Any owner of a retractable gear plane needs to check the gear on every annual.
And then a tail weight comes into place. I used to borrow a concrete one from a friend but he had to move his plane to the other end of the airfield. It’s ~150 kg so not the easiest thing to move.
So now I need one myself. What do you use? I was thinking about a 150l water tank. Being a bit more flexible during the other 364 days when it’s in a corner of the hangar. Any good idea welcome.
Since I have a long-term hangar arrangement I use one of these on the concrete floor
together with a couple of aluminum pieces of these hinged in the middle and tied on one end to the tail tie down ring and to the floor on the other end
I jack-up until the two aluminum bars stretch then lock the hinge in place and continue jacking to height
MIne is 12 mm diam, THis is good for 250kg on concrete, I only need like 100kg, your need may vary.
I believe you have a PA24?
For my PA30 I used 1/3 of a steel drum, mounted onto a wooden sheet with wheels attached then filled with concrete. No idea what the weight was but good enough for the twin.
Unfortunately I don’t have any photos.
Any owner of a retractable gear plane needs to check the gear on every annual.
There ought to be 3 jacking points; no tail weight needed.
Seems there is a lot of greed and envy in UK companies about anybody doing his services on own aircraft – despite no chance to do your aircraft in reasonable time in said company for lack of staff. Here companies don´t care for that kind of jobs, have not got the time for another customer. But yes, that whining will be on this forum for some time to come
Sorry Vic; that’s BS to say it is just UK, but wrong thread and off topic and I am too tired to argue it, tired of rising European nationalism, especially in the wrong thread.
@vic no a Comanche doesn’t have a third jacking point in front. According to maintenance manual you bind 150kg to the tail and jack it up on the wing points. I would prefer a third jacking point in front but it’s not available.
Can’t comment on the rest because my plane’s based in Germany and I don’t understand the reasoning with regards to the U.K.
I didn’t know that, but the way I have seen tails secured (it is commonly done for other reasons e.g. engine removed and then the tail has to be propped up) was using a wooden crate with bricks in it, and a rod going up to the plane.
You can remove the bricks to make it moveable.
