Gear without wheels

[jferraro17]

Anybody ever stood their -xA model on the gear without the wheels installed? No nose gear leg installed, with the tail supported by a sawhorse or some such? Wood blocks or some other material supporting the threaded portion of the axle on the floor?

Just thinking out loud...

Joe

[LifeofReiley]

Yep... slide a piece of PVC over the axle and duct tape it all to a 2x4, saw horse in rear position... Works Great!

[Greg Arehart]

Joe,

I drilled a couple oversized holes in a 4x4 (~8" long) at the approximate angle, and put these over the threaded ends of the gear legs. I put the tail on a table with some padding between the tail and table. You don't need the table if your engine is hung (but you do need the nose gear or some other support). At other times, I put a sawhorse on either side of the firewall and a piece of 4x4 across the sawhorses, along with the tail support. This works well with the engine already hung. It's easy to put the sawhorses and 4x4 under the firewall if you lower the tail (while the main gear is on those blocks) and just build up the crosspiece between sawhorses to almost touch the fuselage. Then simply lift the tail and slide the table and padding under it. In this configuration, the main gear legs will be just slightly off the ground.

I probably don't need to say it, but be careful with your center of gravity when the fuselage is on blocks - support it at the far ends wherever possible.

cheers,
greg

[jferraro17]

Great info guys.

No engine yet, but would like to be in and out of the cockpit multiple times, and just feel better about this with the thing on gear rather than my finely hand-crafted caster-wheel sawhorse . Unfortunately, I deleted the Van's wheels, and haven't bought the replacements yet.

I'll support both ends; may even stick the nose wheel on, with a sawhorse under the tail.

Thanks!