Yet another use for an M915A1 and M871 trailer!

[Needle]

What do you do when you need to jack up a seaplane?

Can’t do it on the water. Jack keeps sinking, and mechanic can’t hold his breath long enough to operate the jack properly!

Bring it ashore……then discover the jack is too short and can’t reach the underside of the wing.

Answer….use a jack stand to raise the jack up, or if you don’t have one of those, use an M871 trailer, and mount the jack on top of it…..works a treat.

Even better when you have two of them, and can do both sides of the aircraft at the same time.

This was the solution used in order to do a “gear swing” (aviation term for making sure the landing gear goes up when lever is put in “up” position, and, more importantly, comes down when lever is put in “down” position. (Even for a seaplane, having the gear down is really useful when landing on something other than water!)

 

[hoopsoft]

I only wished I had those kinds of problems and solutions.

 

[broman78]

I don't wish for those problems but I do wish for that equipment.

 

[Robo McDuff]

Great pics, could do with the stuff.

Seems to me though that those jacks are pushing at a very small piece of wing without any protection under it. Would not want that on my plane.

 

[mcmullag]

thanks for posting the pics, I too was thinking some sort of 'plate' would be
needed on top of the jack to spread the load on the wing.
cool pics, nice stuff.

 

[gimpyrobb]

What else do you have that you didn't tell use about!? I see more green in pic #6!

 

[Warthog]

Awwwhhhhh....my favorite things,

OD Iron, aviation and machine guns..................

 

[usafe7ret]

Man I used to hate using those jacks on a F-4! Talk about a PITA. Getting the feet set, the legs parallel to the fuselage, getting them started only to find that one has a major hydraulic leak under pressure...

Every time one of our college boys came back and said the gear wouldn't retract, we had to test it out. Never had one fail to swing on the jack stands, never! CND was the answer to the write up in the 781A.

Good solution using the trailers tho. Shows some agile thinking.

 

[R Racing]

Very nice collection !!!!

 

[crasheej]

Most plains have what are called jack points. And that is where you install the jacks to do the lifts from.

 

[srodocker]

so is that your collection including the plane?

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

Most plains have what are called jack points. And that is where you install the jacks to do the lifts from.

For those unfamiliar with aircraft....

Just like the Jack-Points under the rocker panels on cars, there are Structurally Designed Jack-Points on most aircraft. Miss the Jack-Point and bend your Porche

They usually even have a location under each wing with 3+ screws/bolts where a spherical jack reciever is to be installed for the top of the jack to "attach". The spherical feature permits angular changes as the aircraft attitude (angle) changes during the lift - Kinda like a Ball-Joint. The attachment point is directly under the MAIN WING SPAR (a beam-like structure running the length of the wing) which also carries the weight of the plane while in flight - - - All you're doing is "flying" the plane on top of a Jack or two.

Done correctly, they're quite safe.

 

[Needle]

Great pics, could do with the stuff.

Seems to me though that those jacks are pushing at a very small piece of wing without any protection under it. Would not want that on my plane.

Robo McDuff and mcmullag, please see response above, by USAFSS-ColdWarrier. (Couldn't have worded a better response.)

The aircraft has small skin plates at specfic points under the wings, outboard of the engines. Once removed, you gain access to the jacking point plate. This plate is attached to the main wing spar, and to this plate you attach the jacking ball. The jack, which has a cup at its top, is then raised until the jacking ball fits into the jacking cup. The weight of the aircraft is distributed through 3 jacking points, one under each wing, and one just in front of the nose wheel.(The jack point at the back is merely to stop the aircraft rocking backwards and forwards when you alter the C of G by climbing into the aircraft through the back door whilst the aircraft is jacked off the ground.)

For gimpyrobb, the additional OD in picture 6: One is a Coleman Aircraft tug, another is a........

 

[Needle]

so is that your collection including the plane?

No ...not my collection.....but even better.....I get to work on it, and use it, and someone else pays the bills. (Part of the collection is museum, and part private).

I get to indulge my hobbies by:

1) looking after the OD, (and using it whenever I want), and the operational OD currently includes M151A2, M38A1, M35A2C, M816, M818, 2 x M915, 2 x M871, 2 x M105A3, M4K, DUKW and M4A4.

2) getting stick time in warbirds such as C-47, Caribou, T-28, T-6, Stearman, Mohawk, OH-13, etc locally and to/from airshows all over the country. (Having been a pilot since 1974, and ex RAF "Jet Jockey", helps)

 

[crasheej]

Sounds like a great job. Or what you want to call it.

 

[usafe7ret]

If you were brave enough and could get the AGE shop to bring you a hydraulic "Mule" cart, you could hook up the hydraulic lines to the jacks and lift t he aircraft that way. Never seen it done but I've heard about it. Seems like it would beat having 3 guys pumping the handles while someone stands in front to make sure the plane is going up level.

 

[Robo McDuff]

Thanks for the explanation. Looking at the first pic, I could not see any special plates, looked like any old part of the wing. Hence the remark.

Still great stuff though , and a swell job

 

[mckeeranger]

2) getting stick time in warbirds such as C-47, Caribou, T-28, T-6, Stearman, Mohawk, OH-13, etc locally and to/from airshows all over the country. (Having been a pilot since 1974, and ex RAF "Jet Jockey", helps)

Is the yellow bi-plane in the back the Stearman? It's hard to tell in the picture, there is too much OD (if that's possible) in front of it.

 

[Needle]

Is the yellow bi-plane in the back the Stearman? It's hard to tell in the picture, there is too much OD (if that's possible) in front of it.

Correct.

Currently this Stearman is "down for maintenance" due to a pilot reported engine vibration . It is one of those CND situations. I think it was probably just the pilots phone on vibrate!

And you can never have too much OD