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Q-talk 100 - Roy Shannon's Quickie

I spent Saturday, July 5th,2003 at the New Smyrna Beach (Florida) airport with Roy Shannon going over his single place Quickie as he prepared it for its first flight. Roy says that the first Quickie he ever saw was Terry Crouch's. Terry's airplane sets the bar pretty high, but Roy's plane is going to be a worthy rival. It is beautiful!

We spent four to five hours going over the plane and talking about it, making sure that all is well for the big day. We came up with a total of four minor squawks. That's all! Two of them were about the throttle; I wanted him to install safety wire on one bolt and to add a full-throttle spring in case the throttle linkage became disconnected. I had a concern with his fuel tank vent not being strictly downhill, because it had a level spot, and his pitch trim mechanism needed to have a limit stop cotter pin added. That's the entire discrepancy list.

Roy says his empty weight is 291 lbs. He's got the GU canard with no VG's (yet).

With some help from his friend, Steve, Roy has built some of the best-contoured flying surfaces I've ever seen! He used PolyFiber water-based polyurethane paint which he rubbed to a mirror finish, but he says he would not use that paint again. I've asked him to write up his experiences with the fillers and paints that he used.

I've also asked Roy to write up some of his modifications for the QBA newsletter. He has a unique, independent heel brake system for his otherwise stock mechanical brakes, a unique battery mount and a custom pitch trim system. He says that the brakes aren't very powerful, but I told him to write them up anyway, even if it's a "don't do it like this" type of report. However, I think I might "do it" the way he did it, only modified slightly for greater mechanical advantage. I think he might even make such a modification. It would be easy ... but I'm giving away his story so I'll leave it for him. Hopefully he'll also include a description of his clever parking brake.

Speaking of clever, his pitch trim system is a clever little thing of beauty, far better than the hacksaw blade called out in the plans. Once he gets it calibrated, I think he'll be very happy with it. We'll all just have to wait for his report in the newsletter!

Roy also did some interesting things to help cool his Onan and keep it alive longer, including adding a carb air filter and substituting different engine mount rubbers. He says his temps are all good so far in ground running and high-speed taxi.

Of course, what would a report from me be without mention of ground handling: Roy made some changes here, too. He is a low-time tail dragger pilot, but he's already had the tail up during high-speed taxi and didn't have any control problems... in a crosswind, no less!

Okay, I'm not gonna spill any more beans. Just keep your Q-Talk subscription current and I'm sure you'll see Roy's reports shortly after his maiden flight. He's still got a lot of work to do dialing in his cooling system and tweaking his cowl, for example, so it might be a while before he's satisfied with things enough to write them up ... but I think they'll be worth waiting to read about.

Oh, did I mention his custom Quickie trailer? This dude has got one CLASS ACT going here, folks...!

Ed Note: Thanks, David, for taking the time to inspect Roy's plane and reporting so eloquently about the experience. On July 19"1,2003, Roy made two successful flights in his single place Quickie. He has found that his airplane (N3QS) is almost in trim with a very slight left roll, the oil temp never exceeded 225 and that his CHTs were all quite cool.

Way to go, Roy!

 


You can order a printed copy of Q-talk #100 by using the Q-talk Back Issue Order Page.