You gotta know when to hold em, and when to fold em......

For general discussion of the Just Aircraft family of aircraft.
Includes: Highlander, Escapade, Summit and SuperSTOL.
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levyland
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Posts: 254
Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2012 3:50 pm

You gotta know when to hold em, and when to fold em......

Post by levyland »

Gidday from New Zealand,

Well I finally have N400JL or TUX flying here in New Zealand. I wanted to share with you all the issues of folding the SS wing.

Mine is the 5th SS flying, but so far the only wing folder.

The majority of you will not have to fold your wings.

But for me, the folding wing was one of the things that ticked the proverbial box in buying the airplane.

It's the old story, "it's not the cost of buying, but the cost of owning". Tie down or hanger fees, here in NZ we have landing fees ($10 each landing!), insurance, maintenance it all adds up.

So for convenience and cost if you can base the airplane on your property it certainly helps in the big picture of ownership of an airplane or at least rationalizing it to the missus. That's Kiwi for the wife.

So don't get me wrong, I would of loved to have a free span hanger and not fold the wings. but I am the proud owner of a three bay pole shed with 10' doors that gives me about 9" on each side of the wing.

I have to give it to Troy and the boys at the factory, the wing folding mechanism is a work of art.

But with that said if you are going to fold the wings you have to make every effort to develop a safe process to "fold and deploy" in an expedite manner.

If you don't, you can hurt the airplane or worse, you will always have an excuse not to fly.

Ahh it's too much of a pain in the ass (PIA)

So I have spent the last month developing a process that is relatively quick (about 15 minutes) to get the airplane ready for flight.

On the regular Highlander you had to de fuel the airplane, which is another PIA. Lots of chin wagging about that but on the SS you don"t have to.

That's the good news, however when you fold the wings aft the 6 pounds a gallon of fuel (30 X 6 =180 pounds) puts a tremendous moment on the Fox oleo strut.

So much so, it actually completely depresses it. Not good, so a simple fix was to make a 2" x 6" shim that I insert in the channel in the tail and it rests on the tail stinger before I fold the wings.

So now Jim Pekola's poor little 9" tailwheel takes all of the brunt of the folded wing and fuel.

So to mitigate that I made a couple of 2" X 6" wooden posts that rest on the round weldament of the the tail wheel assembly.

The first thing I developed was a trolley that makes maneuvering the airplane with the wings folded very easy. When you fold the wings there is approximately 150 lbs on the tail wheel.

The wings are about 2' past the elevator, and there is no where to hold onto the airplane to maneuver it, and even if you could the tail wheel will not roll with that much weight back there.

There are several tail wheel dolly's on the market but none of them will work on the SS because of the weight and distance required.

So I developed a tail wheel trolley that transfers all of the weight of the fuel and folded wing to four (two castering and two fixed) wheels with a 6' tee handled steering bar.

There is a cantilever that lifts the tail wheel off the ground just a couple of inches.

Another issue was that the leading edge slats needed to be held in place, so I made some bungey cords that accomplish that.

I also made foam blocks that hold the ailerons up and prevent them from touching the tangs on the vertical stabilizer guide wires when folding the wing.

Also chocks are essential.

Here is the process deploying.

1) Lift tail wheel off the ground with cantilever trolley and pull out 2" x 6" fuselage supports.
2) Roll airplane along the painted white line through the door.
3) Chock airplane
4) Lower tail wheel trolley and pull away from the plane.
5) You will have to make new wing pins out of long #r AN bolts as the ones provided are not long enough.
6) You will also need guide pins to insert in the bottom of the wing for alignment
7) Undo the travel arms (I use pit pins instead of the #3 bolts provided).
8) Hold the vertical guide wire so that the tip of the flaps do not rub and fold the wing out.
9) Holding onto the forward support strut Insert the bottom guide pin in the wing and then climb up on the tire and insert the real pin through the top and safety clevis. The bottom guide pin will fall out.
10) Do the next wing.
11) Install the turtle deck.
12) Take out the 2 X 6 tail wheel block.

And Folding:
1) Put in tail block
2) Take off turtle deck
3) Use a #2 philips screwdriver and drive the wing pin out of the wing holding onto the forward support strut and slowly walk the wing back.
4) A bit tricky but put in the foam block in the aileron
5) Hold the vertical stabilizer guide wire away from the trailing edge of the flaps.
6) Attach the travel post
7) Insert the other aileron foam block
8) Do the next wing.
9) Attach the leading edge bundgy's
10) Maneuver the trolley and lift the tail wheel up
11) Paint a white line down the center of the hanger/shed to insure that you are perfectly aligned going the through the doors.

If you have any questions I will be more than happy to help.

CHeers,

John
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Jamescham
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Joined: Thu Jan 31, 2013 7:48 am

Re: You gotta know when to hold em, and when to fold em......

Post by Jamescham »

A bit of genius there on the foam inserts on the aileron and the block for the tail wheel. Will incorporate this morning! Could you supply mechanical drawing of the tail wheel dolly?
HS-JAT
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Posts: 112
Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2012 10:18 am
Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Re: You gotta know when to hold em, and when to fold em......

Post by HS-JAT »

Nice pics and engineering. Looks tight getting it in there. Did you buy that dolly, or make yourself?
levyland
Veteran Member
Posts: 254
Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2012 3:50 pm

Re: You gotta know when to hold em, and when to fold em......

Post by levyland »

Thanks guys,
I don't have drawings as it was a trial and error thing, but what I can do is take some close up photos with measurements. There was a lot of welding and then cutting it apart, especially with the cantilever lifting arm. The large tires I had leftover from my R-22 but they are googable and the front castering ones I got from Home Depot. I would get a little more robust ones as they are a little cheesy.
And yes Pete I made it myself.

Cheers John
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danerazz
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Location: Bangor

Re: You gotta know when to hold em, and when to fold em......

Post by danerazz »

How are the SS tanks vented so you don't have to drain fuel? Would seriously considering modifying my HL tanks and vents to avoid this.
Dane

Paralysis by analysis
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barntt
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Joined: Fri Jan 27, 2012 11:54 pm
Location: FMM

Re: You gotta know when to hold em, and when to fold em......

Post by barntt »

Here is a ready made dollie of almost the same design. Pretty pricey!http://www.tailwheeltransporter.com/index.html
levyland
Veteran Member
Posts: 254
Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2012 3:50 pm

Re: You gotta know when to hold em, and when to fold em......

Post by levyland »

The fuel cap is vented on the SS versus a raised vent on the Highlander, however I think it has more to do with the larger 30 gallon fuel tanks.

So far I have folded the wing with a little over 20 gallons (10 a side) on board.

The more fuel the greater the load on the dolly.

I had to recut my floor stands last night to compensate for the higher weight. I might end up putting a small bottle jack underneath the stands.

Yes the tailwheel transporter was a design I looked at , but it is not designed for the kind of weight (150 pounds) nor a folding wing such as the SS.

It works great on an RV or cub, but once you fold that wing you need a really long arm that will swing around the elevator and horizontal stabilizer for maneuverability.

Hope that helps

Cheers,

John
Just Aircraft NZ Ltd
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Joined: Mon Jan 06, 2014 5:02 am
Location: New Zealand
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Re: You gotta know when to hold em, and when to fold em......

Post by Just Aircraft NZ Ltd »

Hey John,

Great to have a SuperStol flying in New Zealand ! Hope to see you in Wanaka, or around about, soon.

You sure have made a beautiful job of the handling equipment !

Cheers,
John Hood and Grant Coldicott
Just Aircraft NZ Limited
Just Aircraft's New Zealand and Australian Agents
http://www.justaircraft.co.nz
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