Rocket Prop Clearance

I have always been amazed at the closeness of HR prop tip to ground... and respectful. Recently while doing wt and bal recheck, I snapped coincidental pic which shows the general idea... airplane sitting on low-profile load cells (about 3" deep)... levelled up... full-sized 2-bld Hartzell near vertical. Prop clearance is obviously boosted by the depth of the load cells.



John Meyers N5800 Sequim, WA

Not a whole lot of clearance there....

Neither is this here... when you consider this is FiFi the B-29, a nosedragger.

Not much room at all!

What, pray tell, is that sitting behind the Rocket....?? Looks like it could be fun

In background

Photo hangar mate is the usual resident of this hangarage at KCNO. It is BH-1 SAFFIRE by Barry Halsted. SAFFIRE is a senior design/one-off homebuilt... and won "Best Homebuilt 20 Yrs or Older" at last OSH (2011)...prior winner 1991. If you Google it, you'll get several references. BTW, Barry now owns a very early HR II which he is combing thru, detailing, and upgrading.

John Meyers said:

Photo hangar mate is the usual resident of this hangarage at KCNO. It is BH-1 SAFFIRE by Barry Halsted. SAFFIRE is a senior design/one-off homebuilt... and won "Best Homebuilt 20 Yrs or Older" at last OSH (2011)...prior winner 1991. If you Google it, you'll get several references. BTW, Barry now owns a very early HR II which he is combing thru, detailing, and upgrading.

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Very interesting! It should be fun following the HR II project that he's got going. Maybe he'll have an Oshkosh repeat...

Thanks!

John Meyers said:

I have always been amazed at the closeness of HR prop tip to ground... and respectful. Recently while doing wt and bal recheck, I snapped coincidental pic which shows the general idea... airplane sitting on low-profile load cells (about 3" deep)... levelled up... full-sized 2-bld Hartzell near vertical. Prop clearance is obviously boosted by the depth of the load cells.

John Meyers N5800 Sequim, WA

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Hi John. One thing I've done is put the 15" x 5 tires on my HR-II which gives another inch of clearance, plus other benefits.

Question: The chin scoop on your cowl... is that a custom piece of glass or did you purchase it from somewhere?

Thanks,

V

Enough is enough...

John,

I operated my HR2 out of my 1800' "not so smooth" turf strip for six years. I never had any problems with tip damage or even grass stains. I had a Hartzell "D" twist 80" blades.
My technique was a 57 Knot touchdown three point on rough surfaces, wheel landing on hardball surfaces. I too used 380X150X5 tires, a must even on pavement. The bigger tires really help distribute the gear loads better and it's easier to push around.

Smokey


Prop clearance w/380X150X5's/Vince Frazier TW/API fork



Size matters...

Hey Rob,

Thread drift....I like the little extension on the floor jack .

2 minute break in the post - Just looked at my floor jack and it has a big loosely squeezed rivet in there so the top can swivel. I suppose I could drill that out and replace it with a bolt for the 'aircraft extension'. Or, I could weld the extension on but that might render the jack to 'aircraft only'.

I saw it too and recognized it right away

John Meyers said:

Photo hangar mate is the usual resident of this hangarage at KCNO. It is BH-1 SAFFIRE by Barry Halsted. SAFFIRE is a senior design/one-off homebuilt... and won "Best Homebuilt 20 Yrs or Older" at last OSH (2011)...prior winner 1991. If you Google it, you'll get several references. BTW, Barry now owns a very early HR II which he is combing thru, detailing, and upgrading.

Click to expand...

I saw the plane at Camarillo, CA in the early 90s. It was a beauty but I went through my photos from that fly-in/show and I couldn't find one of it. It had the name written on the wing.

Bob Axsom

Hey Rick
Did you notice the, what looks like, a 45 pound weight on the jack? I know there are a few guys who do not like the idea but I have had really good luck with the same kind of jack using two hose clamps, gear down, as a jacking spot. I leave them on the plane and they are hidden by the lower gear faring, no extra weight is required. It might not even be needed as shown in the picture.
Others have made a bracket that captures the attach bolt from below.
As for prop clearance I have had no problems in 13 years of different rockets operating off many different strips. I know of starting and taxiing prop problems and issues but I have not heard of landing strikes. At least no one who was bragging about it

Get my drift?

Tom/Bob/Rick,
Thread drift is cool, it still pertains to posted photos! Wow, I learn something every day, Thanks Tom. Very cool airplane Bob, thanks! Was it an original design or are there several examples?

Hi Rick, how are YOU doing?
Believe it or not the jack is a Harbor Freight 4K floor jack and I bolted a Chevy Small block intake manifold lift ring onto the jack pad. It perfectly fits between the gear leg and under the through bolt. The 45lb weight is tied around the jack. First time I tried it I got a big grin, works great and no wing jacking dangers. Get well soon sir!

Smokey

Smokey that photo brings back some memories. I had a old airline pilot friend that was based there at Shiflet that we used to visit back in the early 90's. He and a couple other guys got killed in his Baron landing there in poor visibility sometime around 95-96. The little shop there was Hale Wallace's place when he was making Steen Skybolt kits, before he died of cancer. I stopped in there about 3 years ago and the place seemed pretty run down. Back in the 90's there were a lot of interesting airplanes there.

A friend of mine has a Piper Cheyenne 400LS and the ground clearance is about 4". From the right seat as you are taxiing you see a lot of rocks getting kicked up. A few years ago he brought into our grass strip when we were having a flyin, and on takeoff the props were literally mowing grass.

Tom, Yes...I did notice the Olympic weight but could not have told you it was a 45 pounder. Do you guys thing that it's needed?

Rob, I'm doing 'better'...thank you very much for asking. I am definately going to try this out. I currently have a bottle jack that gets the job done but I get tired of cranking it and the stability is less than desired.

Thanks for the idea.....very much appreciated!

Tom Martin said:

Hey Rick
Did you notice the, what looks like, a 45 pound weight on the jack?

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smokyray said:

Tom/Bob/Rick,
Thread drift is cool, it still pertains to posted photos!

Hi Rick, how are YOU doing?
Believe it or not the jack is a Harbor Freight 4K floor jack and I bolted a Chevy Small block intake manifold lift ring onto the jack pad. It perfectly fits between the gear leg and under the through bolt. The 45lb weight is tied around the jack. First time I tried it I got a big grin, works great and no wing jacking dangers. Get well soon sir!

Smokey

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