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Q-talk 5 - QUICKIE-TIPS

From Jim Masal, Editor

Ed Miller recently reminded me that he used a pair of fabric aircraft inspection covers on each side of his Quickie's tailwheel (kinda like hubcaps) to cut down on tail vibration. Other pilots have noted this and have used springs between the rudder cables to keep things taut. Once the tail lifts on the Quickie and Q-2's, cable tension slackens. This may be contributing to at liftoff control problems.


GLOBAL ENGINE

Paul Wright called from London to report he has 14+ hours on his Global powered Quickie. His is set up just like Giles' was (I even made him the same cowling), and so far his experiences are similar. He says it's an absolute delight to fly after years of building, he's pleased with the climb rate for his over 200 lb bod (though he hasn't measured the rate yet), and he reports 125 mph at 3350 top rpm's. He has the original engine mount, which like Giles' first one has already broken on the upper right along with the engine case mount boss. A mount with the next size larger tubing cured the problem for Giles.

Significantly, Wright has experimented at altitude and noted what appears to be an aileron blankout at 56-60 mph and a noticeable torque roll. He thinks this may be due to the large cowl cheeks and theorizes that this could've caused my accident. He's going to experiment with cowl extensions as Solan has.


MOSLER ENGINE

John Martin, president of Mosler, sent me one of these engines for evaluation. This engine is the next generation of the Global/half-VW design and I will be reporting my progress with it this fall/winter.


SUZUKI ENGINE

Jim Prell writes: "Have been ABSOLUTELY having FUN flying my Quickie. The Suzuki turns 5700 rpm static (2850 at the prop) and unloads to 6200 in an 80 mph climb. And OH my God...what a climb! Once I have 1000' I throttle back to 5300, lower the nose to 80 mph and climb drops to a paltry 750 fpm (on a 90 degree F day with a 198 lb pilot, 48 lbs of fuel and a 305 lb airframe)." Jim got some bad advice initially about adjusting the mixture on the Mikuni carb and the engine ran too lean, eventually galling one piston, which had to be replaced. "The tapered needle which slides in and out of the needle guide (I'm still running the #300 jet) has 5 different slots that a small Circlip fits into. I'm now using the #4 slot, counting from the top (as you raise the needle, more fuel flows out of the main jet and richens the mixture). There have been zero engine problems recently. She starts on the first pull, hot or cold. Glued the vortex generators on with clear silicone today. The first flight was a revelation. Canard stall speed dropped from 64 IAS to 55 and top speed is still 100 IAS at 5500 rpm. Pitch response has improved greatly and canard stalls are fully controllable...tail even stays down better on landing."


I CANARDLY BELIEVE IT'S TRUE!

The Ugly Quickling, N17UQ, built by Norm Howell has captured 9 pages of space in EAA's September Sport Aviation. Wow! It's mighty interesting reading and is the most lucid chronicle yet of a sportplane builder's dream and the fellow dreamers who are only too eager to help each other. Old hands will recall way back nearly before creation in the '82 #6 QUICKTALK Norm's account of his building progress. He made it to Oshkosh with one of the nicest Quickies to ever grace the line. Enjoy his story in Sport Aviation.


MORE NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LIVING WITH A QUICKIE

This time, I want to address some of the problems that we have had with our Quickie and, in some cases, our solution to them. Not all of the problems have a solution at this time. (If anyone can find a 50 hp, 50 lb, 4 cy engine LET ME KNOW.) Let's start with our old friend, the Onan. The fuel system bothers me the most. On this little mill the fuel pump is driven with crankcase differential pressure. Sounds OK at first glance until one wonders what happens when the crankcase is vented to the atmosphere. Ever wonder why the dipstick fits so tightly and has a gasket? No dipstick, no differential pressure, no fuel pump, no fuel, no fly! Think about that next time you are flying over the swamp. Did you really seat the dipstick after the pre-flight? Actually, you will know well before you reach the swamp as the dipstick tube extends below oil level and most of the oil will blow out in a few revolutions if you don't seat the dipstick...I didn't and it did...We need a better way of securing the dipstick, the "snap" fit was not designed to be operated every few hours.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a mixture control on the Onan? I have seen a few on Quickies from place to place and at Oshkosh. All of them are more or less the same, extend the mixture screw and attach a lever and push-pull with a rod or cable. In fact, I made one, going so far as to make a new mixture screw with a blunt end so that 45 degrees of turn would provide full mixture adjustment. Never did get around to installing it. Then one day, while rebuilding the heat box for the second time due to excessive wear from vibration of the butterfly shaft, I wondered what would have happened if I had hung a lever, clevis, etc., outboard on that little brass shaft? There are very fine threads and a tiny "O" ring between the gas inside and the exhaust pipe (in my case) outside. If I ever do install a mixture control you can bet that I will devise some outboard support for the mixture shaft. Just food for thought.

One fine day as my partner had just taken off and was turning crosswind he lost 50% power. Needless to say, it was pucker-time but he made it back to the field. Extensive inspection and ground run-up showed us, as you would expect, nothing. The next flight was normal and then it happened again. It was my time to pucker. We firmly grounded the Quickie until the bug was found. Three weeks later we found that the resistor plug leads had broken down due to vibration or whatever. Switched to copper leads and never had a bit of trouble (with plug leads). This may be to late for most of you, but whatever you do, never, never tell your Onan dealer that you have his product in an airplane. I made that mistake and he wouldn't even sell me a parts book. It seems that there is a factory directive on the subject. The Onan dealer that I am now using thinks that I have the fastest Onan powered go-cart in the state. "That little car sure uses up pistons, don't it?" And so it does.

With a little over 200 hours on the engine we found out that it was, in all reality, worn out. The jugs were, in every measurement, out of spec. We had to rebore to the 2nd oversize piston. But it was still starting on the 2nd or 3rd blade. (We re-lap the valves every 50 hours.) The Onan is not ALL bad. But if you rather fly than tinker, the Onan is a stinker.

Battery problems..so what. We don't have them. We installed a battery eliminator. Very simple and it works. Just a large capacitor across the charging system. (10,000 mf /30V) It is mounted inside the firewall away from the engine heat and provides energy from the charging pulses to the ignition system. With the master switch off (battery disconnected) the engine will run smoothly from idle to full RPM. The radios must be off as the output voltage varies between 5 and 19 volts with RPM. As a pre-flight check we run the engine on battery then on the charging system. We really only need the battery for starting. In the true spirit of "never trust anything" we placed a 5A fuse in series with the capacitor in case it should short out. (They do occasionally).

As I have said in an earlier article, where we really went wrong was the wheel pants. The plans for the large wheel option are clearly wrong. It was only after the pants were built, installed, finished and (gasp), painted did we try to install the wheels. They no fit! After grinding glass to glass we ended up with 1/8" on each side of the wheels. THIS IS NOT ENOUGH! Any side load at all will scrub a tire with amazing results in a Quickie. Makes crosswind landings a learning experience! When we get the guts to cut into that show plane finish we will have a much better airplane.

Radios..This has been a major problem with the Quickie. Started with a R.S.T. homebuilt radio but ran out of channels in my area. Installed a NARCO 360 Com. In both cases the ground stations reported poor audio quality except at low RPM. It seemed to be a vibration induced distortion. We switched from the embedded tail antenna to a simple whip behind the canopy. This seemed to help a great deal. A financial windfall allowed us to install the TERRA navcom system on a super shock-mounted stack between the knees. The ground reports were great. We reverted to the tail-mounted antenna with no change in quality. The Nav antenna is mounted beneath the canard. (Aircraft Spruce).

The 6 inch coax length provides good VOR reception. The next runway light we take out might prove to be expensive. Internal VOR antennas have proved to be poor, could it be the carbon filler in the UV protection coat?

That's it for this time, we will report on our 3 axis electric (RC servo) trim system. With the "Smart compass" could this be an autopilot system?

Harry Buskey (919) 622-4022



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