The old knees are not what they used to be and it sometimes is a bit tough to push the 182B up the slight incline and into the hanger. Was thinking of anchoring a small electric winch to the back of the hanger and hook cable to the tail tie down.

Seems to me that the tie down would handle a pretty good static load considering it is designed for the dynamic loads that stiff winds would offer.

Tim

I use to tow 172's in my hanger from those tail rings with a garden tractor.

Buy that 180 and you kow the tail will take it!

The flying club that I'm a member of uses a setup very similar to what you are thinking of for their 172 and Archer. To my knowledge it hasn't caused any problems over the years, but it's not used every time either.

Other than that, I'd tend to agree with you... The loads on the eye caused by a gusty wind and a slack chain should be way worse.

I did this with several 206's, and they have essentially the same structure at the tail tie downs. Works fine, and saves the back.

MTV

I'm on my third plane over 26 years using an electric boat winch. No problems.

Don't let me keep you from spending a lot of money, but you can replace the electric winch with a couple pulleys and a length of rope and do the exact same thing for a whole lot less money.

With a rope and pulley you will also eliminate the risk of over torquing something because a wheel chock is left down or the wing is hanging up on the side of the hanger door or your emergency brake somehow got engaged.

Just a thought. If you're interested I'll send you a simple set up for a 4:1 mechanical advantage that won't set you back $50 and will last forever.

Hammer wrote:Don't let me keep you from spending a lot of money, but you can replace the electric winch with a couple pulleys and a length of rope and do the exact same thing for a whole lot less money.

With a rope and pulley you will also eliminate the risk of over torquing something because a wheel chock is left down or the wing is hanging up on the side of the hanger door or your emergency brake somehow got engaged.

Just a thought. If you're interested I'll send you a simple set up for a 4:1 mechanical advantage that won't set you back $50 and will last forever.

D'oh! I should have thought of that after tweaking my back last season trying to push my 150 into the hanger when the grass was wet and the ground soft.

Once again, BCP.org shows it's worth every penny of it's membership fee, heck, double the membership fee!

Craig

Here are a couple pulley-rig examples:

GroundLooper wrote:Once again, BCP.org shows it's worth every penny of it's membership fee, heck, double the membership fee!

Monthly invoices are in the mail.

I've seen some block-and-tackle set-ups on sale before pretty cheap-- usually something pretty light-duty intended for hanging up a buck in the meat tree. Oughta work OK for pulling an airplane into the hangar, unless it's a Twin Beech or something like that.

I wouldn't imagine that pulling the plane into a hangar by the tail tiedown loop would damage it but you should consider that the loop was designed to be pulled down on, not sideways. Even though wind will change and the tiedown ropes won't be pulling in a direct downward direction the majority of the force will be downward. Even so, loading the tiedown point axially shouldn't hurt anything if nothing is hindering the plane from moving.

GroundLooper,

What book are those diagrams from? They look like systems I was taught to use in a swift-water rescue course I took once. I drug my VW bus across a parking lot with a "pig rig" to demonstrate that one person could do it. They are kind of a pain to use though.

Jon

whee wrote:What book are those diagrams from? They look like systems I was taught to use in a swift-water rescue course I took once. I drug my VW bus across a parking lot with a "pig rig" to demonstrate that one person could do it. They are kind of a pain to use though.
Jon

"The Illustrated Guide to Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue" by Andy Tyson and Mike Clelland, Climbing Magazine, copyright 2000. One of my recommended mountaineering books along with "Freedom of the Hills". Somewhere I have a Mountaineers handout with a pretty good pulley diagram as well.

A little more high tec but interesting if you like to build stuff: I built a tug for my tailwheel. I found an old 8 foot conveyor belt on ebay for $40. It was close to home so I bought it for the 90 degree gear reduction transmission. The plus on that transaction was that I also got all the carrier bearings shafts, sprockets and chains that were required too. For about $20 I welded up a frame. I drive the transmission with an old reversible electric drill. It picks up the tailwheel and away you go. It's not fast, under load about 30 feet/minute. No more Hernia!

I have a Scotty's tailwheel handle for my Maule. The handle has spring loaded "jaws" that carry cups that fit over the axle nuts of the tailwheel.

This is the manual method but I would think hooking up a pulley system to the "T" handle of this would be a solution for those planes that don't have attach points.

TD