|
NO. 21 | QUICKIE NEWSLETTER | FALL 1983 |
| | |
OSHKOSH 500 RACE |
QAC entered the Q-200 in this year’s prestigious Oshkosh 500, also known as the Lowers-Baker-Falck competition.This race is actually three races in one. The Lowers competition is a speed race for 500 miles. The Baker competition is a speed efficiency race where credit is given for the unused fuel. The Faick competition is for the fastest single lap.The Oshkosh 500 race is flown at low level (about 500 AGL) so there are no variables such as climbs, descents, or different winds to contend with. This makes for a good comparison |
| between various aircraft. Our strategy was to do our best in the Baker competition. No special preparation was done to N8IQA for the race, we flew with the same propellor that generated our performance data. In the Baker competition we placed 3rd. beaten only by two race airplanes. The Q-200 placed 8th in the Lowers and Falck competitions. Our raw scores are as follows: we flew 177.81 mph, we burned 108.3 lbs of fuel (18.05 Gals.), we brought back 35.7 lbs of fuel plus the required reserve. |
| Some interesting facts: No two-place aircraft burned less fuel than the Q-200, no aircraft brought back more fuel than the Q-200.The Q-200 was the lowest horsepower two-place aircraft in the race.
Official results were: Lowers 177.81 mph Baker 213.51 mph Falck 182.34 mph on lap #6 |
|
|
Those of you who read Rutan Aircraft’s last newsletter, cp 437 may have noticed some comments about our preparation for the SAFE 400 race. These statcments — special propellors, dyno tuned engine, etc. — are false. QAC did no special preparation for the CAF’E race as we were too busy working on the new canard program and the Citroen powered Quickie program. RAF did not enter the Oshkosh 500 this |
| year but in previous years Dick Rutan has flown the prototype Varieze, N4EZ (1978), the prototype Longeze, N79RA (1979- 1980), and his own modified Longeze, N169SH (1981-1982). The results are summarized in the following table. The results speak for themselves. No aircraft entered by Rutan Aircraft Factory has ever flown as fast as the Q-200 did this year. Every aircraft entered by Rutan |
| Aircraft Factory and flown two-place has burned more fuel than the Q-200. One stock Lycoming powered (125hp) Varieze finished the race this year. It is owned and piloted by Ken Swain and has participated in several previous events. Ken stated that his freshly repainted craft was 6 mph faster this year. Kens EZ’s performance was documented in RAF’s Newsletter cp #27) and was described as “Super-Performing:’ Ken’s perfonnances this year are as follows; speed — 173.01, fuel burned — 106.0 lbs. Our stock Q-200 easily beat this “Super-Performing” EZ in spite of the fact that the EZ flew single- place, while we flew two-place on 25 less horsepower. For complete details on the Oshkosh 500 see November 1983 "Sport Aviation" |
|
|