mjfrederick

Well, most people who know me know that my Genesis did a triple lindy into the woods the other day. It was a total loss (the crankcase on my 140-DZ was broken in half). Thanks to a most generous offer from Bryan Hebert, I should be able to get back into the swing of things by mid season. He has kindly given me his Quest to repair and use. As you can see from the pictures, there's plenty of work to be done on the front (thanks to throwing half the prop), but hopefully I am up to the task. I also have to replace the floor above the pipe tunnel and the landing gear plate, which you can see I have already removed. Just wanted a place to document this. Hopefully my repairs will do Bryan's original work justice! Oh, and before I get comments, no that's not anhedral in the wings, there's no wing tube in there!

mjfrederick

Finally back from my 2-week vacation in Italy, and I was able to put in some work on the nose last night. I hope to have most of the major work done this weekend.

mjfrederick

Got a lot of work done this weekend. Most of the shaping is done on the nose, installed the new floor in the pipe tunnel, repaired the firewall and replaced 2 stripped blind nuts for the engine mount, installed the gear mount box, and installed all the mounting points for the belly pan, and mounted the landing gear.

mjfrederick

After looking at the pics, we realized that the ply ring on the nose was way off on the angle, so I got an engine temporarily mounted and re-worked the nose.

MHester

My Feedback: (1)

looking good so far matt! That Quest is an awesome plane, one of Bryan's favorites (mine too!)

Looks like you have a good handle on it, have fun!

-Mike

flyncajun

Looking good Matt!!
your making me proud ,,,heck! I might ask for it back <G>
Bryan

mjfrederick

Thanks Mike and Bryan... The encouragement keeps me motivated. I just wish I could have it flying for this weekend [&o]. Oh well... At least I'll have an engine for it after this weekend!

Jetpilot12

My Feedback: (19)

My Shinden is set up for Intermediate, if you would
like to fly it ?

Jon

mjfrederick

I appreciate the offer, but I haven't flown since the Genesis went in... I wouldn't feel comfortable. I'll just sit this one out. Besides, I kinda like judging.

Jetpilot12

My Feedback: (19)

You and I can tell them how to fly[X(]

4u2nv-RCU

My Feedback: (28)

Good to see you this weekend at Crowley. It was a lot of fun. The plane looks great. Seems you've got a hndle on those repairs and that you will soon have a fine ride again!!!

mjfrederick

A little more work done... Will be glassing soon... hopefully. She's really coming together nicely in my opinion. By the way, anyone know a good source for wheel pants?

Derek.Koopowitz

Looks like you have all the staple foods handy to complete the task!! Coke, beer, bourbon... potato chips.

mjfrederick

That's pretty much what I live on... Ahhhh the single life! Actually I just never clean up, those things could have been sitting there for up to two months. I had to move a huge pile of dirty laundry just to set the plane on the floor!

Derek.Koopowitz

Dang Matt... you need to get out more. Hang out with the Bryan and Brian... I'm sure they can show you how to live. [8D]

mjfrederick

There'll be plenty of time for that once this plane is in the air, until then, alone I sit in my boxers ankle-deep in balsa dust... I don't know if I'm committed, or if I should be.

mjfrederick

Well, almost exactly a year later, and I finally have an update for this thread. After much help from Bryan I can finally say that the Quest is almost ready to fly! Attached are some pictures I took at the field when Bryan brought it back to me after painting. I installed the landing gear, engine, and cut the carbon wing tube at the field so I could take these. Many thanks to Bryan for everything he did for me on this. I can't wait to fly it.

mjfrederick

A couple more pics...

mjfrederick

The Quest flew today... I must say I was very happy with it's performance. Very few trimming issues to deal with, with the main problem being that it seems slightly tail-heavy. That should get ironed-out tomorrow. Will post some more pics later of the final installation of the radio, etc.

grcourtney

My Feedback: (1)

cool. 

mjfrederick

Some photos of the radio and tank installation. Weighed the plane today before flight (without fuel) and came in at 10.55 pounds. Coulda been lighter if I'd payed attention when I was doing the repairs. The more I flew it today the more I liked what I saw. Gotta move the battery to get the balance right and adjust one of the wings because the incidence doesn't match the other one.

Ryan Smith

My Feedback: (25)

Looks awesome Matt!

Ilike the installation pictures, there are some good ideas there that I've never seen before. I always liked the Quest, it was my favorite design of Bryan's.

mjfrederick

Thanks Ryan. My favorite part was figuring out how to mount the tank. Coming up with that "nose ring" style mount was one of those "AHA" moments being talked about in the other thread. It's strong enough that I can pick the airplane up by the fuel tank. When Bryan saw it he told me some of the Japanese guys have been doing something similar for years... if only I had known I wouldn't have spent hours brainstorming on how to mount the front of the tank! If you like the lines of this one, you'll probably like Bryan's Valiant, which has been leaked in another thread. It wasn't supposed to be public yet, but the lines are very similar to the Quest. Hebert's designs work kinda like an old SAT question: the Patriot is to the Shinden as the Quest is to the ______. Valiant is the answer...

LeeHop

mfj - regarding the tank mount, I'm wondering if the design you came up with has allowed for any vibration isolation. Tnx - leehopp

mjfrederick

Not much at the moment. I ran the engine with the canopy off to observe all the installation to make sure it could take the vibration of the 140 DZ, and the fuel was being shaken around quite a bit, but it did not foam. The main reason for that is the tank is sitting on top of the wing tube. I plan to put a small light ply platform on top of the tube sleeve with some foam to help with the vibration insulation. Beyond that any dampening will be done by the fuel tubing wrapped around the neck and the rear mount. In my opinion isolating vibration from the entire fuse via a good mount (like the Hyde mount I used) is more important than worrying about the tank alone. Then again, using some rubber grommets on the holes in the front mount could definitely improve the virbation dampening without increasing weight much.