SOLD to new owner in eastern Canada July 2022

 

Flight to Hanna Alberta

 June 25 2022

We had a group fly to Hanna Alberta for a bag lunch in the terminal building.  Weather was another fantastic flying day with light winds out of the west.  This trip was a routing around the NW edge of Calgary then a easterly flight over Three Hills and then continuing onwards to Hanna.  Thank you to Mel, Alan, Jason, Gerald for attending.  We had great conversations that entertained the female and male pipeline patrol pilots that happened to stop to have their bag lunch at the terminal building as well.  They were thoroughly entertained by the shop talk about homebuilt airplanes, which of course dominated the lunch time conversations.

Flight for 2.4 hours

 May 23 2022

I managed to get the plane out for a flight in Southern Alberta.  This is the first flight since I relocated the CPI (Coil Pack Ignition) control panel into the instrument panel.  Everything worked like a charm once again and I was very happy with the 2.4 hour flight North and then East of the Calgary area. All temperatures and pressures stayed in the green for which I was very happy since doing my annual.  I maintained a lower RPM throughout this flight to slow down  bit an enjoy the beautiful scenery on a magnificent day for flying.  Flying north from CYBW I went directly over our house, but alas once again Adele did not look for me.  Flew north to Dixon Dam and did a few circles over the two resort locations, one of which one of my friends resides at.  No one probably saw me there either.  Next headed East and went over Three Hills where I know someone and then on to circle over a flying friends farm east of Three Hills.  From there I ventured SE over Drumheller airport and then staying west of the prison restricted airspace then to circle over another flying friends farm.  After this I headed back toward Springbank staying 25 miles north of Calgary while talking to Terminal frequency for proper clearance routing.  Then a turned South following the Lochend road procedure to CYBW.  Winds were gusting off and on from the W-NW and I landed a bit too fast with a good touch down but a long and swervy roll out.  All in all a great day for flying in temperatures from 10-14 degrees C.

Put the CPI Controller into the Panel

 January 12 2022

It was on my winter project list to install my Electronic Ignition Controller Module into the panel properly.  This has always been my intent as I was using the controller temp. attached to the lower edge of the passenger panel.  My test period went without a problem but I did not install the controller  properly as it was flying season and didn't want my plane unusable in the summer.  So I took a two day break from working on the Vision this week to do the proper install in the Q2 panel.  Weather finally warmed up after a three week extreme cold spell and I just got back out to the airport.   

My panel has a fiberglass back panel which supports individual aluminum sub panels on the forward side of the fiberglass panel.  The fiberglass panel offers good support, the only draw back is for every hole in a aluminum panel a similar hole must be cut out of the fiberglass panel as well.  This is first trial test fit onto aluminum panel.

For me the sub panel concept is ideal as the panel can be modified by disconnecting fewer instruments.

My fuse block is a swing away unit on a hinge and the SDS Electronic Ignition control head was temp hung just to the left of the fuse block and worked well for the summer testing.

I am very pleased with the final install.  Now when warmer weather comes it's time to go flying.

Flight to Fort Macloud

 October 23 2021

Two days ago I flew down to Fort Macloud to see a friend who used to own Quickie's and Dragonfly' airplanes in the past.  He now flies a Taylorcraft out of his own acreage strip just East of Fort Macloud.  I had planned on going a day earlier but we were in fereezing ice fog in the morning that didn't clear up until about 1-2 pm that day.   We had a very nice chat catching up in the airport terminal building since we had not seen each other in about 2-3 years.  Below is a capture of my flight which you can see with live history data on the aprs.fi website.

Bag Lunch to Flagstaff Airport Alberta

 September 8 2021

I put out a call for available flyers to meet at Flagstaff airport Killam Alberta and have a bag lunch together.  Lucky for me I was not alone as four others met up there.  We enjoyed a great time gabbing about everything happening in the past month.  It was great fun to get together with friends again as Covid is keeping many from getting out socializing.  Some responded not able to make it which is normal for these spur of the moment gatherings.  All were retired that showed up and it was not long before we realised a couple of hours had gone by.  Flight out in the Q2 was at 5500 ft with a tail wind giving me a kind push going 140 mph ground speed at times at a temp of 17c at altitude.  On the way out I did a circle over a farmer working his mature field in his combine, giving the opportunity to check the local wind direction from his line of dust.  Return flight was slower into a quartering head wind, but hey I am enjoying the scenery on these nice days.  The wind dropped off to very light half way home and temperature was 23c at 6500 feet.

New ADSB In and Out Installed

 September 1 2021,  

I purchased from Aircraft Spruce the ADSB U-Avionics Sky-ECHO package  with the antenna and the wireless controller box.  I installed into the aft area behind the baggage compartment fully inside of the tail cone of the plane.  I installed in a totally removable method so that should the next owner not want it I could remove it with ease.  The antenna needed a ground plane made up for it and I fabricated my usual octagon shaped aluminum plate type and mounted to a wood standoff glued to the floor.  The antenna of course can see through fiberglass like it was not even there.

Update:  After flying quite a few flights with the ADSB I am thoroughly pleased with the unit and it's operation.  Although in Canada we presently do not have 978mhz weather and notams I recently heard a company down east has about four towers working well in Ontario.  Maybe it will be spreading out across the country soon.

Presently I am able to see lots of other airplanes in the sky around me many of which I could never see in the past.  Because there are few airplanes with ADSB out in Canada yet many which have the new mode S  Transponders with Extended Squitter, I am able to see many on my tablet map.  My estimation is that I on;y see about 30% of all VFR traffic since most are using standard Mode C transponders just squaking 1200 frequency.  I do foresee that this will be a emerging market with more airplanes gettting ADSB soon.

Parked behind my hangar at Springbank airport

August 29 2021.  This is a AN2 Antonov aircraft on floats, very rare to see.  The plane was built in Poland and is in Canada under a  Special CofA it appears.  I say that because on the door it is marked EXPERIMENTAL, a little reading and that seems is the only way it can be registered in Canada.  I also read on the internet that Canada doesn't want planes in Canada that would compete against Canada's  homebuilt bush planes.  The floats and attachment hardware all appear to be brand new as they are all pristine.  The floats are made out of  fiberglass and much cost a pretty penny.  There are no water rudders on the floats so that may be an item yet to be installed or i don't know how they would steer it.  What a huge beast this plane is!

Update:  I found out the floats were custom designed by the owner with plans to market them.  They have installed inside the floats a water jet system for steering.

August 13 2021 Flight to Camrose AB

 Aug 13 2021 Trip to Camrose AB 110 nm each way.  I put out a email to see if anyone wanted to meet in Camrose for a bag lunch.  We had seven friends attend and 6 aircraft.  We all had a good discussion on  what folks were doing and where they had been flying.  Not much flying had been going on over the past 2 months as we had severe smoke in Alberta.  Smoke was  so thick at times from the BC wildfires that visibility would be down to 2 miles and occasionally 3/4 mile.

August 9 2021 Flight to Three Hills AB

 Aug 9/21. Trip to Three Hills AB only 65 miles each way.  I made a flight to see my friend Dennis who has a flying RV8 that he built.  I had a great visit and lunch in  his hangar and he showed me his homebuilt Cubby aircraft under construction.  It is in bare metal frame fuselage stage and the wood rib wings are built and hanging on the hangar walls.  Sorry no pictures.

Portable ADSB Receiver in the Q2 ****Now removed, I have a new ADSB In and OUT installed

 February 6 2021

I received a portable ADSB receiver for Christmas, now it is time to install into the Q2.  This is a portable unit (Stratux) from "Sky Dog Electronics" "and came with a battery pack and external GPS puck.  You can buy the unit as a kit or as a completed ready to uses unit.  The unit works as a receiver only and I do not have a ADSB out unit in my airplane.  In Canada however this is all a moot point since ADSB is not in wide use here.  There are no ground stations in Canada broadcasting weather, Notams or Radar.  So what is it good for?   For giving the pilot a better view of the airplanes that are flying in the airspace you are flying in.  A note of caution here though is that it will NOT show airplanes that are transmitting a 1200 transponder code, those you will still have to be on the look out for.  Going into the USA though you will receive more traffic and get weather.  I am  using the "Stratux" and picking up it's WiFi signal on my Samsung S2 Tablet and all is working very well.  After doing some testing I found that it will show all traffic that has ADSB out as well as any airplane that is transmitting with a Mode S transponder.  This covers quite a few that would be in my airspace.  I did some testing at home and found that there were many aircraft that I could not find with my eyes only.  I live 5 miles from and active airport with lots of small aircraft traffic and training going on.  It was quite a surprise  how many I could not find easily.  Traffic can be filtered so  you only see traffic within say 2000 feet altitude and it will give you color coded examples if they get to close.  So this is a inexpensive traffic observation tool you can add easily.  Should you be a frequent US flyer you can add a ADSB Out unit when needed.

Installation in my plane.  Although I received a battery pack I wanted to install onto the airplane electrical system so it would always be on when aircraft power was running and off otherwise.  Wiring was easy and power via a switched 12 volt cigar lighter plug in the aft of the plane.  Easy also because it can see through fiberglass and can be placed anywhere convenient.  The only problem I ran into was finding a USB power plug to go into the cigar lighter which would not make noise on the radio.  Some trial and error tests with various units finally worked out.

Winter job, Re-Surfacing Upgrades

 January 2021

Down time in the winter.  Weather has been dismal and a lot of snow is on the ground and the local taxiways.  Time to do a few upgrades on the Q2.  I have never finished the fiberglass support structure for the canopy, it has been left as bare fiberglass since building it.  Now it is time to sand fill and paint the canopy frame as well as four locations on the fuselage that have shallow blisters that show in the sunlight.  The canopy was sanded and then filled with micro and then finish fill three times with NAPA two part auto body putty.  These same materials were used on the fuselage blister locations after they were cut out and sanded.  I found under the fiberglass blister the foam was not attached to the fiberglass and was the reason for the blister.  I cleaned the area to good foam then layered in a couple of layers of micro/epoxy to fill most of the space leaving room for new cloth.  Glassed over, sanded and then applied a few skim coats of body putty for finishing then spray can primer/filler.

After the micro then body putty filling was smooth I rolled on "Featherfill" prmer/filler.  I used a 3 inch wide foam roller and it turned out very good.

The finish color on primer/filler is never consistent but I don't mind as this is and ongoing fill and finish project on the surface of the Q2.

Aft side of the canopy bulkhead was also roller'd with primer filler onto the bare fiberglass so that when opened it looked like the exterior.

Alberta Winter is here

 Yes bummer bummer we have lost site of summer.  Cold and snow is here so time to  work on plane #2 and to make bread during our Covid Lock down.

Annual Inspection and Prop Balance completed

 I completed the annual inspection on my Q2.  The oil and filter have been changed and all items on the annual checklist completed.  I also spent time to do the prop balance again since it had been a couple of years since the last on I completed.  The Prop balancer is a Dyna Vibe unit and it works very well.  Multiple test runs were completed and my results were the same as a couple years earlier.  Results were .02 which is an excellent result and no correction weights were required.

Bag Lunch & Homebuilt Aircraft Viewing

 August 14 2020  We were off in the morning to meet up with a few flyers in Medicine Hat Alberta.  I had a errand to deliver something to my wife's brother there and thought we could make it another bag lunch flyin affair.  I made contact with a flyer who lives there and he agreed, he and another homebuilt aircraft owner would show us their airplanes and hangars.  Melvin Reister  has a RV7 and a Glasair and  Allen Rose has a RV7.  These two fellows were amazing to talk with and hear all about their amateur built aircraft.  The details of importing from the USA and having them signed off for Canada was very interesting and quite a simple and inexpensive process.  We had three planes from Springbank head out at various departures to meet in Medicine Hat at around 1130.  Weather was totally clear and temperature was forecast to be about 24c.  Winds were forecast to be light but that was not what we received.  The NW wind came up in the morning and was about 15-20 knots which gave us a nice push on the way SE but was slower on the homeward heading. Brian in his Cardinal, Ralph in his RV7 and myself.  Mel and Allen were kind enough to also offer us the very nice COPA flight club house to eat our lunches and talk aviation.  Here is a peek.

Another Bag Lunch Flight (Rocky Mountain House AB)

 August 4 2020  I emailed out a new invite to local flyers to go to Rocky Mountain House Alberta for another bag lunch gathering.  From Springbank airport it would be a 45 minute flight for me and it sounded like there might be a couple of others joining me.  The view from the plane as I headed NW was of colorful farm fields  in shades of green to the pleasing bright yellow of canola fields scattered across the horizon.  Nearing Rocky Mountain House the farm fields reduced in numbers to more forested lands along the foothills.  We had seven airplanes and nine people attending.  The airport has a very nice terminal building and we met the nicest people while there.  Some were aerobatic pilots, fuel service personnel, airport management and locals.  We have been invited back for two events, a BBQ lunch and a Aerobatic competition later this summer.  A special treat for me was to meet one of my flight instructors who I had not seen in 30 years and now fly's professionally and fly's aerobatics.  It was a wonderful day with fantastic people.  Thanks to all who attended and to those we were lucky enough to meet.

Flight Test 2 of Passenger Carrying Capacity

 July 27 2020  Once again I wanted to do another test to see what I was comfortable carrying for weight in my Quickie Q2 with the Revmaster 65 HP engine.  My airport elevation is just under 4000 ft. at 3965 ft. and as a result I have been reluctant to carry a passenger in my aircraft from this airport elevation.  Note that in a previous post I did a short weight carrying test with 70 pounds of sand in the passenger seat and as a result was not happy with the climb out performance.  Once again I will mention that I purchased this plane from a sea level airport and we flew with two people on board with no problem.

On this day I flew a loop trip for 2.5 hours north from Springbank Airport to Glenifer Lake, Sylvan Lake, Gull Lake and finally Pigeon Lake.  Some segments were along the beaches and finally at Pigeon lake I did numerous circles over a location where I have friends with a lake shore house.

Temperature was 22 degrees C on my departure and the airport Density Altitude was 6000 ft.  My aircraft empty weight is 626 pounds and my gross weight on this morning takeoff was 921 lbs.  Just as in my previous test completed for this purpose my climb out was very shallow and slow to gain altitude.  My header tank has a volume of exactly 7 gallons, which I measured.  Therefore if I carry only the  7 gallons in the header tank plus my 165 pounds and 10 pounds of misc. gear, my max passenger weight would be 157 pounds based upon the 1000 pound max gross weight.

Present airport elevation CYBW is: 3965 ft.
Empty weight of aircraft:              626 lbs.
Pilot weight:                                  165 lbs.
Misc. gear wt.                                  10 lbs
Fuel weight carried:                         120 lbs (this is full header tank and 13 gallons in main)
Outside air temperature: 22 degrees C
Total weight:                                    921 lbs.

So I am flying my test flights on a warm day of 22 degrees C and at a weight of about 79 pounds under the gross wt. of 1000 lb.  Obviously I will not be carrying a passenger in my Q2 from my elevation airport of 4000 ft. in the summer.  Now on a cold day I may be able to carry that 157 pound passenger but I doubt that I will ever try it.  I have a friend with the same plane and same engine at a airport elevation of 2650 ft and he does carry a passenger so you can see that the elevation plus the temperature can make a very big difference to the performance of this marginally powered aircraft.

A note worth mentioning here is that when I bought my plane it came with a registered max gross weight capacity of 1100 lbs.  Now the regular Quickie Q2 as per the plans has a all up max gross weight capacity of 1000 lbs.  The owner however can do a weight/climb test and have his aircraft licensed for a new higher max weight and that must be what the previous owner did when at sea level.

Final note:  If used as a single seat aircraft at my airport elevation this is one sweet ride.  Performance speed, climb rate and handling are just superb.  As a cross country aircraft it is fantastic for covering distance with great visibility and comfort.  Airspeed is 130-140 mph in cruise at 3.5 gallons per hour.  For my airport at 4000 ft elevation to have a density altitude of the same value the temperature needs to be 7 degrees C outside.