Training, trailer, Home Strip Updates
Posted: Fri Sep 27, 2024 1:21 pm
Progress updates ...
AS I last posted, I've done some tail-dragger refresher training in a 1946 T-Craft. Techniques do seem to come back. Still lots of fun cruising the patch at 60mph. Caddo Mills airstrip has gotten busier what with Nick giving T-Craft instruction; the parachute training facility on the field, and it seems the parasailers have also found the field. Still we have a couple of nice blacktop runways and it seems a great amount of just nice smooth grass.
With my grandson off the A&M and my buddy deep into his Miata electric conversion, I thought I'd try unloading and loading the beast from/to the trailer by myself. While I found it technically possible with the shopstand aft fuselage support in place, I found it to be difficult and tiring lifting the tail up enough (with the wings folded) to fold down the shopstand to roll the beast off the trailer. I thought about it and decided I'd give Peer's automotive scissors jack method a try. A Walmart special at ~$23 (15500 lb capacity) and I set to work. I finished the install yesterday and it looks good.
The jack came with a long bent rod to turn the screw raising and lowering the jack. It takes a lot of turning to traverse the 15" height, so I bent a long 1/4" bolt which I insert into my battery hand-drill to raise/lower the support much quicker.
Nick (instructor) directed me to a local excavator (my previous guys went out of business). He gave me a quote to put in about 50' of culvert, add fill, and level my 700' strip. Expensive, but luckily he's starting another job near me that will be removing a large amount of "fill" so that I will only have to pay for the transport and leveling operations.
AS I last posted, I've done some tail-dragger refresher training in a 1946 T-Craft. Techniques do seem to come back. Still lots of fun cruising the patch at 60mph. Caddo Mills airstrip has gotten busier what with Nick giving T-Craft instruction; the parachute training facility on the field, and it seems the parasailers have also found the field. Still we have a couple of nice blacktop runways and it seems a great amount of just nice smooth grass.
With my grandson off the A&M and my buddy deep into his Miata electric conversion, I thought I'd try unloading and loading the beast from/to the trailer by myself. While I found it technically possible with the shopstand aft fuselage support in place, I found it to be difficult and tiring lifting the tail up enough (with the wings folded) to fold down the shopstand to roll the beast off the trailer. I thought about it and decided I'd give Peer's automotive scissors jack method a try. A Walmart special at ~$23 (15500 lb capacity) and I set to work. I finished the install yesterday and it looks good.
The jack came with a long bent rod to turn the screw raising and lowering the jack. It takes a lot of turning to traverse the 15" height, so I bent a long 1/4" bolt which I insert into my battery hand-drill to raise/lower the support much quicker.
Nick (instructor) directed me to a local excavator (my previous guys went out of business). He gave me a quote to put in about 50' of culvert, add fill, and level my 700' strip. Expensive, but luckily he's starting another job near me that will be removing a large amount of "fill" so that I will only have to pay for the transport and leveling operations.