The Stearns Family Quickie Q200 - A Homebuilt Aircraft Story

The Stearns Family Quickie Q200 - A Homebuilt Aircraft Story Follow along as we juggle our lives with building a Quickie Q200 Homebuilt Aircraft.

01/19/2026

We are still here! Been doing family things and now it was -2 degrees outside this morning so we are waiting for warmer weather to be able to glass. We've had a pretty mild winter but it's so random it's hard to commit to a timeline.....and on call rotations cause time commitment issues too.

I promise we will get going again soon.....we are just doing the right thing since we can't hold 80 degrees in the garage all the time.

12/31/2025

From our hanger to yours....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Finally progress again.Got me a Chinese heater for the garage. With my other heaters we easily obtained close to 80 degr...
12/28/2025

Finally progress again.

Got me a Chinese heater for the garage. With my other heaters we easily obtained close to 80 degrees inside today.

Placed the BID "tape" around the previously floxed on inner aileron mount. Peel ply strips are visible to aid in preparation for the next attachment step.

Will also do the same for the outer mount soon.

12/24/2025

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends. I hope you enjoy time with all of yours.......cherish time with loved ones because those days aren't here forever so hug em while you can!

I hope I get that lottery win I asked for! 😀

12/15/2025

After attaching the aileron mounts the outside temps dropped below safe glassing temps. Couldn't hold garage temps.

So we're pausing for a little bit. Suppose to be warming up this week which should allow some glassing on those mounts.

Besides that we will be a little limited. Probably do some ice fishing with my son and Christmas with family.

Will have some updated pics again soon but just wanted a quick post to you all about what's up.

Finally floxed the aileron mounts to the ends of the slot core and the wing trailing edge. After it cures we will sand e...
12/09/2025

Finally floxed the aileron mounts to the ends of the slot core and the wing trailing edge.

After it cures we will sand everything again and then layup BID tapes around the inner mount to securely attach it to the wing. The outer mount gets sandwiched between it's current area and soon the wing trailing edge that will lock it into place. It will then get a glass layup locking it to the wing trailing edge, slot core, and wing so these mounts become one with the whole structure.

Just making sure nothing can move or shift for the next 12 hours.......and won't touch it for 24 hours.

Okay I promise I'm done messing with these aileron mounts.....I'd been thinking about this for a while now and after a d...
12/02/2025

Okay I promise I'm done messing with these aileron mounts.....

I'd been thinking about this for a while now and after a dream the other night I decided to make the change. Instead of using the original plans called for plywood outer aileron mount I've decided to use phenolic instead. I should have just done it that way when I first thought about it. I had plenty of phenolic sheet left (I ordered some when I thought we were going to have to make all the mounts needed, prior to Bruce finding them and shipping them to us after we did our inventory after picking the kit up) so it's not like it was going to cost me more.......I simply was just thinking I had a cut plywood piece per the plans that was ok and had been used by others......but the idea of using better material won over. Better strength. Better resistance to moisture. Better resistance to foreign things. Probably safer.

So it's been done now.

I promise we'll be floxing them in soon now. 😀

Side note: I weighed the original plywood assembly which was the mount, nuts, washers, and stud and it weighed 1.7 oz.

The phenolic assembly came in at 2.3 oz.

So the phenolic assembly weighs .6 oz more and with doing the same on the other mount we will have a part increase of 1.2 oz.

I think this negligible increase is worth the knowing that this mount is better.

Last fit adjustments. Inner and outer mounts sanded as required and final shaping done. They are prepped to be floxed i...
11/30/2025

Last fit adjustments. Inner and outer mounts sanded as required and final shaping done. They are prepped to be floxed into place, but the temperature has plummeted outside and it's not feasible to try and keep the garage 80 degrees to do this step.

Going to do some other steps and see what the weather does in the coming days. We knew this day was coming.......old man winter arrived.

Peel ply pulled this morning from slot core.Sanded and blended surface and edges.Fit aileron back into place and fine sa...
11/29/2025

Peel ply pulled this morning from slot core.

Sanded and blended surface and edges.

Fit aileron back into place and fine sanded the mount area at ends of slot core for proper fitment. Needed to adjust shape of outer aileron mount to match airfoil slope better.

Will need to sand and round mount pieces next......and then they will be floxed to the slot core/wing shear web.

Progress!

Second side of slot core glassed to bottom of wing. Will trim in about 8 hours.....also, first snow of the year so the h...
11/28/2025

Second side of slot core glassed to bottom of wing. Will trim in about 8 hours.....also, first snow of the year so the heaters are on high today.

8.5 hours later trim was done. Pics added.

11/27/2025

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all are able to enjoy the day, family, and friends

Wing flipped and cutting the other slot core ear off and beginning to sand/shape.
11/23/2025

Wing flipped and cutting the other slot core ear off and beginning to sand/shape.

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Ewing, NE

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