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QUICKIE NEWSLETTER 24 page 1

NO. 24
QUICKIE NEWSLETTER
SUMMER 1984

QAC Horizonltal Rule
CAFE 400
QAC Horizonltal Rule

     QAC entered this year’s CAFE 400 efficiency race with both the Q-200 prototype and with Scott Swing’s homebuilt Q2. QAC carefully prepared the Q-200 for both the CAFE and Oshkosh races this year. Among changes incorporated:
1. A more sensitive vernier mixture control (biggest single improvement).
2. A good quality Alcor EGT gauge.
3. Smaller brakes and tires which allowed smaller wheel pants (worth about 3 mph).
4. Changes in our cooling system which allowed smaller inlets.
5. A top overhaul in which we changed pistons and rings including closing ring gaps to the minimum to reduce blowby and compression losses.

THE RESULTS
     Experimental, two seat class.
Q-200 2nd Overall
Score — 2,651,666
Speed—173.5 MPH
M.P.G.—38.2
Payload—400 lbs.
 Q2 3rd Overall
Score— 2,424,598
Speed—147.9 MPH
M.P.G.—40.99
Payload—400 lbs.
     Some interesting facts:
     Both the Q2 and the Q-200 exceeded the highest scores of any two seat aircraft on the homebuilt market today. Scott’s Q2 almost exactly duplicated N81QA’s score in the inaugural CAFE 250 race in 1981. So much for those people who said the scales were off in 1981.
     In the 4 year history of the CAFE races no aircraft has ever gone as fast as the Q-200 on less fuel. In fact the Q-200 even went faster than the 160 H.P Glasair retractable this year. In our practice runs prior to the race we made one run at 190 MPH+ in which we scored about 200,000 points less. We made a second practice run at 180 MPH+ in which we scored about 100,000 points less. If we had flown for 8 MPH slower we may have improved our score further.
     The September or October issue of Sport Aviation will report all the details of the race.

QAC Horizonltal Rule
OSHKOSH 500
QAC Horizonltal Rule

      For the second year QAC entered the Oshkosh 500 or LBF Race. This year QAC entered the Q-20() and Scott Swing’s 75 HP Q2.
      This race has proven to be very hard on airplanes and this year proved to be no exception. Of the 18 entries, only 8 finished and qualified. Four aircraft including Scott’s. had engine problems. Three aircraft used too much fuel. Three aircraft were too slow to qualify.
      Conditions for this year’s race were not ideal. We encountered strong winds and heavy turbulence. This probably accounts for some of the non-finishers. In our own case extensive pre-race testing indicated that our power setting fur the race (about 2500 RPM) should have resulted in about 202 MPH. However, this would be without any allowance for losses in the turns and minor navigational errors. Some of the other finishers estimated that the adverse conditions cost them 10 MPH. Our guess would he closer to 8 MPH. In any event everyone flew in the same air and we are not complaining. The Q-200, N81QA, did even better this year than last in spite of the poor conditions on the course.
      In the Lowers competition the Q-200 finished 6th with a speed of 189.31 MPH, 11.5 MPH faster than last year.
      In the Falck competition (fastest single lap) we were 7th with a speed of 190,24 MPH, 7.9 MPH faster than last year.
      In the Baker competition which adds your unburned fuel to your speed we flew 189.31 MPH and we burned 93.5 lbs. or about 15.5 gals. We were allowed to bum 144 lbs. The Q-200 finished 3rd, at 189.31 MPH plus 50.5 lbs. of fuel for a corrected speed of 239.81 MPH which is a 26.3 MPH improvement over last year. Since the course is 500 miles long this means that the Q-200 averaged 32.2 MPG flying at only 500 Ad.!
      The Q-200 won the Mead-Matthias Award for having the greatest increase in the Baker competition over the previous best Baker score. We not oniy had the best improvement this year, we had the best improvment in the history of the competition.
      Some other interesting observations:
No 2-passenger aircraft has ever used less fuel than the Q-200. In fact even the Formula 1 racers used more fuel this year. The Q-200 is the only aircraft that has proven to be competitive in both the CAFE 400 and Oshkosh 500 races. Using the CAFE formula (MPH x MPG x Payload) the Q-200 would have finished 1st by 1% over the AJ-2 which was designed to win (and does) the Oshkosh 500.
      Look for a complete report in the ()ctober or November issue of Sport Aviation.
N81QA at OSHKOSH