Conversation with Terry Crouch
- Details
- Category: Quickheads BLOG
- Published: Wednesday, 01 September 2010 01:00
- Written by Dan Yager
- Hits: 5094
Terry Crouch is one of the only people I could find through this website with a flying LS1 canard on his single seat Quickie. So of course I have been picking his brain as much as possible during my quest to create a workable set of templates. Well Terry was nice enough to send me a first generation copy of the Templates and Instructions provided by Quickie Aircraft Corporation in 1986 for the LS1 canard modification for the Q-1. Earlier this week I spoke with Terry on the phone and he explained some of the nuances of the instructions, and spent some time with me to ensure that I would be able to make a exact duplicate of his original templates available to the rest of the Quick community.
As it turns out, QAC published the templates and plans with a few glaring errors and omitions. For example, the original instructions tell the builder to join the spars with 3 layers of BID on top, and 18 layers of BID on the bottom. This huge desparity apparently raised some eyebrows when it was first sent to the builders. Terry told me that he even called Gene Sheehan about it. Gene in his usual grumpy and terse mode told him that it was "just a typo" and not to worry about it. (Nice!) As it turns out, Terry's phone call ended with QAC sending a builder supplement to everyone who purchased the plans explaining that the correct layup schedule was 15ply UNI on the bottom 18ply UNI on the top. Stagger each ply in length with longest terminating at the fuselage sides. All plies 3.0" wide.!
An omition, was the lack of talking numbers on the original LS1 templates for the Q1. The instructions simply tell the builder to transfer the talking numbers to the templates similar to what they see in the original GU templates. Apparently, QAC had a LOT of trust in their builders graphic design skills! 
In addition, the Q1 LS1 instructions reference the Q-200 instructions frequently, and apparently they were sent along to the builders as a supplement to the Q-1 instructions. It seems kind of absurd to me that a kit or plans supplier would take such a flippant attitude about their design, but then again it must be understood what was going on around this time in Mojave. Not only were these plans written after the death of Tom Jewett, but QAC was in the middle of a large lawsuit which eventually caused them to close up shop, declare bankrupcy, and shutter their doors.
Well after all that, it's amazing how much interest still remains for this very fuel efficient design. So next week, I will be making the Templates and Instructions that Terry sent me available exactly as they were sent from QAC. The only change I will make is to update the istructions to the correct layup schedule on the spars. This should allow anyone interested in building or repairing one of these planes to have the most recent information provided by QAC. (Of course, that information will be almost 25 years old at the time of this writing.)
As time permits, I will update the information to include talking numbers, clarify the instructions, without the need for outside references, and include other updated information that the Quickie Builder's Association has developed since they were originally released. So stay tuned.
As always, I invite your questions and feedback below, or in the forums.
UPDATE: In January 2009 I spoke with Terry Crouch who provided me with a set of LS1 Templates from his beautiful flying Quickie. I made these file available in the online store here.
I also created a flight simulator model of Terry's Quickie for X-plane 9.2 here.