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Pushing the airplane back in the hangar

JackinMichigan

Well Known Member
We did some high speed taxiing today, and as I was trying to get the plane back in the hangar I found it nearly impossible for one person to push it all the way in with a standard tow bar (it's an uphill climb all the way). We have an MT composite prop, so no pushing on that. Does anyone have any tips on this? I thought about a powered tug, but MY GOD are those things expensive (around $2k).
 
I have in the past used an old tractor lawn mower with a toe bar for my RV7A. You can often buy a good used one for under $500 and remove the mower deck. I also recommend welding a front pin holder on so you can "push" the airplane in there by allowing you to see the direction your pushing.
 
Cleverest idea I've seen (I guess since I've never seen one, living in MS) was to buy a small snow blower at a big box store & remove the blower. What's left becomes a walking tug.

I think the pics were posted here a few years ago, so sorry; you probably won't get to see them....

Charlie
 
That's it; good to see most of the pics still show up.

In reference to that thread about rolling your own, a former hangar tenant abandoned a factory built 'taildragger dragger' that uses a generic automotive starter motor with a chain drive to the drive axle. 12V car battery, relay, & a SPDT Center Off switch completes it.
 
I'm afraid that the RV10 hates going backwards. The tow bar is purely for steering and/or pulling. If you try and push on it you will come to grief. The only way is to get help with a couple of people pushing on the wings while you steer - and avoid the temptation to "help" with the pushing.......
 
I use a 110V winch bolted to the floor (from Harbor Freight. Forgot price but it was somewhere around $100) works very well. All you have to do is steer. Only trick is that the control cord that comes with the winch has a 6 ft cord so you have to extend the cord, or remote control, or, what I did, was leave the control as it was and just add another cord that just activates the "pull it in" direction on the winch.
An added benefit of the winch is that it still works when there is ice on the taxiway.
 
Snow blower

Cleverest idea I've seen (I guess since I've never seen one, living in MS) was to buy a small snow blower at a big box store & remove the blower. What's left becomes a walking tug.

I think the pics were posted here a few years ago, so sorry; you probably won't get to see them....

Charlie

I followed the lead of this thread and bought a Craftsman snow blower used on Craigslist for a couple hundred bucks. A bit of welding and voila! It has been working fine ever since (4 years). The idea is seen here:

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=108484&highlight=Snowblower
 
I converted a snowblower into a tug for my 10. Works really well for one person and can covert it back in 30 minutes or so.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SLOtgUacLnXDSE7v1

SLOtgUacLnXDSE7v1
 
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What'a wrong with pushing on the prop near the prop hub? Never heard that's an issue. Pushing or pulling uphill is always a pita.
Mike
 
Go to Bogert Aviation and get the RVA Tow Pin Kit along with one of their tow bars. Now you can push your 10 without worrying about the bar slipping. I have been using this on my -6A ever since I damaged the nose wheel pant. Of course, the 2-place RV is not too bad to push around by hand, but I'm planning on getting a cheap little ATV to use as a tug for the -10, though while it's under construction I've had no problem moving it around as necessary.
 
What'a wrong with pushing on the prop near the prop hub? Never heard that's an issue.
It doesn't make sense to prohibit this from a Physics standpoint either. The prop pulls the airplane in flight, and the airplane pushes on it when descending. A human pushing on it right at the root of the blade near the hub should not be able to cause damage.

As someone else pointed out, the "tow" bar is poorly named. It shouldn't be relied upon for anything other than steering. I've seen the damage that results when an old, worn one pops out unexpectedly while someone is pushing an airplane with it. You don't want that.
 
...We have an MT composite prop, so no pushing on that. ....

I have an 3 blade MT and have always pushed the plane back with the prop. Is this something I'm not supposed to do?!?! My usual routine is to use the tow bar to steer and push on the prop at the hub.

Thanks
 
If you use a "hangar floor mounted winch", be sure to have a secondary way to quickly depower the winch. Nothing gets the heart racing like releasing the winch's primary remote control switch and having the winch continue to pull the aircraft unabated into the hangar structure. :eek: On our Bonanza's hangar winch we could physically jerk the remote control cord to pull the winch's electrical power cord from its power outlet. Also, I question whether RV tail tiedown rings are suitable for pulling by a tail winch.
 
I converted a snowblower into a tug for my 10. Works really well for one person and can covert it back in 30 minutes or so.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SLOtgUacLnXDSE7v1

SLOtgUacLnXDSE7v1

I'm intrigued by the idea of modifying a snow blower to get my RV-6 back into the hangar (seems that old plane gets a little heavier each year.....). But this will require the primary use of the blower to be in reverse gear.

Question: how fast is reverse gear on your snow blower? Just wondering if reverse is geared to allow satisfactory pulling of a tail dragger RV.
 
The reverse gear on mine runs about the same as first gear forward. I have five forward gears on mine and run in third most of the time.
 
I'm intrigued by the idea of modifying a snow blower to get my RV-6 back into the hangar (seems that old plane gets a little heavier each year.....). But this will require the primary use of the blower to be in reverse gear.

Question: how fast is reverse gear on your snow blower? Just wondering if reverse is geared to allow satisfactory pulling of a tail dragger RV.

The reverse gear on mine runs about the same as first gear forward. I have five forward gears on mine and run in third most of the time.

Thanks for the feedback, Jason, that is useful info.
 
I don't have that much of a slope, but when it's icy it can be significant, and even a tug has a tough time. A few years back, in the winter, I relied on a 12v Harbor Freight remote control winch. It was cheap at about $60, but really kind of sucked overall.

Just recently, to help the girls out all year, and for me in the winter when it's icy, I just got done putting together a new system.

I bought the same Harbor Freight hoist that others are talking about. It's $129.99 and I got it at 25% off of that on the last big sale. So under $100.
It does have a handheld cord that you could extend. It runs on 110V and is actually made very well. It feeds about 32 feet per minute. It has a hard stop that will shut it down if it gets pulled all the way in. You could attach a lead on to the hook so that the winch will stop for sure before the plane hits the winch. (I'm calling it a winch but at Harbor Freight it's technically a "Hoist")

What I did to mine is a bit different. I bought a Linksprite R4. (Think Arduino, with built in wifi and 4 relays). I set it up to be run via a web page (internal only) from my iphone, with various runtimes. So I can hit a button and extend the cable 45 seconds, for instance. Then I can hook it up, and hit another button to retract for various times, from .5 seconds to 30 seconds. I can also hit STOP at any point and shut it off. But this way I can feed it 10 seconds of retract if I want, or 5, or 2, or whatever, so it goes slow if needed. It all runs on the wifi at the hangar.

I'm guessing that some of the winch remotes could be modified similarly, or you could simply extend the control cord.

Anyway, it's not a "perfect" option since it doesn't come with a wireless remote, but you can certainly improvise with it and from a mechanical standpoint it's cheap and solid. I'd love to have a tractor but in a T-hangar it's just one more thing to get in the way and to maintain, for me.
The tugs are definitely expensive. I have 2 types of tugs, and neither is ideal.
The one from WagAero can do a reasonable job pushing planes around and can be connected remotely. The other is I think a minimax, and that one is more of a pain to manually hook up but is much smaller and lighter. Neither one does a good job of turning, so they both aren't fantastic. That's why I went the winch route for the girls. I want to guarantee that the wife and daughter can get the plane back in the hangar anytime they need to, and that will do the trick for sure.
 
Tim brought up a point that I had been thinking about. For those using the modified snow blowers, how are they for turning?

I have to do a couple S-Turns to get my 10 back in the hangar, so I can't just push it straight into the hangar. Too many obstacles in the way.
 
This has me thinking ahead, for sure

My existing pole barn hangar is 36' wide outside, about 34'-6" clear width inside. Fine for the 6A - I can taxi straight in, shut down, and do a 3-point turn or a 180 in place and not bump anything, ready to taxi out under power the next time. The -10 will pose a challenge. The front inboard posts that bear the weight load of the overhead door tracks will have to be cut to allow small doors for the wingtips to pass through. The overhead beam that carries the door weight will need to be extended all the way to the corner posts so the inboard front posts are no longer load-bearing.

This mod will gain me some extra clearance, but not more than 12" on each wingtip. I foresee things being too tight inside the 36x48 hangar to do any kind of 3-, 4-,5- or 6 point turn to get her facing out again. The idea of dragging it in by the tail or pushing it in by the nose wheel is appealing. I don't see a way to get the gear up on casters for maneuvering inside the hangar without damaging wheel pants in the process. Something would eventually go wrong.

I could re-design my hangar to put a door in the 48' side and close the front off, but that would involve retrofitting quite a beefy header to carry roof snow loads as well as rolling door weight, plus a new fairly steep ramp - not the preferred way to go. I'm pondering ways I can modify the tail tie down at this stage of construction to make it up to the task of winching the plane in tail-first on a very shallow turf incline.
 
Tim brought up a point that I had been thinking about. For those using the modified snow blowers, how are they for turning?

I have to do a couple S-Turns to get my 10 back in the hangar, so I can't just push it straight into the hangar. Too many obstacles in the way.

Bob, You bring up the one slight nuisance of the snow blower method. The steering is done by slight lifting and turning of the blowers handles. This reduces the downward pressure of the tires and they lose traction allowing you to turn it pretty easily. A castering wheel would be nice but since I only have to push the -10 straight back with minor turns for alignment, it isn't a big deal.
 
Out with the hydrocarbons...in with the electrons

Am pondering retrofitting a mature, engine-less riding lawn mower with a 12v winch motor to make an electric tug. Anyone with any experience with a similar retrofit?

Yes, getting restless with no project in the shop......
 
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Electric wheelchair conversion

I purchased an electric wheelchair off Craigslist. New batteries and was into it about $250. Took seat off, put on a simple handle and a cradle for tailwheel where the step was located. Works great for the Bearhawk which is pretty heavy to move by myself, for my RV-4 it is so light a tow bar is easier.
 
Electric Tractor

Am pondering retrofitting a mature, engine-less riding lawn mower with a 12v winch motor to make an electric tug. Anyone with any experience with a similar retrofit?

Yes, getting restless with no project in the shop......

Sam,
Drop by Hangar "E" at Moontown this Saturday, you can see what Mark made that might give you a jump start on the tractor conversion.
Dave
 
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