I've had to help recover a couple of collapsed gear mono's and a couple of
trigears
with destroyed nose gears.
In my opinion, the best and fastest way is get a mono up safely and off a runway
or out of a field is a wrecker with an extension hoist arm..
I prefer to pull the top of the cowl and attach a strap to the the gear frame.
Lift slightly with the extended arm of the crane and pull the plane to a safe
location. Get the main down when safe and stable and get it locked down. If
it won't lock down?
Remove the wings, tail planes if the crane can't handle much weight and simply
pull the fuselage to an area where you can safely pull the gear down. If the
gear is badly damaged and cannot be safely lowered and locked, use straps, foam,
shoring or padding to protect the fuselage from rolling around on the flatbed.
I have an electric winch on my flatbed so with some ply I can pull a mono
fuselage up onto my trailer even in the mud. Although in hind sight a tractor
would have been handy with a back hoe on it. You can get up to the axles in
mud in a field with a tow truck and trailer.
Normally the mono gear will extend and can be locked. A forward facing trolley
will hold even a damaged or unlocked gear. In my case I've used the trolley
confidently and using plywood rolled the aircraft out of the mud on ply sheets.
Egyptians used planks and rollers, and that will work also.
At KPCM, if on hard surface or blocking the runway, I just use the engine hoist
and jack the plane high enough to slide a 4 wheel automotive trolley under the
main and pull to the hangar to clear the runway quickly. Without a trolley,
It looks funny like the Keystone Cops as we have used an engine hoist attached
to the plane, and pulled the hoist using a rope and golf cart with two of us
standing on the engine hoist to keep the engine hoist from tipping aft and the
plane swinging forward where it may hit the hydraulic jack. You do what you
have to do when you have limited equipment. After that I found a single 4 wheel
trolley (the kind that fits under all four auto tires to allow the car to
be rolled around) and keep it handy at all times. We keep one at KPCM also for
flat tires. To change the tire in the hangar or if you have a spare wheel,
if it is just a mono flat tire, use a jack pad and practice its use and roll
your
spare wheel into place. Most airports don't like the runway closed that long.
If you knock the nose gear off of a trigear. I have always been lucky and had
a spare nose gear from a kit, but if not, I jack with the wrecker or engine
hoist
and pull to a safe area. Remove the nose gear (use a saws-all to cut the
springs off or the stub if you must. Next I make a short saw horse tripod and
put the assembly on my rolling wheel dolly to get it carefully on my flatbed
or if that it is not available; pull slowly to the hangar for proper work.
If time critical, I fashion a weight to the rear tie down or remove the stabs
and couple of ropes with weights attached to the stab tubes. Don't tow this way
carelessly. Pull the plane with great caution as it can tip up again on the
nose doing more damage.
If it is a trigear main wheel, simply put your back under the spar and have the
airport attendant or assistant slide your car wheel dolly under what is left
of the main. I've never seen a whole main gear leg ripped off from a bad
landing.
Anyway, that is how I did it and no further damage occurred to the aircraft. I
don't think I would roll the plane on its side using one wing since every
airport
I know has an engine hoist or we can get a wrecker there in a timely manner.
The problem is getting the airport authorities to comply with your request.
They can be quite a pain and use slings around the wings and destroy flaps
and leading edges. They don't care. And many not even listen to you as "They
have a procedure"!
Be prepared to foot the bill. A farmer who volunteers his tractor and plywood
deserves a good tip. Airport authorities and their crash recovery folks are
another
story all together.
Just my experience,
Bud Yerly
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