QuickTalk 5 - Q2 HINTS

From Bob Falkiner, #2015:

1. A Black & Decker "Work Wheel" is a great sanding tool. The soft 1" thick sponge pad backing on the sandpaper wheel virtually eliminates the tendency to oversand any local areas as long as you keep the tool moving.

2. After sanding to the cloth several times on the fuselage preparing for tapes, flox, etc., I hit on this idea. Paint the entire area to be sanded with a black felt tip marker. Sand with medium to coarse sandpaper until the black is gone. Leaves a good, dull surface without damaging the first layer of glass.

3. Use small wood blocks and hot glue to tack bulkheads in place for fitting as follows:

a. Mount a rigid sanding disk backward on a 1/4" or 3/8" drill so that the sanding face is facing you as you hold the drill.

b. Sand the entire circumference of the bulkhead with the sanding disk as shown:



c. Break loose the wood blocks. Bulkhead will move back about 1" for every 1/8" removed. Repeat entire procedure until bulkhead is located at proper spot.

d. This procedure allows identical contour matching of bulkhead and inside of fuselage. Caution: wear a good breathing filter and goggles for sanding inside fuselage.


From George Socha, #2480:

1. (Page 4-1) When heat forming the Q2 fuel tank, it will be noted that there is a problem for large areas. I slit the urethane lengthwise almost all the way through on 1/2" spacing. It will then bend to follow the curve very well. This gives better results than cutting narrow strips, as the narrow pieces tend to sag. Also, I cut extra templates as an aid in supporting the foam.


For Ron Cross, #2397:

1. (Page 4-2) I could not find in the plans where it says to glass 1 BID on each side of the firewall, only on the firewall template. For those builders who trace the firewall from the fuselage opening, rather than using the template, remember to glass the firewall.

2. (Page 4-2) I made all bulkhead templates from 1/8" masonite and trimmed these to fit the fuselage. This has several advantages: the masonite is easy to trim and trimming mistakes are made to the template and not the bulkhead. I also bonded 1" x 2" boards in a "box" shape on each template. This keeps the template flat and gives you something to hold on to. If you make the "box" the right size, it can be used to hold the bulkhead flat while it is being installed.

3. (Page 4-1) I spent a lot of time carefully trimming around the tab on the front of the wing core hotwire templates. If I had to do it over, I would cut the tabs off and then drill a small hole and glue in a match stick or toothpick.

4. (Page 15-2) After drilling the holes in the trailering fasteners, they seemed to be too close to the edge. I have been advised to position the center of the hole at least 1-1/2" hole diameters from the edge of the part.

5. (Page 8-3) I installed the FS94 bulkhead before the seatback bulkhead. When installing the lower seatback bulkhead, I bonded three 1/4" x 1/4" spacing sticks to the FS94 bulkhead. The length of each stick was the spacing between FS94 and upper seatback bulkhead. I did the same thing when installing the upper seatback bulkhead.

6. (Page 8-4) Don't put a large radius on the forward joint of the firewall (flox) and upper seatback bulkhead (micro), since they must eventually be removed.


From Jerry Goodman, #293:

1. (Reprinted from G. A. Airworthiness Alerts, #45, April 1982) "Great American Propeller - One propeller blade broke off which resulted in the total remaining propeller and mounting flange separating from the Quickie II (sic) Aircraft. There were no protective cap tips installed. The propeller manufacturer had advised not to fly the propeller more than one hour total operation without cap tips installed. The propeller had been operated approximately 11 hours prior to failure. Manufacturers recommendations should be observed regarding propeller operation." (Ed. Note: It is not known at this time by QBA who the airplane's pilot was.)


From S. W. Hanke, #2148:

1. The fuel line from the header tank to the fuel shut-off should not run out the side of the header as indicated in the plans, but forward under the header. This will prevent the passenger kicking and possibly kinking the line upon entry.

2. When using the miniature Westach combination CHT/EGT, do not use the theromcouple furnished under the spark plug or your CHT will read quite high, probably in the high yellow on takeoff. Instead, remove the gasket, clean the wire 3/4" back and insert in the drilled hole and hold with a set screw as indicated in the Revmaster manual.

3. Before starting your Revmaster, install Balkamp 740-1155 Fuel Filter between the main tank and the fuel pump. Available from NAPA stores, it's used for motorcycles. Get two, they are only $1.97 each and you can change them in a few minutes and back flush the dirty one for future use. This will prevent stopping up the fuel pump and also eliminate pumping fiberglass residue from the main tank to the header.

4. The Q2 is a hot little bird in more ways than one. We talked to QAC about the lack of breeze in the cockpit. They suggested two things: a 1/2"lip sticking outside the back of the NACA vent to scoop in more air and enlarging the underwing exhaust to let more escape.


From E.B. Barlow, #2214:

1. I have heard there are a few of the people that made the same mistake we did on the canard. We have too much anhedral in it. It sets up 3" too high. In order to get it to fly, we had to raise the tail 3". I would like to know if this increased angle on the tail spike would cause it to break. We have broken three in 18 hours. We just finished putting the fourth one in. This one we wrapped the spike five times with BID and two times with UNI.



From Gordon Myers, #2087:

1. With regard to Bill Slattery's sketch for wing jigging (Issue #4), don't forget to tie the two sides (left and right) together in the middle for stability.

2. All fuel tank plumbing should be installed prior to mounting either tank so that a good flox seal can be provided on the inside (the important side) of the tank. Also, concern yourself with interference of radios, passenger's feet, etc. with the fuel connections on the header tank.

3. I used a UNI's at 45 degrees for the main wing trailing edge glassing instead of the BID called out in the plans. QAC told me this was OK if you do a good lamination and are careful not to sand away any material in the glass-to-glass area. This is beneficial because most builders have extra UNI cloth and a shortage of BID and you get a better transition from the main part of the wing onto this section.



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