QuickTalk 26 - QUICKIE HINTS

I'm reminded of the good after dinner speaker who always tells a joke before he punches you in the nose. Here's the joke:

TEN RULES OF AVIATION

RULE ONE - Do not bust your butt.

RULE TWO - Do not let anyone else bust your butt for you.

RULE THREE - Remember the pilot is always the first to arrive at the scene of the accident.

RULE FOUR - If in doubt - get out.

RULE FIVE - In instrument flying one peek at the ground is worth a thousand crosschecks.

RULE SIX - Thunderstorms and ice are just like being pregnant - there is no such thing as just a little.

RULE SEVEN - Forgiveness is easier to obtain than permission.

RULE EIGHT - Remember airplanes fly because of Bernoulli not Marconi.

RULE NINE - If a crash is inevitable, hit the softest, cheapest thing you can find as slowly as possible.

RULE TEN - What you don't say, you don't have to take back at the hearing.

RULE ELEVEN - Don't forget rule one.

Now for the punch in the nose:

The next Quickie guy who writes me complaining that I print more Q-2 stuff than Quickie is gonna get his ears blown off. I don't think anyone can show me that over a year's time there hasn't been a pretty good balance of information about the two. That's because I pay particular attention to make it happen that way each and every issue. Now it just so happens that beside me right now is a pile of letters over an inch high from Q-2/200 builders. I need a millimeter ruler to measure the Quickie correspondence.

I've said before, I print what I get. If you Quickie guys don't start sharing your knowledge, as you have done very well in the past, you will very soon pluck an issue out of the mailbox only to find that it is cover to cover with Q-2/200/Tri-Q stuff. Fair warning.


Dear Jim

My Quickie is proceeding slowly as it is primarily a hobby. My one paramount question is "Has there been no negative feedback from members who have tried any/all the Anderson/Little 'fixes' or is everyone's response like Mike Conlin's?

David Kirby #342

ED. NOTE: I haven't heard negatives. How about it guys?


At present our machine is allocated 1/2 of a 2 car garage. Tail is occupying the storeroom off of the garage with front end in garage. Engine fitting has to be accomplished while the lady of the house is at work (space for her ground machine must be available at end of day). We could make more room if she would allow us to cut a tail slot into our living room, but this shall not be.

Robert Fredette #0082, Phoenix, AZ


From Will Hubin

We found all the valves on our 230 hr Onan to be royally crudded up. Terry cleaned them up and was able to borrow the use of a valve grinder, particularly necessary on the intake valve that was leaking so badly on the left cylinder and that proved to be burned. Now we're showing 3200 rpm on a 70 mph climbout vs. 3070 rpm before the valve work, all on our Ritz 44x22 climb prop. Why, with the better valve seating, I even calculated a 300 fpm climb rate at 70 mph IAS, 70 degrees F on a climb to about 2000'.

When doing the valve job, the build-up on the valves appeared to be as much carbon as lead. Good news! We've continued to use 100 octane with the 20 hp heads. Have others used 80 on these heads over a LONG period of time without problems?

We found no evidence of gasket blow-by after about a year on the new graphite gaskets that QBA first brought to our attention.

I rolled the Quickie back into the hangar after a flight and discovered that one tire was rapidly depleting air. It turned out that the tube showed scuffing marks--probably just from tire flexing--and finally developed a leak. Good thing it didn't happen on the runway. We found the other tube to show similar marks. We had used the original tubes and tires for 4 yrs. and 225+ hours.


From John Hicks

In over 2 years of flying my Quickie I've noted each time when readjusting mixture (with cowling off) a 100-200 increase at full power static. I deduced that the cooler air plus prop airflow enabled this so I recently drilled a 1-1/4" hole in the "hump" on the cowling directly in front of the carb. Takeoff power is definitely improved. I've noted pictures in the past where this has been done, but no reports.

ED NOTE: Photos of the original prototype Quickie showed just such a "scoop", but in a conversation with QAC's Sheehan, he told me that when that configuration was tuft tested it appeared that air was flowing OUT of the scoop due to the higher pressure under the cowl. Thus a scoop was considered of no value. Perhaps with the new top baffling per Anderson/Little this is no longer the case. Has someone done a careful evaluation (will someone)?

I bought an STS hand held radio. It was good while on the ground without engine running BUT was of no value in flight because of engine noise (which could be worked out). The tower cannot read me 2 miles out because of engine noise transmission. A compatible headset/mike, I suspect, would make a successful combination, but it's not yet available from STS.

ED. NOTE: See Ted Fox's Q-Tip in #25. I have been using a Terra TPX 720 with a headset and boom or hand mikes and have found transmissions to be quite adequate. However, the pushbutton frequency selection on these newer handhelds are much preferred to the gyrations I have to accomplish in a cramped cockpit.

John Hicks continued to welcome callers: (904) 581-0296.


From Jim Prell

My Onan baffling WORKS (he has a top baffle). However, the oil temperature HAS climbed into the red and that has called for the cowling modifications below:



A 1-1/2" hole is cut in the lower cowling to line up with the front of the Onan oil sump. A high-tech tube ducts the airflow onto the oil sump (it's a toilet paper roll covered with 2 BID. Remember to remove the toilet paper first or you will have an awful mess!). Allow a 1" gap between the end of the tube and the front of the oil sump.

Flight specs for my plane are: 285 lbs empty weight, pilot weight 193 lbs (OUCH!), canard stall 55 mph, top speed 120 mph at 3500 rpm and rpm at 80 mph climb is 3000 (at 70 mph climb the engine bogs down to 2800 rpm). Climb rate is unknown, but low.


From Dick Pettit

I found an easy fix to the severe vibration in the instrument panel. Before the fix, it destroyed the altimeter and the Hobbs meter. I thought of how a phonograph turntable is suspended and then added some small compression springs over the bolts that hold my aluminum panel to the kit supplied shock absorbers. My panel is mounted in the fuselage and not on the canopy. Now there's not a quiver in the needles.

I wish I had made larger air vents; it really gets hot under the summer sun. I used the NACA vent as shown in QUICKTALK but 2" is not large enough. I plan to widen them.

Under the heading of general observations, I think we are all indebted to builders such as Anderson and Little for their great articles on the Onan mods, and people like Will Hubin, John Hicks, Bob McFarland and many others for their many tips and performance figures. Most of all, a special thanks should go to you, for without the newsletter, all this would be nearly impossible. By the way, why don't you ever publish YOUR phone number, Jim?

ED NOTE: My number is very easy to get if you REALLY want it. I don't publish it so as not to open the floodgates. I regularly gab with about a dozen guys and I enjoy every call.


From J. P. Stroud

Propellers. Which is the best one for the Quickie? I initially flew with the Cowley; it worked but quality control was definitely lacking. Of 3 Cowley props, all of the same pitch and length, one was so thin that it was easily twistable, while the next was like a club. I tried a Rich (sic) prop and it was very good in cruise, but takeoff rpm's were about 200 rpm's low. The best I have found is the Great American Prop. It is a quality product - beautifully finished and accurately balanced. Takeoff and cruise rpm's seem to be right on. Has anyone had any experience with an "Almost Constant Speed" prop? Write QBA so we can all benefit from your experience.


From Ken Norwick #042

At Oshkosh it was good to hear that the Quickie is an enjoyable aircraft to fly, but most agreed that the Onan does not have sufficient power or reliability. In fact there is no way my wife would allow me to fly with the Onan. I think it's great that some have several hundred hours on their Onans, but I feel that for me, I really couldn't enjoy flying the Quickie worrying about the engine all the time.

Anyone interested in or actively installing a ROTAX 447/503 in a Quickie please contact me at: 8 Lisa St. Apt. 504, Bramalea, Ontario, Canada L6T 4S6 or call (416) 456-0769. I would love to hear from like minded people.


A Morale Builder for Quickie Builders

The Deutsch Museum in Munich is definitely the Smithsonian of Germany, and maybe of all Europe. A first class operation. I wandered into the Aviation section and there, center stage, in a featured spot under the wing of a Fokker, sat a Quickie!!!

My German is not too good but I gathered this museum had selected the Quickie as the representative of the new technology of composite construction. The little Quickie was drawing more than its share of attention from the visitors. The description panels illustrated by pictures and by word the construction process of the Quickie. The pictures looked familiar even if the words didn't (I am the father of Dick Harmon and I help him with his Quickie). I didn't notice any construction innovations (but) to my untrained eye the Quickie was beautifully constructed...

So, your proud little bird is part of an impressive aviation display.

Bill Harmon, Worthington, OH

ED. NOTE: Bill, did you get the registration number and performance data for QBA's survey? If not, I'll have to make a QBA business trip to Germany to get it. ( I WISH!)



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