When Maintenance Works!
To steal a phrase from a great techno-commercial of a few years back, ?Isn?t it great when things just work??
I returned from a little after-work Acro flight and as I was pushing the Val back into the hangar, realized that if I was taking her across the continent in a few days, I better get those tires flipped on the rims (-8?s have a tendency to wear the outsides first). With nothing else but dinner on my schedule, I pushed her all the way back to our tail tie-down bolt position, and reached up to the wall for the eye-bolt and tie down strap. With a quick wrap and a tuck, I had a clove hitch around the tail wheel spring, and I was ready to go. It was 1603 on the clock.
I keep one jack on either side of the hangar, as it is a shorter way to go to get one under each wing. Screw in the tie-down jack point, position the jack under the right wing, give a few pumps to load it up, then quick roll around to the other wing and do the same thing. Once the jack was seated, it?s all the way up until the tire clears the ground, then back to the right side to do the same thing with that jack. The roll-around tool box is just a few fet away, and I grab a regular and stubby Phillips, a 7/16? box ratchet, and a pair of dikes. Seven number six screws and four number eights secure the Wheel pants, along with the bolt that screws into the axel nut that is quickly dispatched by the box ratchet. The wheel pant halves stand tall under the center of the airplane, each one?s little pile of attaching hardware tucked in close on the concrete. The dikes quickly cut the safety wire on the brake bolts, and the box wrench loosens them up ? a few turns by hand, and the brake pad clinks on the floor. I take a quick look ? still plenty of pad left ? how long are these things going to last (450 hours so far?.)?! Tools still in hand, I do the same to the other side, then after using the dikes to straighten the cotter pin ears, I grab the head with the same dikes and use the outside edge of the wheel nut as a fulcrum to pop the pin all the way out in one quick stroke. So far, I haven?t had to look twice for a tool.
No tools are required to pull the wheel off, a quick wipe with a rag takes off the accumulated grime and dirt, and with both wheels in hand, I move over to the work bench. The tire valve wrench is right where it?s supposed to be (this is getting uncanny!) in the top of the tool box, and both tires give up their air with a quick sigh. It takes two 7/16?sockets, each on a ratchet handle, to pull the three bolts on each wheel assembly. These are in the top of my toolbox, and in a minute they are off. My secret weapon, a pair of nicely smoothed tire irons, are on the shelf next to the work bench, and in three or four quick motions, I have the beads broken on both sides of both wheels. I?ve never needed a bead breaker, but doing it a lot of times in thirty years helps.
It?s always a little struggle to get the tire valves to slide out of their grommets in the outboard wheel half, but the struggle only lasts thirty seconds if I remember to ROCK and TWIST at the same time. Once the half is removed, the deflated tube slips out of the tire and just as quickly slips back in from the other side. Since I flipped the compressor switch on when I tied the tail down, the hose on the work bench is handy, and after screwing the valves back in (I remembered to put them on the shelf, and not on the bench where they would have been knocked away by now?), a quick squirt of air in each tube rounds them out to make sure they don?t get pinched in the wheel joint. Lining the valve stem up with the red dot, I take just a little dab of silicone grease from the tube on the ?lube? shelf to my left, and put it on the threads of each stem. This allows the stem to slip through the grommet with almost no effort, and I can line the half up square with the stem and the tire. Both tubes installed this way, I flip the wheels and place the inboard halves through the hole in the tire, sighting carefully to line up the bolt holes. The brake disks are next, also aligned carefully, and when it works right (it did today), the six wheel bolts drop all the way through, ready for washers and nuts.
The torque wrench lives in the fourth drawer down, and it substitutes for one of the ratchet handles I used to loosen the nuts as I tighten them back up to 90 in-lbs. ?Click-click-click? for each wheel, and they are ready for 38 psi each. The tire gauge is in the toolbox, naturally. Safety caps back on and finger/thumb tight, the tires are ready to go back to the airplane. I grab the safety-wire bin (three sizes of wire, three sets of twisters, all in a dollar-store plastic bin with a handle), needle-nosed pliers, two new cotter pins out of the stock box, and I am ready to reinstall everything. Down on the floor, the first tire slides on, followed by the wheel nut. Then the second. Tighten until snug, identify the usual holes, and start the cotter pin. If I grab the loop at the top of the pin in the jaws of the needle-nosed pliers then hit the pliers with the back end of a screwdriver, it drops right down into place ? beats fooling around by trying to push them in with my fingers. The needle-nose are perfect for bending the ears, and that side is done. Over to the other side to do the same thing, since I have the tools in my hand. Next, the brake pad gets screwed into place, and the wrench is still on the ground to make the bolts easy to snug up. I set the safety wire bin under the middle of the airplane, in reach from both sides, so it takes no time at all to tie the two bolts together.
In the home stretch now, the rear wheel pant on one side slides on, and is held by its bolt and two screws, then the nose and its screws. Over to the other side ? repeat. Voila ? the airplane is done! A careful twist of the jack handle and the airplane settles, stopping when the wheel touches the ground ? then over to the other side to go all the way down, then back to where I started to finish putting the Val back on her feet. The tail wheel once again settles to the concrete. I slide the jacks back to their storage spots, untie the tail, and grab the handful of tools that remain on the ground, returning them to their proper locations. The time is 1714.
One hour and eleven minutes, start to finish, both wheels flipped and ready for another 150 hours of flight time. It works quickly because everything is in its place, and because I think five minutes ahead of myself. Don?t go back to flip on the compressor ? do it when you are there. Need two Phillips? Get them both at the same time. Experience counts, but planning and thought can make it quick as well. And, the biggest advantage of having built the airplane? Having all the right tools on hand?..
It?s great when stuff just works!
Paul
__________________
Paul F. Dye
Editor at Large - KITPLANES Magazine
RV-8 - N188PD - "Valkyrie"
RV-6 (By Marriage) - N164MS - "Mikey"
RV-3B - N13PL - "Tsamsiyu"
A&P, EAA Tech Counselor/Flight Advisor
Dayton Valley Airpark (A34)
http://Ironflight.com
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