Moving Stuff

Moving the Wings

I was anxious about moving the wings to the airport. I ended up securing the wings to the wing stand and then securing the wing stand to a flat trailer.

The spars just passed through the openings in my trailer.

We drove very slowly and made it successfully to the hangar! Thanks to Bob, Ben, Harvey and Michael.

Moving the Tail Feathers

I have decided to remove the tail feathers from the empennage since this is recommended anyway to attach the tail cone fairings. I did order new bolts for reattaching the tail feathers at a later date.

Curiously, I was able to fit a pair of folding bed squares inside the tail cone box and then lay the horizontal stabilizer onto the doubled bed. The control arm fit "between" two of the three squares. I plan to transport the stabilator to the airport using this tail cone box system. The rudder and vertical stabilizer fit into the square box that shipped with the wings. I plan to store the rudder and vertical stabilizer in the square wing box at the airport. The flaperons will remain in my garage.

Moving the Tail Cone

Finally, Mike and I moved the tail cone to the airport. The tail cone devoid of feathers and counter weight is light, but bulky. We could place a moving pad under the tail cone and use the moving pad as a "sling" to lift and move the tail cone onto a collapsing wooden table. I drilled a hole the the table so that I could pass a tie down through the table and into the "skid plate" attachment point on the tail cone. This was done loosely as a "safety" while moving the tail cone to the airport. We used a truck bed bungee sling to secure the tail cone to the table and added metal attachment points at each corner of the table to secure the table to the trailer.

Tail Cone on a collapsing wooden table on a trailer. Note the 2X4s under the table which allowed us to pass the bungee cords under the table.

It is hard to see, but the tail cone is lightly secured with a tie down bolt running through the table to the skid plate attach point.

Here you can see how we secured the wooden table to the trailer.

Moving the Fuselage

I decided to install a "Transportation Stick" to help move the fuselage. Basically I attached a 5 foot 4 inch 2X4 to the bulkhead using two 3/8 inch 7 inch bolts. I plan to attach lift handles to this device. I placed a 2X4 on top of the bulkhead and used square pieces of 2X4 as spacers (4 total).

Here is the side view of the transportation stick.

Here is the top view. I was able to tighten the nut from below with the invisible man on this wrench.

Here is the nut from below. Be sure to avoid pinching the brake lines.

This shows the clearance around the transportation stick.

I was able to create a wooden wing spar from the side of the fuselage shipping crate. I created a floor stand by combining the false spar and false landing gear. This allows movement of the fuselage and, with the addition of a firewall support, a way to stand the fuselage on the floor.

Warning: The shipping crate false spar is not structurally sound as a tie down for wheeled transport. For wheeled transport consider using 3/4 inch plywood for creating a false spar tie down.

Here is the fuselage on the floor stand. I shortened the width of the floor stand so that the floor stand will now pass though a five foot wide trailer door.

Wooden wing spar is held in by two 1-1/2 inch wooden dowels.

Where to Build

After talking to several builders I am going to move the tail cone back to my garage, connect the tail cone to the fuselage and work on the finish kit in my garage. The height of the RV12 on the landing gear is amenable to construction. So we are looking at about 6 foot 6 inches wide for the landing gear and 16 feet 6 inches long for the fuselage sans tail feathers.