Today was the day I'd been anticipating for a while; the Trainstar floatplane had been adjusted and fettled following from its initial water test, I'd decided on a flight test venue which provided acres of open water and the weather was immaculately calm after weeks of windy weather.
Despite the anticipation, or perhaps because of it, I was anxious rather than excited at the prospect of finally getting the seaplane into the air. Nevertheless, with golden opportunities like this afternoon hard to come by, especially lately, I wasn't about to postpone proceedings due to indeterminate uncertainty.
Arriving at the lake the conditions were absolutely ideal, a far cry from the windswept expanse of water I'd experienced on my reconnoitre here. The Trainstar was unpacked and installed on the lake without much ceremony or excitement, nerves serving to rather deplete the joy from the occasion, despite the fact that the Trainstar cuts a most appealing figure in floatplane configuration.
The first few runs didn't offer much encouragement, with the Trainstar suffering from the same take-off skittishness it exhibits in wheeled form. Not having been too fussed with ceremony, I've always just worked around this characteristic of the Trainstar, after having abandoned my efforts to get it taking off straight; flying off a field means no runways to follow. Unfortunately the flipside is now that the Trainstar is much heavier, being able to haul it off at an indecent angle is no longer possible.
In fact the Trainstar is only just sufficiently powered; the "oversized" battery at full power now seems decidedly moderate with the extra baggage and drag. Having said that I did once manage to get the Trainstar into the air, however it was heading for the dam wall and, being too low to start turning, I just cut the power and let it land.
This, in itself, was an enlightening experience, with the Trainstar actually bouncing on it's floats several times before settling down. The landing was rather unsupervised; I really hadn't planned it much, but I was rather expecting it just to splosh straight down onto the water.
In another more alarming incident the Trainstar, approaching planing speed, actually dipped a wing and prop into the water but then managed to right itself, in a testament to the stability of the floats. However I wasn't able to get the plane airborne again, which was disappointing.
However, having had the experience and having some video to review, I'm hoping that i'll be able to return for another, more enlightened, attempt to get the floatplane flying...
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