Memory Lane: 15HP Weight-Shift Quicksilver - 1980's style! (+ Video)
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 10:31PM 
Me in 1982 and the weight-shift Quicksilver ultralight that was fun, fun, fun to fly!
The 80's were a really good decade for me and flying. I was just 19 when 1980 came along, and I had been having fun in the 90 hp Clipped Wing Cub we had. Then the Cub was traded for the homebuilt Breezy that we picked up in Tennessee and brought back to Indiana in November of 81. (it's the Breezy I flew to OSH in 82, the rather adventurous subject of podcast #4)
1981 and 82 also gave me the high smiles-per-gallon opportunity to fly several different ultralights on a regular basis... and the weight-shift Eipper Quicksilver powered by a little single cylinder 15 hp Yamaha go-kart engine was my fave by far. It was underpowered, slow, and didn't give you much of a feeling of being in control in winds over 12 mph, but when the winds were light to calm, it was the most awesome way to fly! Stall speed in my skinny days was about 18 mph and you could slow cruise around the neighborhood at 22 mph and just enjoy the ride. That's me at age 21 in the pic above with the red Dee Cee painter's pants and 1979 Oshkosh t-shirt. I'm hardcore all the way : )
The weight-shift aspect of the Quicksilver was one of the things I liked best about it. Most people know about the later Quicksilver MX models that had either rudder and elevator control with a fixed pilot's seat, or the added 3-axis benefit of spoilers or ailerons, but the weight-shift versions are where it all began. And these weight-shift ultralights did have a rudder that was connected to the harness you sat in. That way, when you moved left and right, you had both your weight and the rudder working to make the turns. I think it worked really well overall.
There's no doubt the weight-shift wasn't for everyone... in fact, 'real airplane' pilots seemed to have the most difficulty with the process. Some of it came from the fact that this was just really different than anything they had been used to. But the other factor that was pretty unusual was that, technically, you pushed forward on the downtubes to go up, and you pulled back on them to go down. This was because you were using the downtubes to move your body fore and aft, and it just happened that the direction you moved the downtube in relation to your body was opposite of how we move a stick in a traditional 3-axis airplane. In actual practice tho, I found it was more of an issue to talk about than one that really created any real problem. All you had to do was think about where you wanted your body to be - move forward to go down and back to go up... keep your mind off what your arms are doing. I think it worked great, and this was some of the best flying I've ever had the chance to do!
The two videos below aren't of me but they give you a good idea of what it was like to fly these little weight-shift ultralights. The first one shows the 15 hp engine (single cylinder mounted above the wing), and the second is probably a 30 hp 2-cylinder Cuyuna, and it's mounted below the wing. Maybe some day I'll find an old Quicksilver that needs some love and rebuild me an antique ultralight!
The mid and late 80's also gave me the chance to build up a couple hundred hours flying skydivers in a beautiful 1957 Cessna 182... to get some time in a Polish Wilga (that I flew to OSH in 88)... and I also completed a restoration of a Citabria and got to play with that for a while. Yep, the 80's were really good to me : )
Reader Comments (3)
Skydiving in the mid and late 80's? How about now?
Hey! Thanks for sharing your video. I've trained some on a two-seat Quicksilver, and had a great time. Eager to learn more!
I just bought an old weight shift Quick (older than the one you have pictured) for a project. Stored inside since 1981, and almost ready to fly!