Aircraft Factory (Workshop) Ceiling Height

flytoboat · #1 01-13-2007, 03:37 PM

Greetings fellow RVers. This is my first question after lurking for several weeks. I have made the dicision to build a -9A and now I am acquiring tools and preparing the workshop. I plan to build in my basement, but the ceiling is only 7 ft high. Does anyone know what the minimum ceiling height is for building the -9A? My thought is that I could leave the landing gear off when the tail needs to be on, and the tail off when the landing gear is on. Is there any time that both the tail and gear need to be on at the same time during the building process?
Thanks to all.

Don Miller
O'Fallon, IL

Bruce · #2 01-13-2007, 04:44 PM

Don,

I don't think the height will matter. The width is what you have to worry about when you take out your canoe or finished airplane. I would say the top of the canopy is about 5.5 feet with gear. There is a video on a guy getting his plane out of the basement. Jack hammers and log chain come to mind.
Good luck on the adventure.

LettersFromFlyoverCountry · #3 01-13-2007, 05:39 PM

You're going to have a very difficult time fitting the VS on with a 7' ceiling. Keep in mind the VS is about 4 1/2" feet high and even if you have the fuselage sitting flat on the floor, the tail is still elevated.

Doable? Yeah probably. But you'll probably be pulling it out of there and to an airport earlier than a lot of people.

Do you have a big sliding door you can take off to get it out?

yakdriver · #4 01-13-2007, 07:57 PM

You can do 90% of the airplane with a 7' cieling. The part of the hanger I'm working in is 7' and I only pulled the fuselage out to mount the vertical and horizontal. Took two days to mount all that then I removed it and put it back in the low cieling part. I have my fuselage on some low sawhorses low enough that I can reach the center of the floor standing outside the fuse. Don

N941WR · #5 01-13-2007, 08:22 PM

My basement has 8' foot ceilings which works out great. If you check out my web site you will see that my fuselage was built on a small table/stand that is only a foot (+/-) off the floor. This worked out to be the right height to work in the fuselage, hang the wings, install the tail, etc. Originally, my table/stand was taller but I cut it down to make working in the plane much easier.

The next big thing you may have to deal with, as I have, is the tip-up, if you have one. My -9 is now on the gear which makes the tip-up very tall. Thank goodness I don't have a -9A or this wouldn't work out so good.

Best of luck.