Finally getting smart and doing this before the snow falls

akflyr182b wrote:


Finally getting smart and doing this before the snow falls

Nice! Did you get rid of the 182?

I keep thinking I should try that with my backhoe. Just need a calm day

GREAT pics. Do you do wheel bearings, balance tires, change tires, and do retractable gear checks too?

No still have the 182. Can't get rid of the flying pickup truck

The 182 is next

Who makes the skis for the 182?

Tom

Nice pictures. Can't wait for enough snow to put the 180 skis on.

Crane/plane porn at it's best

Tom wrote:Who makes the skis for the 182?

Tom

Look like Schneiders.

MTV

Now, I don't go around trying to dig holes in the ground with my crane trucks, so don't you be trying to lift an airplane with your backhoe!





In all seriousness, what kind of backhoe are we talking about here? Does it have holding valves? Some do, and are rated for lifting.

I've ran into guys who want to use a backhoe (for general lifting,not airplanes) instead of hiring me and my 30 ton National, sometimes it works, usually they run out of reach pretty quick, before going over capacity anyway. I don't blame them at all, I'd do the same, but except for one builder who made a jib (in effect) for his hoe and has been pretty successful in setting trusses with it, using a hoe for lifting serves to point out how useful a crane really is!

That being said, seems like rigging one to lift a plane would be pretty easy, a tight one without any leaks anyway. When I had my folding wing S-7, my first S-7, I used my then 17 ton boom truck and it's wireless remote control to assist me in the annual wing fold before putting it away for the winter, back before I got skis. Nowadays, I use a engine hoist through the cockpit doors to lift one side up, using the main gear cluster as a pick point, it works but doesn't make for a cool crane/plane porn picture.

I'll try to be minimal and get back to ski flying, but hoisting your airplane safely is important. If you can shut your machine off, push the lever to lower the boom, and it moves, don't use it for anything except digging. It has no holding valves. You're relying on the main valve and all the hoses in between it and the cylinder to hold the load.

If the machine has a placard at the operator's station that specifies lifting capacities, work within them and you're probably safe.

There are machines out there that have pilot operated controls. That is, they have a hydraulic control over the main valves which are remotely mounted. These may act like they have holding valves, although they may or may not. If you're not sure, don't do it.

I plan to switch back to wheels in a couple weeks. Always a day I enjoy. When I can combine trucks AND airplane's, I'm a happy guy!

Seems whenever I'm on wheels, I can hardly wait to get my floats on. As soon as I'm on floats, I can hardly wait to get my wheels on. I must have chosen the right airplane for me!

Pinecone wrote:Now, I don't go around trying to dig holes in the ground with my crane trucks, so don't you be trying to lift an airplane with your backhoe!





In all seriousness, what kind of backhoe are we talking about here? Does it have holding valves? Some do, and are rated for lifting.

I don't see any spreader bars between the lifting eyes in that photo. Maybe they are there and I just can't see them, but if not, that is VERY hazardous to the structures. You've got a lot of reach on your cables, but still......

SOP for lifting planes is to build a spreader bar from steel rectangular tubing, with two eyes separated by enough to mate up to the lifting eyes on the plane. One for the front eyes, one for the back eyes. Each of those spreaders in turn has a pair of eyes on top to connect to the crane/winch, etc.

The spreader bars protect against any inward forces on the lifting eyes, and thus protect your top deck.

I watched three guys once lifting a Cub....commercial fishermen. They had a similar setup to yours, and no spreader bar. They were going to lift the Cub out of the water, and put it on the aft deck of their boat. I told them they needed a spreader bar, but they blew it off. When they lifted the Cub, the top deck folded and suddenly that Cub had a LOT more dihedral than Piper originally envisioned.

I've seen the same thing happen with a Cessna 185 in a maintenance facility. Damage is more likely if your cables are short, but even with long cables you apply some force to the top deck that weren't envisioned by the aircraft designer.

MTV

mtv wrote:

Tom wrote:Who makes the skis for the 182?

Tom

Look like Schneiders.

MTV

The only STC I could find in the FAA database for for Wipaires. Looking at Airglas, Trickair, AeroSki, etc...no 182 listed for any of those. Were the Schneiders mounted on trikes by field approval?

These were done by field approval. A compromise but it lets me use the airplane year round. I land on a groomed strip so the skis work for me. But if I am going out to play in the snow I will take the Maule.

I love those CAP 3000 floats! Had em on a 185 i had 20 years ago.

Kurt

Good points MTV, and I run across just that issue all the time. I often get longer rigging out just to reduce the compression loads on whatever it is I'm lifting. I also carry 3 different spreader bars, but often the choice is made to just use longer rigging, it's quicker and that saves my customer money. There is a way (and I should know it....) to calculate the compression loads when picking X amount of weight at different rigging angles. Point being, though using a spreader bar with vertical rigging is always the best, long enough rigging can ease that angle enough to reduce the comp loads to a point where it's "close enough." That's what I see in that pic of the bird being picked without a spreader, a nice shallow angle, (steep?) and I'd assume way below the stress point that the plane can handle with the usual flight loads. Nonetheless, your point is valid.

Back to crane/plane, and what the hell, e bike porn: here's a 100' by 100' red iron hanger just erected in Blackfoot that I did the initial crane work on. I was coming back from an out of town job that apparently also involved mountain biking, I overnighted the crane, hangared it, as I had a another job in the area the next day, and it saved me 40 miles of shuttling, at 5 MPG. That's a 1500 watt, 2 horsepower, 9 speed fat bike, with a 17 AH 52 volt Panasonic battery. It's pretty much the Back Country Cub with all the mods of e bikes


Since this picture was taken, I added the airplane cartoon in the crane cab rear window, so between the cartoon, the fat bike, if I'm carrying it, and the crane itself, I keep the traffic behind me amused.

Let it snow

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Good point mtv. With the 20' slings I estimate a 45 lb. side load on the shoulder bolts. I wouldn't use anything shorter.