Quality products for Boardriders since 1969. Shop our latest collections, follow news & videos of our Surf & Snowboard Athletes. Free Helpline - Free Shipping*. Quicksilver is part of leading boating company Brunswick Group. Discover the Quicksilver boats. New Activ Cruiser. Activ 675 Cruiser. Find a dealer Request a. Safety comes as standard with all Quicksilver boats and you will appreciate this as soon as you step aboard. You’ll notice the sense of stability a high freeboard brings and enjoy the ease of movement to the bow that the asymmetric layout allows.
Aviation news outlets and social media are buzzing with the news that is closing its factory. For example, one online news source is calling the event a “dissolution.” This is not incorrect as it comes directly from a document previously issued by Quicksilver’s lawyers (see more below). However, letters from lawyers often portray things in very black and white terms and the situation is somewhat more nuanced than that. For several years, I have known the principals of the company — Will Escutia and Daniel Perez — and spoke with both of them Oct. 20, when the news became public. What follows is directly from the horse’s mouth, as they say.
All photos by James Lawrence In such a fluid situation, the news is more difficult to accurately report because not every decision is made. For example, if the company was bankrupt and going completely out of business (a phrase used by another aviation reporter), the predicament might simply be reported as such. Yet that is not the case, according to Escutia, who is Quicksilver’s president. “We will not manufacture from our California plant,” he started.
“We cannot support the structure of a physical plant in California.” Many businesspeople know that running an enterprise in that state is very complex, with extensive regulation of even the smallest company. California also presents a very challenging employment environment, where an employee can cost much more than the hourly wage or salary they are being paid. Quicksilver is also using manufacturing equipment that is increasingly aged. Those tools are fine for the job and anyone who seen a Quicksilver kit can instantly recognize the quality. However, times have changed and older manufacturing hardware has given way to new methods.
While dealing with higher cost labor, Quicksilver has to maintain factory implements that demand more attention. All this became too much to support by the business available. Sales of aircraft, which had been more robust, became insufficient when volume turned down even a small amount, according to Escutia. The official words blessed from company lawyers are succinct: “The international corporation, Flying Spirit Aircraft, that owns the intellectual property rights, is working through third party suppliers to make it possible for customers to continue receiving support, including technical support, for its SLSA.
“It is contemplated to provide replacement parts through third party companies and, based on demand, these third party companies may elect to supply full kits later on. An auction will be held on Nov. 3, 2015, to talk with interested parties in Temecula, California.” Perez, who functioned as general manager, recently informed dealers and other insiders, “Running a business that includes a strong manufacturing component is complex. Fixed costs are quite high since we have two buildings, personnel to operate equipment, and engineers to solve problems. We have to pay for maintenance, building insurance, utilities and other overhead.” Anyone who has operated any kind of manufacturing plant knows exactly what Perez wrote, although private buyers may not recognize the day-to-day difficulties. “In order to offset these costs, sales of aircraft are needed, in addition to the usual replacement parts, otherwise the stress on the business becomes unbearable,” he continued. “Although we saw an increase in aircraft sales from 2012 to 2014, 2015 has turned out to be a year with lower demand.
Tremendous efforts were placed in order to reduce costs dramatically. However, this has not been enough and therefore a very significant reorganization of the company is underway in order to have a much, much leaner company with much lower fixed costs.” “In 2015, we were operating below break-even, so our debt was increasing,” added Escutia. Instead, he stated, “We plan to follow an outsource model,” which he explained means they are negotiating with third parties, including some longtime Quicksilver outlets, such as Lousiana’s Air-Tech.
Indeed, Air-Tech principal Gene “Bever” Borne has been associated with Quicksilver aircraft decades longer than the current owners. “Liquidation became the way to go, so we can do something else,” he continued. “We will liquidate the inventory and tools to pay off debt, but we will continue to work with third parties.” “First, we want to assure availability of parts and components,” he said. It is presently unknown how the company will handle fully-built aircraft. Quicksilver won FAA acceptance in July 2014 to make a Special LSA version of its Sport 2S. While nearly everyone in aviation knows Van’s Aircraft is perhaps the largest seller of kit aircraft (at more than 20,000 delivered, according to last reports), Quicksilver is the kit giant of aviation. More than 15,000 of its kits have been delivered and nearly every one is flying all over the world.
Van’s is nearing the 10,000 mark of completed aircraft. While those RV models are more complex aircraft, the build effort for which is more significant, the fact remains that Quicksilver is aviation’s success story regarding kits that are owner flown in large numbers.
However the story unfolds in the weeks and months ahead, I expect Quicksilver aircraft models to continue to fly and to be sold. If owners Escutia and Perez are successful in selling the assets in the November auction, Quicksilver manufacturing may go on relatively smoothly. Regardless of the auction outcome, some enterprise or collection of enterprises are certain to continue to make parts and service a fleet of many thousands. This is the result of very little in the way of innovation. Sure the 2SE and the MX103 were great leaps, but at a fairly high cost when compared to their used and owner-built twin brothers. Toyota ran in to a similar issue a few years back.
The stuff they had built was so good and reliable, it never needed to be replaced, so sales of new Toyotas plummeted. The majority of Quicksilvers sold over the last few decades are still flying and reliable low cost aircraft. You can buy a beautifully maintained 2S for less than 15-20K, so why would anyone buy a new one for twice that? Same with the MX103.
Great that they paired it with a Hirth, but they only made one. You can buy a good used MX Sport or Sprint for a song these days, and still get years of safe flying out of it. The cost of the NEW aircraft needs to come way down if they are going to compete with their perfectly viable used counterparts, and frankly if they wanted to really peak interest, they need to come out with something truly new. They’ve been selling the same exact stuff for decades.JMO On a side note, I’ve always been a huge fan of the MX series, but I have to admit, I’ve really been eyeballing the Aerolite 103. Anyone have any real experience with them? They really look like a lawn chair even when compared to an MX, but I have to admit, that is the appeal for some of us no? I had an Aerolite 103.
Nice airplane. Compared with my first ultralight, a Quicksilver MX, I think the MX was better engineered in certain areas, but the Aerolite was very nice. I always loved those heavy duty MX rudder pedals, and when compared to the flimsy Aerolite rudder pedals which had issues with the hinge point on earlier models like mine, I was a little disappointed. I believe the new Aerolites have addressed this issue, but if buying a used one, be aware of this issue. Mark Klotz offers a retrofit kit I believe to fix it. One thing I did not like about the Quicksilver MX was that pillow block bearing in the rear, which failed mid-flight on me in 1993. The Aerolite uses the tried and true gearbox.
stan Frady says. I bought that MX-103 that was featured as a “factory demo” on their web site. It was a train wreck.
Don’t get me wrong, the airframe Hirth F-23 combo is a winner. But the actual airframe was, despite being listed as a factory demo was more like a used plane, I was told it came with the standard 6 month warranty, and they did solve a couple of problems (a fairly chipped propeller and a non functional Halls airspeed indicator were replaced) but there is a slight bend in the front rudder and right aileron that are causing a slight uncommanded right turn. I wrote them last week, no response. I bought in June, so my warranty is still valid, or is it.
But I am learning to work on my own airplane, which I always wanted to do. Never expected to have to do it 1 month after buying, though. I have replaced fuel tubing that was obviously very old, well over a year. I the fuel pump started leaking after 2-3 hours operation, and the recoil starter was all chewed up. I was told the engine had 8 hours on it.
Must have need a hell of an 8 hours. I am flying, but I am limited to about an hour before my arm starts to give out providing constant pressure on the stick. There were many bad omens that I should have heeded on this sale. I thought I was buying from a reputable company. Obviously, they were on their way out during the sale as they were pressuring me about the bank check bring a week late because the loan company which they recommended, screwed up.
(Prosper, what a rip off) I am committed to making this MX-103 (the ONLY one) the airplane it deserves to be. I just hope someone supports the warranty commitment.
Download Quicksilver For Mac
I always hear people say, “Part 103 ultralight aviation is dead.” And I never want to believe it. But when even the largest and most successful Part 103 manufacturer can’t quite make the numbers work, I do have to wonder what kind of future ultralights have. Quicksilver follows CGS Hawk and who-knows-else in closing up shop recently.
It’s hard to even know which Part 103 companies are still in business, because you never hear a peep from any of them. Am I to assume that, aside from Belite and a few trike manufacturers with Part 103 aircraft, there no longer are any companies making true ultralights? I’m especially surprised about Quicksilver, because they put out a lot of PR in the last year and all of it was good. They got SLSA approval for the Sport 2S, they apparently sold 77 aircraft to their Chinese dealer, they just relaunched the MX 103 a few months ago, they had established two other U.S. Locations to manufacture or assemble the SLSA model, they nicely redesigned their website, and they were actively recruiting dealers. Oh, and not even a year ago the company was featured in The Experimenter. None of these things, to me, signaled a company about to go under.
I do hope Quicksilver resumes as a going-concern at some point, in some incarnation. They’re liquidating all inventory and tooling, so I don’t foresee the current management ever manufacturing anything again. And you have to wonder if Air-Tech or any of the other large dealers REALLY want to become manufacturing entities. If Quicksilver Aeronautics LLC couldn’t make it work, that might make other entities uneasy or nervous about trying to follow the same path. As this article mentions, there are a lot of costs involved for a venture like this.
Selling kits and parts is one thingactually making those kits and parts is a whole other ballgame. All of this is too bad. I have been saving money for the Sport 2S LSA, and was going to be in a position to finally pull the trigger in about 18 months. Now though, I’d be uneasy about buying even a used Quicksilver if I don’t know what type of support will (or won’t) be available.
Hopefully someone with deep pockets rushes in to save the day. But given the general decline over the past few years in Part 103 activity, I really am starting to wonder if this news is the beginning of the end for ultralights in America. I sure hope not.
I wouldn’t want to see the party end before I show up! Doug73: Part 103 is definitely not dead, in fact, 2015 is a year of some revival I would say. Yes, some of the older players have fallen away but that’s actually common in most industries. Besides Belite, one you didn’t mention was Aerolight 103 from U-Fly-It.
These folks report sales of about 40 aircraft in 2015 (all fully-built aircraft) and are gearing up to produce 60 in 2016, which is the maximum number their facility can generate. Another is Kolb, which has a newer version of their Firefly. They report good interest as recently as Oshkosh. And Quicksilver may be changing direction to save facility expense, but I don’t expect this popular line to go away.
They are in transition and a new buyer may arise, yes, but their models will not disappear, IMHO. It is true that some Part 103 entries are trikes or powered parachutes, but Part 103 fixed wings are also selling, no wonder at prices below $20,000. Please don’t believe everything you hear about Part 103 being dead. I urge you to follow as I’ve written plenty about Part 103 and I will keep following this sector. Thanks for reading, Dan Johnson. Doug73 says.
Thanks for the response, Dan. Yes, I had forgotten about the Aerolite. From what you say and what I’ve read elsewhere, they are doing well.
As for Kolb, I honestly didn’t even know they were still in business. The “What’s New” tab on their website hasn’t been updated since early 2012, and while there were some murmurs that Kolb would have a new offering at Oshkosh, I haven’t heard a peep from the company. If they have a new product or offering, they must be keeping it a well-guarded secret.
Regardless, I do hope you’re right about Part 103. It’s a marvelous and special part of aviation, and I’d love to see it prosper.