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Stranded in south of France - urgently looking for aircraft mechanic for replacing a tire in PA46

In case u are still stranded I sent you a PM for a potentially useful contact

Last Edited by Antonio at 07 Aug 07:26
Antonio
LESB, Spain

Thank you Antonio!

EPMO, Poland

I hope you get the help you need. I was stranded on a frozen lake ones with a flat tire, not a good feeling, but it was luckily resolved quickly.

I think this is an indication of the state of GA in Europe. What is needed is a crew of three:

  1. One pilot
  2. One navigator to steer clear of airspace busts
  3. One engineer/mechanic to repair the aircraft and keep it in OK shape

šŸ˜

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

The main problem in this case could be that everyone is on holiday at this time of year. Getting anything done is difficult.

France

I think, gallois is correct. It seems that the main problem is lack of staff because they are all on holiday.

EPMO, Poland

Iā€™m travelling (by car ;( ) these days but if needed we can organise a ā€œrescueā€ mission from Toulouse/Muret (LFBR); Iā€™ve a Part66/Pilot friend who could probably fly over with jacks and tires.

I can sympathize with the OP. I popped a tire years ago on a 58P, my first time landing it in Denham and the PNF hit the brakes. We had a big struggle to fix that tire in London where you would imagine it would have been easy to get assistance. I got the tire and tube overnight from Watts Aviation, but we had to go at it with a car trolley jack and hand tools from a local autofactors.

Jacking an aeroplane, you either have the exact make and model jack that will do it cleanlyā€¦ or you have extension poles and timber blocks and it becomes a real battle of wits. I bought a Bogert jack pad adapter for the 206 which allows you to use a trolley jack safely as opposed to the MM method. A jack without the aircraft-specific jack pad can be risky business.

Buying, Selling, Flying
EISG, Ireland

Remember also that once on jack(s), the slightest wind can blow it off, and the jack is likely to go through the wing and possibly the fuel tank. Itā€™s been doneā€¦ That is the main reason one absolutely needs a hangar for the Annual, which is a huge ā€œpolitical factorā€ in GAā€¦ much discussed previously.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Some PA46 owners carry this: https://bogertaviation.com/collections/aircraft-jacks/products/tribal-jack
Which apparently can not only be used to change a tire but also to overfill the tanks

Peter wrote:

That is the main reason one absolutely needs a hangar for the Annual

It depends on the plane. Iā€™ve had to ā€œslum itā€ doing this stuff outdoors (changing tyres/repacking bearings etc), with the proper jacks on the in-built jacking points of our plane, itā€™d take a hurricane to blow it off the jacks.

Andreas IOM
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