Q-talk 50 - LETTERS

Greetings Mighty Leader of the Sky Porpoises!

I eagerly await each issue. The wings and the canard are ON! Tricycle gear in the spring when it is warm enough to glass. Two more years and #2238 will be ready to fly off some hours. Currently looking for a C-75 or O-200 Continental for a winter project to rebuild.

It is really looking aerodynamic! Due to all the problems with leaky fuel tanks, I'm having aluminum tanks made. They will be firmly attached, but removable. With all the work on this plane I don't want to run it with a leak. Keep up the super newsletter! Hope to give you a flight report in 1996. (Ed. Note: We'll hold your feet to the fire on that flight report!)

All The Best

Pete Mapes, Bethesda, MD


Dear Jim,

Not much to report from the frozen north. It was fun and informative to go to the fly-in in Kansas.

Many thanks to Paul Fisher for my first ride in a Q-200. This coming year should be much better for building.

Steve White, Grand Rapids, MI

Ed. Note: Ain't it great to have guys like Fisher to share his airplane and light our fires.



Dear Jim:

I've noticed inconsistency in how builders are installing the oil separator that was supplied with the Q-200 kit. The separator has a 5/8-inch pipe joining the vessel tangentially. The Q-200 plans show the tangential pipe used for vapor discharge. About half of the installations that I've seen are plumbed in this fashion.

The other approach is to install the device in the opposite direction with the tangential pipe used as the inlet. This is consistent with FIREWALL FORWARD by Tony Bingelis. Since the vessel is sealed, its internal baffling can't be determined.

Aircraft Spruce still sells the separator but was unable to supply installation instructions or a diagram of the internal baffling. It referred me to ACS Products, the builder of the device, Bob Irwin of ACS provided the following response:

"The answer to your question is simple - Tony Bingelis has it right! The tangential tube is the inlet. You must have one of the very early oil separators, which apparently did not have the inlet, outlet and return tubes labeled. We have been rubber-stamping 'Inlet', 'Outlet' and 'Return' near the ports for many years."

Al Medley, Tulsa, OK

Ed. Note: Nice to have a "detail" man paying attention, Al, GOOD WORK!



Q2/Q200/TRIQ FLYING ROSTER

I am in the process of compiling the first comprehensive update of the Q2/Q200/TRIQ FLYING ROSTER in quite some time. I have been making changes based on partial information disclosed in the newsletter, magazines, etc. In order for this to be as complete as possible, I am asking that anyone who is flying or has flown their project to contact me through the U. S. Mail, America Online, Prodigy or other internet services with the following information on your project.


NAME
STATE
N-NUMBER
EMPTY WEIGHT
DATE OF 1ST FLIGHT
MONTHS TO BUILD
TOTAL TIME
STATUS (FLY OR NON FLY)
BRIEF COMMENTS ON YOUR PROJECT
DESCRIBE ANY DAMAGE AND HOW IT OCCURRED


The completed roster will be available to all this summer for a self-addressed stamped envelope.

Ted Fox, P. O. Box 23, Mansfield, OH 44901-0023

American Online: TEDF44901

Prodigy or other Internet Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


Dear Jim

Nothing seems to come around more quickly than subscription time, and in our hot dry summer months I don't move all that quick any more, except when I put on my Quickie-1. Now that harvest is finished, I do climb upstairs quite often and look down on the poor motorist who is bouncing and choking on our dusty pothole roads. The only way to travel these roads is by a plane. My Q1 has a Rotax with the first dual CDI ignition. Within 50 hours one of the units failed, which means a long wait for a new unit. Now a total of 4 units have failed. This last time, I waited 5 months for this increasingly hard to get part. I think Rotax wants me to buy a new engine. I must say that they have supplied these units at no cost to me, but it makes me mad to know I have this system and can't fly when every other Rotax engine is flying. With the poor record of these units, I am not game to take off with only one spark.

However, I do have a VPI and a Flying Flew HM293. The flea is over 20 years old with more than 400 hrs. This little plane has a pivoting front wing. The Q1 and the HM both have tandem wings with elevators in front. I also use the same landing technique method, though the speeds are different.

One afternoon I flew the 3 planes in the order I built them, first the flea, then the VP and lastly the Q1. I have tried to do this other times, but always spent too much time in one and ran out of light. My farm airstrip has a power line across it and I like to see where it is.

Regards (must do some more flying)

Gordon Laubsch, Kapunda, South Australia


Howdy Jim!

Just wanted to send a 'quickie' progress report along to you, with some good news: I've just purchased a Rotax engine, of all places, right through the latest issue of the QBA Newsletter! These ads really work! Right across from my ad appeared the ad that Neal Fulco had placed, so his "For Sale" matched with my "Wanted", so now I've got an engine, and all firewall forward material. This is a huge step forward for me, as I had no idea where I would ever find an engine mount, or have one made up, then which prop to use, gear box, etc. Neal had a three-blade Ivoprop, as you know, so I hope that'll work well with the engine and my particular airframe. I'm hopeful to achieve not so much an unbelievable climb rate, but some pretty fast cruising speeds, so we'll see.

Alan Thayer, Castro Valley, CA

Ed. Note: Advertising works! And it's time for spring cleaning again so all you guys with extra parts you won't use should send in a free ad, make some room in your space and help another builder out.


Happy New Year, Jim,

Tri-Q200 87TQ has about 370 hrs, 6.5 years old and doing fine. The only builder's hint that I have relates to the need for engine cowl bumps. I managed to get my engine in without the bumps. I had to upgrade one of my mags last year along with that a set of mag wires and guess what, the cowl didn't fit. I noted a difference in the spark plug end of the wires, see diagram. After carefully trimming off this extra support tab with a cutoff wheel on a Dremel tool, my cowl again fits.



Thanks for the Q-TALKS.

Dennis Rose, Watsonville, CA

Ed. Note: Thanks Dennis, we'll take your hints one at a time and be pleased to do it.


Dear Jim,

I want to report my test pilot flights in my nine-year building Q-200 are over. I have now flown the required 40 hrs. off, so will just fly for happiness now.

It is a joy to fly now, but I was apprehensive and very cautious through fast taxi tests. Fast taxi tests went on for six hours, over a period of two weeks, on a 9000'x150' runway. I changed the springs on my full swivel, locking Maule tail wheel. When I got the compression springs snugged down, I felt I had more directional control. My rudder cables go to the rudder bell crank first, then compression springs and chains down to the Maule tail wheel. I finally found I could keep the Q-200 within 10 feet either side of the runway centerline. I then progressed above 40 mph, then 50 mph, 60 mph + 70 mph. It would not lift off at 70 mph/1700 rpm and a loaded weight of 1025 lbs, but close!

During taxi testing, I also located the exact setting of down tail reflexer to keep the tail on the ground up through 70 mph at 1700 rm. I placarded the reflexer control as units of tail up or tail down. This control doesn't act on the nose, it moves the rear wing (or tail) up or down, on the ground or in flight. I might say, like I have read in other bits of information, this reflexer movement of some 9 degrees total, is a very powerful trim surface. Move it very cautiously, until you know exactly what effect it has. Now that I know what effect it has, I would not fly the Q-200 without a reflexer installed.

I located my throttle on the left side of the center console, so I prefer the reflexer control in the center console, behind and in-line with the throttle. These two controls are adjusted together on departures and approaches, as IAS changes - this is, when you become proficient.

It is interesting to note, on fast taxiing, 1400 rpm = 40 mph, 1500 rpm = 50 mph, 1600 rpm = 60 mph, 1700 = 70 mph and 1800 rpm plus you should experience liftoff. At 2000 rpm, I flew five sorties, 5 feet off the runway for a distance of 1000 feet, then back on again, the last day of the taxi tests. After six hours of fast taxi tests I was pretty sure I could fly up into the blue and around a left hand pattern with no problem. So the next day, November 18, 1994, I did just that and my son recorded it on a camcorder. During a short one-hour flight I found out, with throttle and stick back, it would stick-buck at 85 IAS, so I remembered to stay above 90 IAS on final approach. With the throttle retarded to 1200 rpm into the flare, I kissed it on with stick back and it was through flying. Then tiptoe the rudder pedals to maintain runway centerline down below 40 IAS before moving the brake controls. Your right hand isn't doing anything, so reach up and turn the mag switch to off. You're not going to go around and with the engine stopped turning, you'll stop the aircraft quicker. I practiced this on fast taxi tests numerous times.

A few numbers during flight tests at 3500' msl at 55 degrees OAT and 1070 lbs aircraft weight.


RPMIAS/MPH
2200156
2300166
2400175
2500184
2750205

I will admit my airspeed has not been calibrated, but it seems to be in the ballpark.

I have flight tested up to 1220 lbs, as this is my placarded max. gross weight. This max. weight raises power on pitch bucking up to 88 IAS. I made a smooth landing at 95 IAS and weight at 1200 lbs. I did this test on a day with 15 mph steady winds in-line with the runway so my ground speed on touchdown was 80 mph. I think you can operate at this weight safely after you become proficient with the reflexer and the power on landings with belly board down or up. I do have a belly board and I like using it especially in calm winds. I also have 5.00X5 Cleveland wheels and Cleveland disc toe brakes mounted on Piper foot pedals. My Maule tail wheel is mounted on two J-3 leaf springs bolted into the tail cone. The tail wheel assembly weighs 10 lbs, so other builders shouldn't need these assorted hunks of lead they are hauling around as fixed ballast. I located my 19 lbs dry battery at station 102, which is about 3 inches behind the split line.

Les Hildebrand - N93PL, Smithville, MO

Ed. Note: Now here is a guy with what looks like a carefully crafted airplane (which since he's local, I hope we'll see at Ottawa this year). AND he's done a careful and controlled plan of taxi testing up to first flight. Yippee, I'm proud of you, Les.


Dear Jim,

'Nother year in the log and the TRI-Q is still flying, 530 hours now. I didn't make it to Sun 'N Fun 94 but did go to OSH. Arrived too late to make the porch meeting and you had hauled posterior for Dallas the previous day. Sam Hoskins helped me drag my plastic toy to the Quickie corral preventing a coronary infarction on my part. I made an attempt at the Ottawa flocking but ran into rain about 30 miles east so I gave it up. Hope to see ya at Sun 'N fun 95.

I would like to pass along an experience I had in October this year. I was flying at 130 kts and had what I call a "nibble" at the stick. This was something I had experienced when we were first test flying and at the time was found to be caused by improperly positioned "sparrow strainers". After having repositioned them to get better airflow over them it flew just fine. This "nibble" - is just a slight twitch of the stick much like encountering moderate turbulence. After landing I checked the "strainers" and they seemed to be tight and in position so I went up again in early morning smooooooth air, 130 kts and there it was again. I tightened all the torque tubes and linkage to the elevators. Tried it again, same results. By now I am desperate and checking the wings thinking the right wing was somehow causing abnormal airflow over the STRAINER but found nothing. I finally took the elevators off and in checking the right elevator I found that it was missing about 10 inches of foam at the inboard end near the trailing edge. This caused the STRAINER to flex when loaded and the "nibble" was the flapping of the STRAINER. I suspect that had the speed been increased the flapping would have become flutter and the flutter become an FAA accident report. This missing foam was caused by a fuel spill, which found its way through some pinholes in the end of the elevator and dissolved the foam. We all have been warned about fuel leaking into the wing and I check it using the Quarter tap test but did not test the elevator on the fuel filler neck side. I would suggest that one be very careful about overfilling and spilling fuel.

Now on the brighter side, I have flown about 90 hours this year and loved nearly every minute of it. Those of you still building --- GET BUSY. It's fun up there!

I have had several phone calls this year asking about handling and performance. I will give you the numbers I use but each plane is different.

I hold the stick neutral during the takeoff roll, then at 85 mph pull the stick and let it fly off. Then I climb out at 120. Approach to landing is flown at 100 to 120 depending on turbulence. I cross the threshold at 100 and hold it off until 85 and let it touch. Other times I jes fling it on ta da runway n hope fer da best. The tri gear seems to be pretty sturdy but the nose gear strut is somewhat springy so if you have a bump in the runway stay with it. Crosswind landings are quite easy, but it is best to avoid slipping at speeds above 100 mph because the nose wheel will cock into the wind and as you straighten out for touchdown your speed is low enough that the wind will not straighten the nose wheel because of the drag from the shimmy damper and the shimmy can be pretty exciting.

See you at Sun and Fun ......maybe.

Jim Doyle - N56DW, Springfield, IL

Ed. Note: Yikes! Thanks for putting us on the alert about the "nibbled" foam.


Jim,

Appreciate your endurance.

Just finished a new house in December. Perhaps it will allow work to start again on the eternal project. I'm actually looking for a person to start adding the hardware, the structure is completed, all fiberglass is done, etc. Anyone that would like the job, call me.

As long as Q-TALK is alive, I feel there are a lot of Quickies out there that will get completed. Thanks Jim.

Steve Ahler, Walla Walla, WA

(509) 525-5675 Eves



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