The third dimension:
I read your dilemma (below) with brotherly concern, as am building in a
spare bedroom, and have erected the Europa in it with 4 inches to spare,
each wingtip. During this, it occurred to me that perhaps one could
incorporate an elevating device like a car lifter which would raise the
extremities to ride over the others (same ilk) and then when in position,
lower onto floor.
Outlandish I agree but might percolate an alternative.............
Ferg
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Stewart" <alan.stewart@blueyonder.co.uk>
Subject: Europa-List: Hanger manoeuvres in tight spaces ! ; )
<alan.stewart@blueyonder.co.uk>
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| My monowheel classic is shoehorned into a very crowded hanger with a
| collection of other aircraft. We're about to be joined by one more,
| another monowheel Europa, making three in all. As you can imagine this
| leads to considerable frustration for all interested parties, a certain
| amount of competition (to be at the front, near the doors), and the
| serious risk of 'hanger rash'.
|
| Landing gear of aircraft isn't designed for ease of ground
| manoeuvrability. This means that our hanger 'jigsaw' fails to use all
| available space. Stored aircraft positioning and orientation is a poor
| compromise of turning circle and obstacle avoidance, and lately, it has
| become very difficult to extricate the Europas from the within a sea of
| other hazards.
|
| To resolve our woes, it occurred to me that there may be a simple
| designed solution for the purposes of manoeuvring of our three identical
| Europas as follows:
|
| "A low wheelbase (couple of cm ?) braked and castor-wheel equipped
| trolley or 'dolly', capable of easy wheeled motion in all horizontal
| directions, with a small platform onto which the aircraft's monowheel
| might be rolled and locked."
|
| Our smooth, flat, concreted, hanger floor is an ideal surface upon which
| this unit might role. Obviously it would need a simple, solid, easily
| accessible brake, coupled with a very short and gently inclined ramp to
| run the main wheel. The tail wheel of my aircraft is capable of about
| 270 degrees of rotation, and both outriggers are clear of the ground
| (particularly on a trolley) with the wings positioned 'dead level', so I
| foresee accurate hangar manoeuvring, with just one or two individuals. I
| think this may help resolve our current difficulties.
|
| Short of designing one myself, I wondered if anyone had already come up
| with a solution to this problem ?
|
| Grateful in advance,
| Alan
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