So a guy walks into a plane and .......

[HansLab]

Walks a Guy into rudderhorns: I now have a quite familiar place on my forehead where I keep hitting it against the rudderhorns when the wings are folded and I need something out of the cockpit :-(
The logbook, my wheelchocks, anything and I keep hitting my head on that same spot. No stitches yet, but uncomfortable.
Now I put on a clamp with a Remove Before Flight flag - but I already hit it, again..

[SkyPirate]

Sad thing is , this all just proves we are creatures of habit

[Paul Z]

In golf they talk about muscle memory, repeat an action frequently to get your muscles to repeat the action. So I guess you are working on you muscle memory.

[HighWing]

Well, no stitches but a big scab on the top of my head prompted me to try an idea I have been thinking about for years. I am a shop junkie and my shop is behind the airplane so stooping for the flaperons is a many times a day routine until now. When weighing my first airplane I noticed the head room much better with the tailwheel on the table in the level flying position. This prompted the idea and this is what I did. After trying it a couple of times I decided it needs a limit switch on the high end as the remote controller only gives a nimimum one second pulse that moves the cable about three inches. Not quite fine enough. And the remote needs modification as the up and down buttons look identical and it is too easy to hit the wrong one. The limit switch will help cure that.


Before)

Wheel Lift 1.jpg

Up the ramp) The winch control is a cordless remote switch

Wheel Lift 2.jpg

After the lift) Th etop of my head will brush lightly the underside of he flaperon - I'm 5'10"

Wheel Lift 3.jpg

Ramp overview) It is welded up from one inch eighth inch wall square tubing, with guide rails of half inch .049 4130,

Wheel Lift 4.jpg

Wheel clamp detail) The clamp essentially captures the axle and is screw tightened.

Wheel Lift 5.jpg

Winch) Horbor Freight 2500 lb. ~ $49 on sale.

Wheel Lift 6.jpg

Nose) I can pin the castoring wheels to guide the ramp as it moves. The rails are adjustable in the event I go to a wider pheumatic tailwheel.

Wheel Lift 7.jpg

[ken nougaret]

Lowell, i like it a lot!

Ken

[Dave S]

Lowell,

Great job on the tailwheel lift....although I have a nosegear KF, and my identical height (5'-10") keeps me pretty clear of the flaperons....I can see some utility in a similar device to hook to the tailskid of a trigear when the wings are folded.

During construction I fabricated a cheap/simple tail dolly which held the tail up far enough to keep the prop out of my garage door with the tail still clear of the garage door for the numerous trips in and out of the garage during that stage of construction. (door was 7 feet, plane 8 feet at the tail when level)

For what it is worth, I usually get my KF bites from contacting the front corner of the pilot's door with my solar collector when the door is open. So far the blood loss due to the sharp corner has been relatively minor.

Do like the clever tailwheel lift

Sincerely,

Dave S
KF 7 trigear
912ULS Warp

[GWright6970]

Lowell,

I love it!!!

PURE GENIUS..... brilliance at work!!!

Cheers, Grover

[SkyPirate]

"Slick"!! I made a similar system for a vet buddy of mine in a wheel chair, its a 12 volt remote control tree stand, weighs 60lbs total and it will lift him 16' straight up, i used skate board wheels on 3 sides of each track so the platform doesnt rock one bit, he can also use the tree stand to lift the deer to clean it and load it in the truck

[jrevens]

That looks just great, Lowell. I love the way you think! Nice job!

[HighWing]

I appreciate the thoughts.

Two things prompted a minor modification. I found that I needed to add a little precision to the lifting part to keep the tail wheel from being sucked into the pulley. I added a limit switch that controls a separate solenoid for a more instant off of the winch. Then I left the airplane on the lift over the weekend intending to see if the clutch in the winch would slip and let the wheel sag down. The short answer on that is no, however I did find that on Monday, the cable ferrule was almost buried in the pulley. Apparently a "remote" remote control - garage door opener? - was able to trigger the winch and raise it up.

By putting a limit switch controlling a second solenoid, I was able to take care of both issues. It will now stop precisely where it should and once on the limit plate, the power is off to the winch regardless of what happens to the winch controller.

Wheel Lift 7.jpg

Then I needed a switch to bypass the limit switch when lowering the tail back down.

Wheel Lift 8.jpg