Build Update 1: Girl’s Got Legs

Finally sitting on her own gear!

While not all that monumental, it did involve figuring our how to get a portable jump starter hooked up to a 12V air compressor to screw into an RV valve extender  running through the wheel pant and onto the tire stem. An exercise in out of the box thinking, to be sure.

I also discovered that we have the hydraulic brakes option. Nifty!

Originally included as Q2 Plans Change 19 (Q2PC19) by QAC, this allowed for a hydraulic parking brake and jointly controlled wheel brakes in lieu of the cable-actuated units. It would seem that our previous owner went ahead and installed these as independently controlled right and left brakes, rather than the factory suggested parking brake/wheel brake configuration.

Time will tell the wisdom of this, but I have made a solemn oath not to deviate from the plans or completed work until this aircraft has cleared its 40 hours of flight time. I refuse to “fix” something that I can’t 100% confirm is wrong to begin with. And while this pledge applies to “cosmetic” modifications, I certainly don’t mean to avoid those that improve safety. The Builder’s Group has done an excellent job publishing all the major modifications needed to build a safe and reliable aircraft (namely the Jim-Bob 6-Pack and the Gall Wheel Alignment). We specifically chose a project that already incorporates all seven of them; a good sign of a committed and informed Quickie builder.

Next step, hydraulic fluid and flox!

Project Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour

Reno Racers – Simulating Speed

Below is a copy of the presentation I gave at Airventure 2015 titled “Reno Racers! Simulating Speed.” This two part presentation uses the Reno Air Races to showcase how the Internet can be used to find local weather data that will impact a single-point aircraft design. The second part covers a modern take on the 1988 Sport Aviation article “High Aspect Ratio Wings for Formula One Racers” using code that can be used to perform wing planform trade-offs in seconds.

As promised, the example code written for Matlab is also being made available; I only ask that you share your findings with the community. If you  have any questions or get stuck anywhere, feel free to drop a line.

Matlab Code

I’ve also been porting most of my code to Python lately to get away from the difficulty in sharing programs written for Matlab. With any luck I will have an improved version uploaded soon that will work from within your browser on any type of computer, no installation required.

Explanations and First Attempts

The Internet is a funny place, especially if you’ve grown up in the age of Google. Why, you ask? Because my Gmail account, which I’ve had since they were in beta, holds records of most of the various misadventures that have occurred in my life.  One of them a perfect account of how we ended up looking at a “nearby” Q-2 in the first place, in every exact detail we would have otherwise forgotten.

Before delving into the tragic story of the Atlanta Quickie however, I suppose it would be pertinent to explain why we were searching for a Q2 to begin with.  There are other planes that fit our mission profile, after all.  We considered a KR2, a Cardinal, and a myriad of other aircraft.  Really, the reason we decided on this particular type of plane came down to four different factors:

• Affordable purchase price. We’re both students (masters’ and bachelors’ respectively), and our budget was a major determining factor in what we would ultimately end up buying.  For all of its idiosyncrasies, the price is certainly right on a Quickie.

• Affordable up-keep. It wouldn’t do us any good to own a plane if we couldn’t afford to fly, maintain, and house it properly.  As an A&P, I’m confident handling the whole ‘maintenance’ bit, but that still leaves the cost of parts. And unfortunately, that can come to a very hefty bill on a certified aircraft like a Cessna. With an experimental like the Q-2, the list of suitable parts becomes much wider. Also unlike Cessnas, Quickies are remarkably efficient little planes when it comes to fuel.  And finally, with a Q-2 we have the option to keep it at home for the low low price of free (although that’s not even close to an ideal situation).

• Experimental status. I’ve always been a bit of a tinkerer, which probably explains how I wound up as an engineer.  A homebuilt is eligible for “builder modifications” which allows us to make changes to the aircraft as we see fit (though the intent is to keep those very limited in scope). Completing a homebuilt is also a requirement for becoming an EAA Technical Counselor, which has been a goal of mine for some time, and while it’s true that we initially started our search looking for a completed build, having my name on the data plate would help towards that end.  Hard to advise somebody on their build without having completed one of your own, after all.

• Meg likes them. A lot.

The Long EZs were out of our budget, so she had to settle for second best, I suppose.  Poor thing!

All joking aside though, this was not an insignificant part of our decision process.  Whatever we ended up with, it would be a lengthy, expensive, and at times immensely frustrating journey.  The benefit of having your partner on board from the word ‘go’ (willingly!) cannot be overstated. (There’s also a funny story coming up soon about THAT particular topic!)

And so the search began.  Almost immediately, one odd-ball listing jumped out at us.  The first sign of weirdness was the fact that it was found on Craigslist, where no respectable plane should ever be found.  Our conversation about this potential buy already had a whiff of…something.  Well, see for yourself:

If I sounded at all apprehensive, it’s because I absolutely was.  Secondhand homebuilts can be a wonderful thing.  They can also be impending disasters wrapped in pretty skins, and this thing had ‘disaster’ written all over it.  I already knew what was most likely waiting for us in Georgia.  But we were free for the weekend, and Meg wanted to go. If nothing else, I could practice my aircraft pre-purchase inspection skills. So we brushed up on some reading material on the subject in order to prepare for our trip:

Armed with a little bit of knowledge and high hopes, we set a date to go look at our first potential Q-2 purchase. The results were, shall we say, less than encouraging…

Spoiler alert: algae growing in a puddle of standing water is NOT something you want to find inside an airplane.

I could go on for days about the sad hilarity that N433BZ provided, from the complete lack of paperwork, possibly defunct engine, “missing” bill of sale connecting the current owners to the builder, or the fact that it’d been abandoned to the outdoor elements for over ten years…but I think I’ll just let the picture speak for me instead.  For all the gruesome details, you can peruse the album on Quickheads. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Needless to say, with a $10,000 asking price, no paperwork, and a story with more holes in it than Swiss cheese, we passed on the unfortunate derelict that was Bravo Zulu. Maybe it ended its days lucky enough to serve as a pole model somewhere…but my gut says ‘probably not.’

Diving Headfirst into Air

So we bought an airplane.

…Or a pile of various parts resembling an airplane, anyway.  After a lifetime of progressing through all things aviation-related, I suppose it was bound to happen eventually.  But like all dreams, this one was a few years in the making.  Of course, it helps when your significant other is equally, and sometimes more excited than you are to start the journey.

So here it is, our first step towards slipping the surly bonds of Earth in a machine of (somewhat) our own creation, hurtling ourselves into the literal and figurative unknown like the aviation founding fathers before us…with just our little Q.  Plus two.