An anniversary to remember

On 21 April 1979, exactly 32 years ago today, Lee Herron made the first flight of a kit-built Quickie at Essex County Airport, Fairfield NJ.

Lee started his build on Jan 1st 1979 and took only 111 days to complete the aircraft. He reported that top speed was 134mph or 7mph faster than the QAC prototype. Takeoff run was reported as 450ft.

By the end of June there were three more flying — those owned by Delbert Whitehead of Indiana, Canadian Quickie distributor Garry LeGare and J. W. Murphy of Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Ref: Quickie Newsletter No. 5 July 1979.

Actually I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was absolutely right. Lee was an experienced builder who already had a VariEze under his belt. The figure was also verified by Garry LeGare, who got similar speeds out of his airplane.

Most builders complaining about poor performance didn't build a standard Quickie. There was a tendency for them to be built too heavy, and with too much instrumentation. Then when you start adding tricycle gear and so on, well ...

All kit manufacturers emit bullshit, that's fairly normal. A good example is the Rand KR-2 which was advertised as a 200mph aircraft. Typical builders using the same 70hp VW engine get 160mph with a tailwind.

The difference here is that there was verification from builders that the Quickie could meet or even exceed the design specs, which btw was 127mph and not 134mph. Even if you eliminate Garry LeGare's report — he was, after all, their Canadian distributor — there was still consensus amongst the first few that it did make specs.

I have to blame poor builders for this one, not the design.

Hey, I've seen the videos where you've been grinding out auto bog from inside the airframe of your Q2 .... 'nuff said?