QuickTalk 28 - LETTERS
- Details
- Category: Q-Talk Articles
- Published: Monday, 30 June 1986 07:11
- Written by Jim Masal
- Hits: 3956
Jim,
Fear not, Quickie Aircraft lives! I was unable to reach QAC by phone while in Oxnard on business so I called the Chamber of Commerce then Rutan Aircraft, who said there had been activity over at QAC. I decided to drive up, arriving at Mojave airport to find a half open hangar and Gene underneath the exposed engine of the prototype installing a new carb.
Well, it goes like this: the verdict to QAC's appeal is close at hand and Gene is simply keeping a low profile, not knowing the outcome, therefore, not answering the phone. He is responding to builders through "zippy". Another thing he has to watch is the bankruptcy court and the amount of activity he is exercising. Every move he makes ($) he has to account for it on paper. I almost got the feeling that they have been putting on the pressure lately.
Presently Gene is working out details for supplying builders with parts through Aircraft Spruce in the event he closes the doors. If this does come to pass, Gene will reorganize and open another business within 3 or 4 months.
During this whole visit I got a good feeling about Gene. I'm usually a very good judge when it comes to folks being sincere and not even the slight bit honest, but, despite what I had expected (a blizzard), no snow. He came across candidly and with a lot of eye contact. How could this be? What...Sheehan not being the snake everyone makes him to be...time will tell!
Mike Bergen, Fairfax, VA
ED. NOTE: Time will tell indeed! I know tigers can't change their stripes, but snakes DO shed their skins. Does a new skin a new snake make???
Hi Jim,
Allen Kittleson asked for info on "Dow Flotation Billets." He can find these in the Sears 86/87 Boating and Fishing Catalog: Item T6A V63462N, 20"x96"x10", price $59.99 thru 9-1-86 and $69.99 thereafter.
Gene Comer, Michigan City, IN
ED. NOTE: If Dow Chemical has an office in your city; you can call and get the name of a local distributor from their Foam Products Division. I can get a 7x14x109 block for $30. By the way, these guys don't want to hear you're building an airplane with it. Even my Onan dealer only knows I'm powering a 42" fan blade with the engine, though I think he suspects...!
Hi Jim,
Gene Sheehan, through Bob McFarland last Oct. sent me the carbon fiber spar, new wing patterns and small wheel pants for my Quickie. I did not, as of 8 months later, and many calls, receive the diagrams or templates for the large wheels as promised. Can anyone else help me???
Ted Kibiuk #508, RD 2, Box 214, Holland Pattent, NY 13354 (315) 896-2004
Hi Jim,
I paid Sheehan for his newsletter soon after Oshkosh '85. I've received NO newsletters OR a requested refund (HA!), nor answers to pertinent questions. So, I have to consider QAC a non-entity and closed!
We talked by phone regarding a Fla. Q-1 accident where the guy tried to make a new housing development street after "engine failure". He got multiple broken bones and part of a foot amputated. His EAA chapter investigator reports the engine quit from fuel starvation - out of gas. Returning from a X-country he landed at a strip, couldn't get fuel, found he had less than 2 gal, elected to go the remaining 40 mi. at low altitude, got disoriented and the rest is history.
John Hicks, Mary Esther, FL
Jim,
Q-200 N49X is still happily under construction!
Tom Cline #2733, Silver Spring, MD
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