more Quark's progress

[mkoxxy]

My take-off weight is certainly lower than yours, Kess. But in case the Fed
sees this, let's just say I have to work real hard at staying within
Ultralight limits, even if I count the battery as fuel. With the big wing
(and less than 170 lb of pilot), my wingloading is a fraction of that of a
Cub, for example.

But there are advantages. The plane virtually leaps off the runway in less
than 200 ft and climbs at what seems straight up. And dropping from 4 ft
onto the runway does not seem to hurt it, due to the low mass. The
fiberglass gear legs and low tire inflation are doing their trick.

Yesterday after work, the air was smooth and not too hot, and the flight
was a lot more enjoyable. I actually got to do some steep turns and
hands-off flying, and exploring the anti-servo trim range. Still getting
used to the high-wing pusher behavior, like pitch up when reducing power.
But my landings are definitely getting better.

The battery was fully charged and the circuit disconnected when I got to
the airport - the 12-hour timer works as intended.

It will take some time to really explore the parameters like voltage,
current, temperatures, since my flights are so short for now, and I have to
watch out for traffic and work the radio. I do have a data logger (GRT
EFIS), and plan on uploading the data to my PC via the USB stick. First
order of business, though, is to find out exactly how much flying I can get
out of a charge - for now, I try to be back on the ground with 20% charge
left.

[rahulchoudhary73]

Martin,

sure ya dint mean "squirrelly" in a precession precision sense? like moving the nose up or down makes some LSAs yaw somewhat

this EAA webinar is next month, so will be grateful if the pilots heer could shed some light on this topic

TIA,
rc

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/regist ... lash=false

[mkoxxy]

After Mark test-flew the Quark in late August, I flew for 10 hours and made
30 landings last September and November. The Quark's fuselage is now back
in my shop, and the wing is stored in a hangar.

I racked up a list of 25 items to improve, like moving the static ports,
relocating the magnetometer, replacing the gooseneck mic with a headset
(but keeping the ceiling speaker), enlarging the antenna ground plane, and
fixing a crack in the fiberglass where it wraps around the boom.

A lot of the improvements were on the panel. I had hoped to display the
controller data (% charge remaining, various temperatures, via Bluetooth)
in a window on the Samsung tablet in the center of the panel, but could not
get that to work. Instead, I bought a used iPad 4 and mounted it on the
panel, complete with a charging cable. The larger tablet displays Avare's
moving sectional, plus airport data should I need them. I also installed
switches for the strobes, EFIS and USB power, plus one to shut off the
ceiling speaker. I had not expected needing to keep the 12V bus running
while charging - the switches now let me shut down the other equipment.

Richard Steeves is flying his eGull (24' wing, building a 28') with the
11+kWh, 170 lb battery. I now wished I had gone for the larger battery -
the two small ones I have provide 5kWh, which is barely enough for 3 or 4
take-offs and maybe 15 minutes of straight-and-level flying. Enough to get
my flying fix, but kind of tough to collect data or work off a test flight
plan. I'll probably make it through 2016 this way, but then I will consider
upgrading my battery, hoping that Zero Motorcycles has taken advantage of
battery technology improvements by then.