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N399DW

Seafire owned, built and flown by Dave Woodcock

The Seafire (homebuilt version was originally called a Trojan, but we have opted for the classier former name) was designed in the late 70's when the only production amphibian was a Lake Buccaneer. It is a four place outgrowth of the Teal Amphibian but has, along with many other changes, a cruciform tail, tricycle landing gear, and a 250 hp tractor engine. Although most of the certification work was completed, the project did not survive the aviation downturn of the 1980's, and the Lake Renegade beat it to the market place. These are very unique homebuilts since there is only one other flying in the world, owned by T. I.. Weston of South Carolina. It is a homebuilt version of an aircraft designed for production and only about 70 sets of plans were sold to homebuilders (imagine building a Lake Renegade from scratch). At Fly-ins and on the ramp it is mistaken for a Buccaneer or a Renegade until the person realizes that the engine is backwards or in our case the engine is forwards, not backwards like a Lake. And also, it has much cleaner, more pleasing lines.

N399DW is powered by an Ultimate Engines Continental IO-520 customized, balanced, and blueprinted under STC to produce 314 hp at 2800 RPM continuous and has a 3 blade McCauley prop. Complete with GAMI injectors, this is absolutely the smoothest big block Continental I have ever flown behind. It is a full four place, similar in cabin size and useful load to a Renegade. The aircraft has dual electric trim tabs on the trailing edge of the elevator, but thanks to Thurston's excellent aerodynamic design, the trim is set very close to neutral for take-off and very little elevator trim is needed during flight. Small increments are extremely effective. The rudder trim is ground adjusted for cruise flight and very little right rudder is needed for take off. The rudder is very light and responsive in flight and quite honestly it flies better if you keep your feet on the floor and just use ailerons for coordinated turns (very little adverse yaw). It feels very similar to an A-36 Bonanza in flight but the ailerons are slightly more responsive.

Cruise performance at 75% power is a solid 130 knots and climb performance is spectacular for a big, heavy amphibian. There is no substitute for power, and to my knowledge this is about the most power ever used in a "Lake-type" amphibian. Stalls are very gentle with good warning buffet and no tendency to drop a wing. There is no prop cavitation with the tractor configuration during low speed flight. The flap setting with my aircraft to date has been the same as a Lake - 20 degrees for take-off and landing and approaches handled in the classic Lake fashion.

Some other differences compared to a Lake:

• Manual flaps - no hydraulics to deal with
• Steerable 6.00X6 nose wheel (great for ramps and beaches) and gear position warning system for land or water tied to the flap position
• Much quieter to a person on the ground than a pusher prop configuration.
• Constant chord wing with friese ailerons
• Fuel capacity - 97 gallons (45 gal wing tanks and a 7 gal fuselage sump tank)
• Fixed front windshield with gull-wing cabin doors (all plex) - great visibility
• Shoulder harness in each seat
• Dual bilge pumps with water level float switches and warning lights
• Water rudder position light
• N399DW - IFR panel with Stec 40 auto pilot
• AM/FM/CD/intercom to each seat
• Equipped with a Huntington Lift Reserve Indicator which gives the pilot the maximum L/D at any weight, cg location, or density altitude
• Engine has a pre-oiler and a pre-heater.

Comments from other pilots include "best amphibian design we have ever seen" to "too bad this never went into production." N399DW has 170 hours on it at this writing. Water tests have been done and it handles very smoothly on the water. The deeper V hull cuts nicely through rougher water. Dave Thurston has designed one heck of a great airplane!! Are plans still available? Yes, you just need to find a project for sale, but caution, this project is not for the beginner and requires a tremendous commitment of time and money. Thank goodness I have a very understanding wife!!

N399DW and N15BH are based at Everett, WA.

If you are interested in previous articles written about the production Seafire see:

Canadian Aviation, Aug 1982, pages 29 - 31. Private Pilot, Sept 1985, pages 18 - 23.