New Stuff November 28,2000

 

I promised some new stuff for the Quick guys. Perhaps others may like to see some variations on a solid, old plane from the early eighties.

I have been working on a prototype for several years with a break of several years lately, that is a much lower version of the old single place Quicksilver. The theory was that after moving the engine back to the rear of the root tube, removing all the belt drive in the process, that there was no reason to maintain the tall frame.
The pilot was no longer bound by the clearance to the engine, just the fuel tank.

Another consideration has been a minor problem but often degrades a plane considerably, and that is the spreading of the tri-bar crosstube during abuse or crashes.

If the lower bar has widened, the attach points for the wires are also wider, and make for loose wires or an extremely messed up plane if the kingpost is screwed up to possibly tighten the wires.

Since the overall geometry of the plane is established by the wires entirely, the tri-bar crosstube may be instrumental in messing up the whole works.

To this end, I have also taken the belly out of the tri-bar crosstube, the cross piece being a straight tube rather than the double bent tube that is stock.

Some pictures follow
 

This is a sample of the type trim I sew into the tails.



This shows the new style bellcrank pushrod I use rather than the cables that are stock Quicksilver. The cables due to the geometry of the center bellcrank, tighten as the ailerons are operated either side of center.

The pushrod works very smoothly with no binding at all. I have used this setup on the last five or six planes and installed it on several customer planes too.

Before we get into the shorty trike, one more custom item, a steerable nose wheel setup where the pushrods do not cross, and the steering equal both sides. It also turns a lot further than the stock designed unit.

A nice side view of the shorty trike follows, with several other shots showing the overall height.

 

This trike has the new style engine mount too using a 447 and a B box, 66 inch Tennessee prop.

 

Comments and or questions, email andy@trikite.com or tom@trikite.com