
have and especially fixed gear G.A. aircraft.
After having flown an experimental home built
Seawind for nineteen years, we have learned
many safety tips that will be included in the Pilot
Operating Handbook (POH). We will also add
them to our transitional training syllabus and our
future Splash-In seminars. All of this is on our
website. www.seawind.net
For Example: The hinges on the control
surfaces are very robust.
Although two
hinges on the ailerons and rudder are more
than sufficient the certified aircraft has three.
The ailerons, rudder and elevator are all
tested with one hinge removed. The same
holds true for the engine mount. We tested
with a primary member cut. All the flight
control system of pulleys, cables and push
rods were tested to ultimate loads.
The same applies to the wings and the
stabilizer. The wing and the fuselage middeck have been tested with barely visible
damage, and after one lifetime 6 inch major
holes were cut and then after which we tested
one more lifetime repaired to give us an
approved repair procedure. In all there are
over 200 points of intentional damage and
disbonds in the two test articles.
We have flutter tested to 218 knots (250
miles per hour). We know we can land gear
up on snow, ice, sand, a marsh, on grass, a
plowed field, a corn field, sugar cane field, or
desert sand, and yes water and a runway.
That is a lot of normal and emergency options
that a fixed gear land plane does not have.
SEAWIND WEBSITE
We are almost finished with the website
improvements and updates. We have retained
the same easy way to navigate. There are no
zooming aircraft with sound effects. You will find
that there are new pages available and it is
chocked full of information.
The video is
improved and there are more photos of the
Seawind. There will be a slow transition from the
old site to the new site, which means there will be
some links that may not be available right away.
Please bear with us. There are a lot of changes
being made and hopefully it will be worth the wait.
The Seawind draws a crowd.
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