Certified version Seawind starts flight testing

After completing all the ground testing, the soon-to-be-certified Seawind 300C received its flight permit and took to the sky over Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Canada.

The Canadian National Research Council (NRC) will perform the flight test piloting under the direction of DAR Chief Test Pilot Robert Erdos. The flight analytical work will be performed by John Taylor, who recently retired as Vice President of Engineering at Bombardier.

The Seawind will be manufactured at the company's 82,000-square-foot manufacturing and hangar facility at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu Airport in Quebec, Canada.

The flight test aircraft was piloted on its first flight by Paul Kissman, and the NRC's Harvard chase plane was piloted by Anthony Brown, both of whom are NRC test pilots. The initial flight lasted about an hour, as Kissman got familiar with the racy amphibian. Richard Silva, President of Seawind, said, "The pilots reported the controls in pitch and roll were excellent. The doublet on the rudder was very good with a light two cycle Dutch roll to be expected on the close coupled amphibian. The power plant and aircraft systems all worked as designed and as expected."

After the debriefing, the Seawind was flown to Ottawa, where the full flight testing program will be conducted. Silva said, "It will take about four weeks for the NRC to install the flight test instrumentation, after which full flight testing will begin.

"We are looking forward to the completion of flight testing and the start up of production. We have a backlog of over 50 customer orders."