I had a welder friend fabricate just such a dolly for the main wheel on our
17M tandem sailplane some years ago. Now you see them available as car
dollies in catalogs such as Harbor Freight Tools or J.C. Whitney. However
these off the shelf models are for car size wheels and do not have a "ramp"
design to roll up in there. Viewing them may give you some ideas toward your
own design or could be modified?
Kevin
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com]On Behalf Of Alan Stewart
Subject: Europa-List: Hanger manoeuvres in tight spaces ! ; )
<alan.stewart@blueyonder.co.uk>
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
|