Seeker and ye shall find

Looks like a helicopter, flies like an airplane

July 5, 2016 By Alton K. Marsh

“Weird” looking, but in an interesting way, is how most pilots describe the two-seat Seeker on first sight. If the Republic Seabee amphibious aircraft were to have an all-glass nose, then it would be a Seeker. Or if a helicopter were to sprout wings, then it would be a Seeker. The doors operate like those on a Piper Cub. The rear fuselage is a slender tube like the models of Slovenia’s Pipistrel. Wherever the inspiration came from, this tailwheel aircraft was built for one purpose: surveillance. That includes pipelines, bad guys, and lost kids.

Seeker 3

Aerial photography of the Seeker flown by AOPA's Alton Marsh and Seeker Aircraft's David Pohlman northeast of Moriarty. The Seeker is a versatile, purpose built, light observation aircraft specifically designed and developed for surveillance missions.Moriarty Airport (0E0)Moriarty New Mexico USA
The center console is in a comfortable position for the pilot.
Since these photos were taken, the Seeker cockpit has been upgraded with the Garmin GTN 650 or the larger GTN 750 touchscreen avionics systems. The six-inch screen of the 750 projects up into the bottom of the instrument panel, where you now see a row of switches. Another new goal was to design the cockpit for night vision goggles, including special cockpit lights.
Three fins were added to overcome yaw and keep the aircraft perfectly on course with feet off the rudder pedals.
Three fins were added to overcome yaw and keep the aircraft perfectly on course with feet off the rudder pedals.
An overhead panel includes a fuel selector and air vents.
The cabin of this surveillance aircraft has specially designed seats to keep the crew comfortable on four- to six-hour flights.
An overhead panel includes a fuel selector and air vents. The bulbous nose aids in surveillance, observation, and search missions. The tailwheel aircraft has a wide main gear span that provides greater control and stability on landing.

Seeker's Challenge

“The aircraft is specially for surveillance. It is a niche market low-speed platform. Because it’s a strange pusher aircraft with a helicopter front, and it’s different, everybody looks at it and says, ‘Oh, should we do it?’ When you manage to break through to that first large customer, that’s going to change the story to, ‘Goodness, why aren’t we also using it?’”
—Seabird Aviation General Manager Francois Van Teijlingen

Pros and cons

Pros
• Excellent visibility
• Six-hour loiter time

Cons
• Slow cruise speed
• Lacks flexibility of helicopters

What’s hot about Seeker 3

Keep the A2’s engine and takeoff weight, add a Garmin G500 glass cockpit, and you have Seeker 3.

“We have an autopilot, but we don’t actually have a yaw damper. We have what is called a rudder trim offset. With S-Tec [autopilot] we’ve changed the functioning of the yaw damper. What now happens is, there’s a dial inside and you can dial the nose off. If you want to fly half a ball out, you just dial that in and the aircraft yaws along. If you have sensors on board vertically under the aircraft, you don’t want in a crosswind to be flying sideways. Your system looks sideways as well. You want to fly the aircraft horizontal. It is fix-mounted. Instead of a guy sitting there with his foot on the rudder pedal all the time, we can actually tune the aircraft and crab along.”
—Seabird Aviation General Manager Francois Van Teijlingen, Hervey Bay, Australia

When retired Marine Col. Allen E. Weh spotted a Seeker on the ramp in Jordan on his way to Iraq, he instantly knew its purpose. He took a quick ride with the pilot and was impressed enough that years later, when Australian manufacturer Seabird Aviation hit a rough financial patch, he bought the business and added it as a branch of his air service company in Albuquerque, CSI Aviation. The FAA approved the Seeker under an international reciprocal agreement on June 7. Erickson, maker of the flying crane, will become the North American Seeker manufacturer.

As the aircraft was parked behind a hangar one day with only its bulbous nose visible from around the corner, a nearby pilot asked if it was a helicopter. That’s exactly how it is marketed: a helicopter with wings that is less expensive to operate. Of all the aircraft on the Moriarty Airport 30 miles east of Albuquerque, visiting kids ran straight to the Seeker, ignoring all others.

The Seeker is tough, almost tank-like. Entering the cabin is like boarding a Piper Cub—pilot’s rear end in first, then lower the head, collect the legs and place everything in the cockpit. Once inside there’s plenty of room for all those body parts without bumping into the pilot in the other adjustable seat. You’re in a fishbowl made of windows.

The $449,500 A model has a 168-horsepower Lycoming O-360 engine good for altitudes from sea level to 8,000 feet, but the $484,500 A2 (see spec sheet) has a 210-horsepower Lycoming IO-390. The A was at a disadvantage in New Mexico—a mile-high state—where it has slower speeds and climb rates. The two aircraft are essentially identical except for the engine.

David Pohlman, president of CSI Aviation subsidiary Seeker Aircraft, is constantly busy with demonstration flights but knows he is at a disadvantage using an A model. While the derating of the engine allows use of mogas, it is frequently flown from Moriarty Airport, where the elevation is more than 6,000 feet. Any normally aspirated aircraft is a bit anemic at that altitude, and the 2,100-pound Seeker is no exception. During a flight out of Moriarty Airport, the Seeker A saw a climb rate of 350 feet per minute and sometimes less when climbing from 8,000 to 9,500 feet.

That’s why the New Mexico State Police have reworked their Seeker’s engine to increase it from 168 horsepower to 215 horsepower. They have used a donated A model Seeker based at Santa Fe, with its 7,000-feet-plus elevation, to search for a child, although it also can watch for bad guys for six hours without refueling. A new three-blade MT propeller was included in the modification. The belly has been fitted with a mounting bracket for a forward-looking infrared camera to aid in search missions, although the camera has not yet been mounted. Officials want to make sure their pilots are well experienced with tailwheel landings before risking the belly-mounted camera. Another change was to move the pilot–in-command position from the left seat to the right, as in a helicopter. That way state police helicopter pilots will find it easier to transition between helicopter cockpits and the Seeker.

Does it win the battle against the helicopter? Not always. An official with the New Mexico State Police Aviation Section praised the Seeker for good visibility and low maintenance and fuel costs, but a helicopter can easily hover or land and drop off or pick up passengers. The official said a helicopter can operate in 45-knot crosswinds, while the Seeker is listed as having a 12-knot demonstrated crosswind capability.

What the Seeker does best is fly slow and solid, and that happens to be its mission. It refused to do anything unusual—or much of anything at all—during an aerodynamic stall. There was no sudden banking and no fuselage shudder. Steep turns with 20 degrees of flaps at 65 knots indicated airspeed kept the aircraft circling within the confines of the front and back yard of a rancher’s home. The A’s cruise speed is 101 knots true airspeed, while the A2 is promised to do 114 knots true airspeed.

A formation flight put the aircraft’s vaunted visibility to the test, if a bit unfairly. Looking up from beneath the lead Cessna 172, the overhead fuel gauges sometimes blocked the view. The wide metal door frames sometimes got in the way. But the Seeker’s job is to look down, and it does that very well, letting the pilot also look forward and down past the rudder pedals, much like a helicopter. A pilot may have to lean sideways slightly to reach the throttle, but it is easy to operate, even in formation with frequent power changes.

In a hands-off 300-foot-per-minute descent, the Seeker A remained stable, never dropping a wing in the calm 7 a.m. air. Trim is manual, but newer Seekers have electric trim. The aircraft remained level, hands-off, for at least two minutes. At that point it was time to enter the traffic pattern, and there wasn’t time to continue the stability test.

Tailwheel aircraft are supposed to require a lot of work during taxi, but no one told the Seeker. S-turns for visibility are unnecessary. Cables to the springs on either side of the tailwheel make it steerable while leaving a little free-castering effect. While taxiing was effortless in calm wind for a morning flight, whipping winds at 25 knots the previous evening proved more difficult. The winds made taxiing difficult only once, when the aircraft was to go left and the wind was pushing the tail to the left. Thanks to the round-tube fuselage, the wind had no fuselage to push on. By the same token, that tubular fuselage can be a disadvantage when trying to use a forward slip to lose altitude rapidly. A forward slip uses the side of the fuselage to increase drag, but except for the doors, the Seeker fuselage has no “side.”

Acceleration was slow on Moriarty’s 7,700-foot runway, as expected at an elevation of 6,204 feet. The aircraft uses 20 degrees of flaps for normal takeoff.

Landings are typical of a tailwheel aircraft. For wheel landings, approaches are made at 70 knots indicated with flaps at the full setting of 40 degrees. Power remains on until touchdown. For three-point touchdowns, the final approach speed with flaps at 40 degrees is 60 knots indicated. The throttle is reduced to idle at three feet and back-pressure is added until touchdown.

There are fewer than 30 Seekers in the world, including some in Africa. But with its coming upgrades, the big-eyed Seeker is primed to search for what it really needs: more sales.

Email [email protected]

Spec Sheet
Seeker SB7L-360A2

Base price: $484,500

Performance
Takeoff distance, ground roll | 870 ft
Takeoff distance over 50-ft obstacle | 1,670 ft
Max demonstrated crosswind component | 12 kt
Rate of climb, sea level | 1,200 fpm
Max level speed | 5,000 ft, 114 kt
Cruise speed/endurance w/45-min rsv, std fuel (fuel consumption)

@ 75% power, best economy | 114 kt/3.2 hr 5,000 ft (68.4 pph/11.4 gph)
@ 65% power, best economy | 104 kt/4 hr 5,000 ft (57 pph/9.5 gph)
@ 45% power, best economy | 78 kt/6.1 hr 7,000 ft (39.6 pph/6.6 gph)

Max operating altitude | 15,000 ft
Service ceiling | 15,000 ft
Landing distance over 50-ft obstacle | 1,607 ft
Landing distance, ground roll | 654 ft

For more information
Contact Seeker Aircraft, Post Office Box 25844, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87125; 505-341-7285; e-mail [email protected]; www.seekeraircraft.com.

All specifications are based on manufacturer’s calculations. All performance figures are based on standard day, standard atmosphere, sea level, gross weight conditions unless otherwise noted.

Extra
This aircraft can loiter for more than six hours and still have a 45-minute fuel reserve.