Hanging from the rafters

[Yamma-Fox 403]

Jims recent post of ski install (with a pic of his plane seemingly hovering in the air) reminded me that I need to hang my KF5 from my pole barn rafters to install my floats.

How should I go about doing that??  My idea was to replace the front wing spar (wing swing pins) with eyebolts... big hd washers on bottom and then sling the tail with a padded cradle.

I'm sure there is a better way.

And could a guy do W&B this way as well?  Get a good hanging scale and do calculations from the weight on each of the 3 lines.

[1avidflyer 1983]

Hanging the plane from eyebolts as you mention sure would work fine to suspend the plane.  Straps around the motor mount would also work.  That's how the AnPs did it with lots of planes where I used to take my Avid for it's conditional inspections.  I had some nylon rope straps that went around the front lift strut where it meets the wing and then went up over the wing.  I put some padding under the rope to protect the paint finish.  Worked fine.  The tail was sitting on a shop stool, and then a block of wood.  I do have a rope hung from the ceiling that goes over the tail of the plane with a hook on the bottom end of the rope , sometimes if I want the plane sitting level, I lift the tail by hand, and hook the rope to one of the hand holds on the side of the fuselage.    For doing the weight and balance, I would still go with scales, best is if you can borrow some stock car racing guys scales, they are super accurate.  JImChuk

[Gunderson 28]

I have eyebolts in place of the wing swing pins and that works well if you don't often swing the wings.  They aren't quick disconnect.  My Skyraider has a horizontal mounting hole in front of the rudder that was intended for connecting struts to the folded wings; I use this attach point for lifting the tail.

I didn't have a pic of the eyebolt, but dholly posted a photo on another thread:

http://www.avidfoxflyers.com/index.php?/topic/4862-old-skyraider-ii-guy/&do=findComment&comment=41931 

I used a cheap electric hoist like this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DZM5QPS/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B01DZM5QPS&pd_rd_wg=P3vn0&pd_rd_r=NMHTMRG9QVZ38RGKMNBB&pd_rd_w=at2bW 

and mounted it in a triangular frame as shown in the photo.  3 pulleys at the far end of the frame distribute 2 cables down to the eyebolts and one cable running back along a rafter to another pulley on the rafter right above the tail attach point.

 

 

Edited 27 Mar 2018 by Gunderson

[dholly 718]

I can't recall which AN Eyebolts I figured to need on my plane but I did save this reference guide that might prove helpful to you.

LINK>>>> an_eyebolts.pdf

[edit] You should always use a spreader bar/gambrel hoist to lift straight up from the eyebolts otherwise you risk bending things!

Edited 27 Mar 2018 by dholly

[EDMO 1078]

I believe that trying to do a W/B on a Kitfox 5 would not be accurate with it hanging by the wing pins:  1.  The pins are about 2"+ aft of the leading edge of the wings.  2.  The arm of the axles might be about 4" aft from leading edge, and this might be a huge miscalculation of moment?  3.  tail would have to be suspended with weight on the tail axle and the cable directly in line with the axle center.  Much easier and better to do W/B with scales.  BTW - How do you do a W/B with floats without amphib wheels?  EDMO

Edited 27 Mar 2018 by EDMO

[Yamma-Fox 403]

Thaks guys.  Sounds like the plan I had in mind isn't to far off for once!  

And yeah Ed, I was thinking the same thing.  It's because of the straight lotus (squishy) floats that I thought the hanging scale way might be better.  Put the crane scale on each of the 3 lines and use comealongs from above to level her out. Seems like a PITA otherwise on my dirt floor with floor scales I dont have access to.

And I can work the W&B calcs from any arm locations, so the center of the spar and any location on the tail will work.  It's really just a summation of moments problem like I learned to do to find operating CG as a PP student.

Finding accuacte crane scales and getting the tare right are my main obstacles, but I think I have a good idea now on that as well.  

Edited 28 Mar 2018 by Yamma-Fox