Q-talk 5 - Sep/Oct 1987 - index

SEP/OCT 1987
ISSUE NUMBER 5

QUICKIE BUILDERS ASSOCIATION

INTRODUCTION

by Jim Masal

 

HERE WE GO AGAIN!

You'd think we've had enough address changes in our history, but in a new wrinkle, the local post office decided to move this time:

NEW ADDRESS: Quickie Builders Association, P. O. Box 540334, Dallas, TX 75354

 

A PLETHORA OF OSHKOSH NUMBERS

From the media: EAA DAILY NEWS: "It was hot enough to fry a Texan on the sidewalk. In the camper area a dog was chasing a cat. They were both walking. It was so hot in the exhibit halls that folks were coming out in the sun to cool off. Temperatures have averaged 8 to 10 degrees above normal for the past seven days, with UNUSUALLY (caps mine, ED.) high humidity levels...The combination of very hot days and muggy warm nights drove many home early. On Sunday the number of airplanes departing greatly outnumbered the arrivals, something not seen before at Oshkosh."

OSHKOSH DAILY NORTHWESTERN: "By 9:30 am Friday, 600 aircraft an hour were landing at Wittman Field, which stopped accepting all traffic at 1:30 pm, diverting planes to Appleton and Fond du Lac...EAA enthusiasts start arriving in Oshkosh earlier each year. Thursday, the day before the convention started, 12,000 aircraft were reported to have landed, according to the Federal Aviation Administration tower...As of Friday night, 8,000 camping units had registered at the front gate of Camp Scholler, a spokesman said. That figure does not include how many campers there are, however...197 press people checked in as of Thursday night and the count swelled to at least 300 by (Friday morning)."

USA TODAY: "The USA's greatest gathering of builders and polishers has landed...Floating out of the sky on a friendly, first-name basis, they bring with them the richest collection of flying contraptions the planet has known. Close to 900,000 people are expected...Despite oppressive heat and lines for even a drink of water, the nation's aviation addicts remain unflappable and uniformly neat and nice. It is their addictions that set them apart. Of the 15,000 planes on hand, 450 are custom or home-built creations; 610 are restored antiques or classics; 285 are 'warbirds'..."

EAA DAILY NEWS: "...during Oshkosh '86...An estimated...6.7% of all the aircraft registered in the United States -- flew into Wittman Field for the 34th Annual EAA ...Convention. Although the EAA has no turnstiles or ticket stubs to measure crowd size, attendance last year was estimated to be more than a million people, who went to 27 food outlets, drank 260,602 Cokes chilled with 5.72 tons of ice, ate 63,712 hamburgers, 36,885 hot dogs and used 11,140,000 sheets of toilet paper in 700 portable toilets. (Put away your calculators, folks: that's 15,915.7 sheets per john.)...last year more than 3,000 volunteers donated more than 150,000 hours of their time. EAA volunteers did approximately 89% of the work required by the convention the week before and the week of the show. More than 1,000 temporary employees did the rest. Many of these good folks made Camp Scholler their temporary home...an estimated 38,000 people camped there (OSH boasts a population of 55,000 - ED.)...the worlds largest temporary installation of telephones...it was here at Oshkosh...132 business telephones, and 191 pay phones. Anyone got a quarter?"

 

WHEW! In a day and age when even small crowds in close human proximity set nerves on edge and tempers flaring, this was the typical enormous EAA crowd: friendly, clean, well-behaved and milling about in an orderly fashion. Given the stifling heat, this was a noteworthy feat.

 

It was a bumper year for Q-gawking - the biggest crowd of Q's ever. Here's who flew in with data from their prop info cards:

Name
State
N-Number
E. Wt.
Eng./hp
Cruise
Built
Schnackel
IA
N84JS
580
Rev 64
140
'87
Getten
MN
N90MG
605
Rev 64
160
'82
Peters
UT
N2PQ
574
Rev 65
170
'86
Short
OK
N142BA
595
Rev 64
125
'87
Kelsay
ID
N84GK
582
Rev 64
160
-
Wilde
MI
N227T
608
Rev 64
155
'86
Jones
UT
N7269J
535
Rev 75
150
'87
Adams
IA
N14PA
639
Rev 75
160
'86
Padios T-Q
CA
N2XQ
681
Rev 75
145
'86
Yocum T-Q
IA
N585SY
637
Rev 75
140
'84
Malechek
TX
N870BM
595
0-200
209
'87
Cowles
TX
N84RC
606
0-200
160kts
'85
Hoskins
IL
N202SH
610
0-200
160
'86
Dominique
OH
N274PD
700
0-200
185
'85
Lipke
WI
N82CL
295
Onan
100
'86
Sjoquist
MN
N53DS
280
Onan 20
110
-
Esselstyn
WI
N473EC
280
Onan 20
105
-
Howell
OK
N17UQ
303
Onan 20
105
'86

 

There were some real beauties in this batch (I would hate to have been a judge) and their builders were in a talkative mood. Special mention must go to QBAer Malechek who spent hours each day at his plane constantly answering questions. He told me he was surprised at the high crowd interest in the design and by the many folks still out there building away on them. Paul Adams had a standard Q-2 with a nifty Tri-Q inspired belly board housing a pair of landing lights, all of which he said worked quite well. Several of the Q-2's had "lite" panels (VFR) and were an encouragement to many of us without money to burn. They made it to OSH just fine.

 

QBA ACTION

A surprise to many (including me) was another full tent at the QBA Saturday night forum. I would guess 250 folks. Our session lasted about 2 and a half hours. If a picture is worth a thousand words then a live speaker is worth many more - and I had some good ones sharing the microphone with me (my recorder went belly up...did anyone else have one running?). As noted here before, much info available now pertains to flight and ground handling as opposed to building tips per se. It's up to you hundreds of guys still building to fill in here - don't wait for the other guy. In flight, there is a definite trend away from the T-tail and toward the reflexor alone as the most effective set-up, however, the wide diversity of opinions on handling indicates that finished airplanes each have their special quirks. It was widely agreed that full aft stick is NOT the recommended technique for liftoff, contrary to QAC's advice.

Marc Waddelow's Dad spoke a strong recommendation for HALON, noting that it was not the agent responsible for his son's death last year. T. J. Wright of Customer Composite Components noted that his company had Q-2 cowlings and metal components in stock and ready for sale. He even has a pile of Quickie plans and Q-2 mod drawings available. Wright announced that CCC was in the final stages of acquiring the Tri-Q program from Scott Swing. In other good news, Gary Wilson of Composite Aircraft Components said he could get carbon fiber spars for Q-1's and Q-2's at $850 for the Q-2, a bit less for the Q-1. Sam Hoskins suggested we set a time for all pilots to unbutton their cowlings so everyone could compare engine installations. On Monday at 9 am cameras and eyeballs were working overtime as the pilots co-operated by uncowling.

In addition to the meet on Sat. eve, I had a 1 pm meeting scheduled on the back porch of the homebuilder's corner building on Sat. and Sun. These were lively but more intimate - 20-25 guys each time for about 2 hours. We all enjoyed something that is done best at Oshkosh - renewing old friendships and making new ones. There's nothing like standing eyeball to eyeball with the people who make the QBA go. We get a charge of energy that's even better than getting a newsletter in the mail. Furthermore, experiences get a more detailed examination in a smaller group. I expect to continue these sessions annually.

 

AND NOW...THE REST OF THE STORY

Poberezny is trying to strong-arm the county commissioners again by subtly threatening to move the convention site. This time he's after a 1,500 ft. extension of the main N/S runway. Now, either EAAers are building/restoring some hellacious new aircraft in their garages to require 8,500 ft. of runway, or Paul is about to stretch the hell out of one of his favorite terms: "grass roots aviation." I can envision an AIRLINE OWNERS AND PILOTS Division, a dramatic expansion of the Warbirds area, and I can hardly wait to see a meticulously restored '66 Boeing 707 or the arrival of the next Space Shuttle as a special show attraction. Enough, already, Pablo.

Voyager WAS at Oshkosh...it was trucked in. The craft's tail booms and engines were detached and with the right wing extending aft of the trailer, overall length of the truck and aircraft was approximately 118 ft. Burt, Dick and Jeanna were roundly toasted, but they worked hard for their supper: they held several l - o - n - g (2 1/2 hour) inside-dirt talk fests at the theatre-in-the-woods and at several specialty group meetings in the evenings.

On the flight line there were identical-twin White Lightnings present, a pair of Prescotts, an all-graphite low wing 2 place, an all metal 250 hp "Venture" and a composite, 4-place "Cirrus" (reminiscent of the Learfan). My eye was caught by a very nice Californian BD-5 with a mid-mounted VW engine. It had clean side-fuselage bulges to cover the cylinders and looks like the most $ practical way yet to get all those rafter queen -5's in the air. I also noted what looked like a single place RV-6 with a monster engine and P-tip prop. The builder was mum, but I saw that baby coming into OSH, and it is FAST. Expect interesting coverage on these birds in Sport Aviation.

Rex Taylor's tent was sporting his new "Hornet", a 40-horse half-VW engine kit with hydraulic lifters, solid-state dual ignition and 20 amp alternator at $2,400. He said an AZ builder would have one of these in a Quickie this year. Mosler Engines was also on the field with their Global clone. I'm personally satisfied that a half-VW works well in a Quickie, but the cost of these 4-cycles is quite a hunk of dough.

Attending Oshkosh can be compared to spending 10 minutes in a bank vault and being allowed to take everything you can carry. There's always MUCH more than you can grab, it's all valuable and afterward it takes a while to sort out all you've got. This year I heard several people remark that something was missing about Oshkosh. I felt it too, but nobody put a finger on it. Maybe it was just the heat. By the time cooler weather came through on Tuesday, I had had enough and so Tom Gordy and I boarded the Toyota express and left earlier than planned. If you just HAD to miss OSH this year don't fret unduly.

One interesting thing I noted this year: We builders refer to the annual EAA International Fly-In Convention and Sport Aviation Exhibition as simply, "Oshkosh". The locals can't do that since they live in the place. They refer to it simply as "the EAA", as in "are you going to the EAA today?" Whatever it's called, it's over, so get back out there in the workshop before the snowman cometh!

 

Other Articles In This Issue

LETTERS - by Jim Masal
Q-TIPS - by Jim Masal
QUICKIE-TIPS - by Jim Masal
Q-2 TIPS - by Jim Masal
CLASSIFIEDS - by Jim Masal
OSHKOSH!!! - by Jim Masal

 


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