[samste]

WELCOME TO WATER WORLD,
Yes folks, I have shoved one up the peverbial weather gods arses by purchasing a magic HK seaplane.

Took the Icon A5 up this arvo after work at Putney on the Parramatta river.
Conditions were almost perfect clear sky, wind almost zero the river was a mill pond.
I set the aircraft up as per the instructions and had the C of G 70mm back from the leading edge.
I had never flow (taken off) a sea plane before, but understand the mathematics of the exercise.
Plonked the aircraft into the creek and applied a tiny bit of throttle as the aircraft moved away it droped its right wing tip due to the torque (the water exagerates it).
A little left aileron was required to level the wings, as soon as it hit about 30 to 40 kmph the amphibious hull took over and it tracked like it was on rails until it lifted in to the heavens and climbed rapidly at ony 60% throttle.
It needed only a little trim left and click or 5 down as the balance appeared to be a little tail heavy.
I did 7 or 8 circuits to get a feel for the airframe balance, it was pretty easy to fly especially considering that it was to tail heavy.
I lined up with myself from about 300 meters out and droped the throttle to about 20%, the little sucker is a floater and I had to completely kill the throttle to loss altitude, I picked up the throttle about 100 meters out to help control drag as the aircraft settled onto the wet stuff, it landed with no pitch chance at all, the cleverly designed aircraft made me look like a pro.
Flight status "kenorn"

I changed batteries and took it up again but moved the battery forward 20mm.
The second flight was alot more fun than the first, the C of G change manifested itself as a very happy predictable fun flier. Take off was a breeze, I didnt try any aerobatic manouvers as I was still getting comtorable with the simple but snappy flight characteristics.
Tha landing again was just simply no effort although I certainly had the heart beat up there.
I stayed in the air for 5 minutes on the first flight and the battery was over 4.1 v per cell.
The 2nd flight was a little over 9 minutes and the battery still read 3.9 v per cell.
This thing would be a great FPV aircraft and is such a fun plane to fly.
Dont get me wrong its not easy to fly I said its fun to fly....... You still need to keep your wits about you, it has a sensative balance and I tends to snap at you every now and then to make sure you are paying attention
The supplied 400 kv motor running on 6S 3000 20C batteries was not hot at all, although I am thinking about changing the supplied 12 x 6 prop to a 11 x 7. It had no problem with reving at all in fact I dont think I actually got near full throttle. I just thought I was screaming a little to much for a 6S motor.
I will be taking it to work with me almost every day in the furure with 2 charged batteries ready to have some fun.
Im very impressed.
Gazz

Nice One Gazz,
Its a very Nice Looking Plane
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store...duct=16526