Test Flying a Quicksilver MX-1 for the first time. An in depth review.
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- Опубліковано 19 чер 2024
- Quicksilver’s MX added more conventional controls although rudder pedals moved spoilers, seen in shadow on the wings.
Quicksilver MX is a high-wing, tricycle-gear, two-axis control aircraft in a pusher configuration. It was the first ultralight to be mass-marketed and mass-produced.
As a bolt-together assembly kit, Quicksilver required no manufacturing of parts by the builder. All fabrication was done at the factory. A kit took between 60 and 80 hours to assemble, using common hand tools, and could be built in as little as a one-car garage. Accomplished builders, often dealers for the brand, could put one together in less than 20 hours.
Quicksilver was the first ultralight kit on the market to come with a very comprehensive assembly manual, with all of the AN bolts and anodized tubing clearly marked and supplied on shrink-wrapped packaging boards. No one had anything like this organization at the time and I’ve never seen such packaging again.
Originally power was supplied by the Cuyuna 430 engine but this powerplant was later updated to the Rotax 377 and then Rotax 447 engine. With 40 horsepower, the very lightweight Quicksilver MX climbed with great vigor although it simply didn’t fly fast no matter how much power you put on it.
The MX model abandoned the weight shift idea - this was too foreign to lots of potential customers. Instead, it used stick-and-rudder two-axis controls, but with a difference. The joystick connected to the elevator and rudder while the rudder pedals were connected to spoilerons on top of the wing.
Admittedly, this still throws pilots who learned in a Cessna 150, but if you ignored what controlled what and simply flew it as you expected, it worked surprising well but with an advantage no 150 driver ever considered: the pilot could deploy both spoilerons at the same time by depressing the rudder pedals. This killed lift on the wings and allowed the aircraft to get into very short runways. Quicksilver’s MX added more conventional controls although rudder pedals moved spoilers, seen in shadow on the wings.
By the time the earliest MX models came out, Quicksilver was a huge force in putting people in the sky. In one year - a reader reminded me it was 1983 - the company sold more aircraft than Cessna, Piper, and Beechcraft combined. That got the attention of plenty of aviators. Average selling price back then, for a ready to fly aircraft: $3,595.00. (Today, that would be $9,667 after adjusting for inflation - still a fantastic bargain, and as you’ll read below, you can still buy one for the original low price.)
Quicksilver MX is a high-wing, tricycle-gear, two-axis control aircraft in a pusher configuration. It was the first ultralight to be mass-marketed and mass-produced. As a bolt-together assembly kit, Quicksilver required no manufacturing of parts by the builder. All fabrication was done at the factory. A kit took between 60 and 80 hours to assemble, using common hand tools, and could be built in as little as a one-car garage. Accomplished builders, often dealers for the brand, could put one together in less than 20 hours.
Originally power was supplied by the Cuyuna 430 engine but this powerplant was later updated to the Rotax 377 and then Rotax 447 engine. With 40 horsepower, the very lightweight Quicksilver MX climbed with great vigor although it simply didn’t fly fast no matter how much power you put on it. The MX model abandoned the weight shift idea - this was too foreign to lots of potential customers. Instead, it used stick-and-rudder two-axis controls, but with a difference. The joystick connected to the elevator and rudder while the rudder pedals were connected to spoilerons on top of the wing. Admittedly, this still throws pilots who learned in a Cessna 150, but if you ignored what controlled what and simply flew it as you expected, it worked surprising well but with an advantage no 150 driver ever considered: the pilot could deploy both spoilerons at the same time by depressing the rudder pedals. This killed lift on the wings and allowed the aircraft to get into very short runways. Despite it’s functionality, some pilots didn’t like the arrangement and the company later adapted conventional ailerons with all the controls hooked up as expected. With Quicksilver MX a market leader in its day, the iconic series of models still leads the world in ultralight aircraft style kits.
Videoman Dave wrote, “The Quicksilver MX is one of the safest, most fun flying ultralight aircraft I have ever flown, and I highly recommend it.” Through his The Ultralight Flyer UA-cam channel, Dave rates the Quicksilver MX an A+ when powered by a Rotax engine, with good, tested fabric, an airworthy propeller and a low time engine.
At the time of production of this video The Ultralight Flyer would estimate the value of a used not-abused Quicksilver MX to be $3,500 to $5,000.
#aircraft #pilot #aviationlovers - Авто та транспорт
Good job flying it as a GA pilot. These give standard GA pilots a challenge as they are fairly different from what you would be familiar with.
Couple tips from an ultralight pilot and sport pilot CFI:
1) Don’t jockey the stick so much. The controls aren’t sensitive so you aren’t actually making any real changes. The plane will move around with the air movements. Smooth movements are all you need.
2) Keep full power in the climb. I could be wrong, but it seemed like you were pulling back on the power early on.
3) In the climb be ready to nose forward instantly if you lose power. Hopefully won’t happen, but practice it anyway.
4) Do a steeper approach on final. The old school ultralight approach with the high drag and low mass requires what may seem like a dive. This keeps your speed up with lower power (maybe idle). You are going so slow that pulling out into the round out is a non-event. Don’t drag it in from a mile out.
Good luck 👍, those old MX models were awesome. So basic, yet so well proven.
Really good pointers here. Thank you!
I got to see my Cherokee sitting near the fuel farm on your taxi out. That’s cool finding another Erie pilot on YT.
Oh man, very cool. Swing by the hangar sometime and say hello.
I’ve flown planes without brakes. Brakes were optional equipment until 1941. If you taxi onto grass you’ll stop fast. Just always be ready to taxi on grass
I should have landed on the grass 🤣
Interesting, Well Done Gentlemen
nice video love your plane hello from Australia
Thanks for watching!
I have over 800 hours in my MX. The numbers you looked up are garbage. Stall 18mph (14 in ground effect) but these vary a bit with fuel and how big your lunch was.. Curse speed 25 to 32mph. max speed ~45, VNE unreachable. Wide CG range but flies best in balance.
Keep the spoilers, they are nice for hands off flying and can be used with rudder failure can even over power a jammed rudder full left or right. With both spoilers up you can approach at 40 degree glide slope for very short landing distance. Spoilers take better part of a second from input to form a stall bubble for control effect.
Takeoff 80 to 100' (200 to 300 from my grass strip at 5050', 500' @DA8000') Landing 50 to 100'.
X winds get interesting. Be ready to land into the wind, Xwind limit 5mph, fly parallel off the side down wind of runway then turn across over the runway and land into the wind in 40 to 50 feet.
The thing you have to get used to is the skid-roll turns from the 2 axis high dihedral design. You MUST trade off heading for roll and it can feel a bit strange for a GA 3 axis pilot.
Ear plugs and good headset required for noise.
Probably the easiest plane to fly, so slow you have time to think about every move.
"Low and slow" Definition: when you have to climb to make it over then next barb wire fence!
Great advice! Will save these tips. Thank you! 🙏
@@SirDrifto Let me add.... like all untralights the MX has no momentum. Very high drag. This can be a HUGE problem for GA pilots.
The biggest GOTCHYA is an engine failure on climb out!!! ALWAYS be ready to shove the stick forward a bunch to maintain airspeed at the sound of a single missed cylinder firing. In addition to the nose up climb you are pulling back on the stick to offset the nose down moment from the above center of drag thrust line of the high mounted engine at full power. This can go from climb speed to a stall in about a second!!! You won't have time to hesitate and think about an engine failure.
Dead stick glide is like a brick. About 30 degrees nose down to maintain airspeed!! But forced landings are no problem with so low a stall speed. I know from experience!!
Awesome. That’s crazy, hah didn't know those are 2 axis, weird!!
Cross winds are strange but besides that it's great!
I DIDN'T DIE Hahahahaha HEY guys what's the cost range?
And there’s really no reason to jerk the controls. You look like your rubbing one out dude. Just be smooth.
I’m a black plane. You’re very hard to see from above. Be careful
35mph of stealth