Moving the Fuselage to the Airport
Well, the day finally arrived–time to move the fuselage to the airport. We moved the fuselage only this day, plus a few other things we put in the car, since we were driving up there anyway. In a couple weeks, we’ll move everything else: wings, rest of the empennage, workbenches, tools, shelves, and a bunch of miscellaneous stuff.
The forecast called for rain, so we taped up all the openings and around the doors (since we haven’t finally installed the door seals yet).
When the tow truck driver arrived, we wheeled the airplane out of the garage for the last time and into the street.
We got it positioned behind the truck and hooked up the winch to the nose gear.
As the winch pulled the fuselage up the ramp, I made small adjustments with the tow bar. Though the truck was wide, there was only 3 inches on either side of the main wheels, so not too much room for error. Fortunately, with the winch in the center and moving slowly, there was plenty of time to make adjustments.
After securing the fuselage to the truck, the bed tilted up, and we were ready to go. Note where it’s secured: straps over the main wheels, straps attached to the steps, and small straps through the tail tiedown. There were also cables attached to the nose gear fork. With the exception of the wheels, there wasn’t much tension on any of the other straps, which was want we wanted. That said, if I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t have used the straps on the steps, because they’re designed to take a load directly down, and we had them going back. This puts a shear load on the bolts attaching the steps to the fuselage which, given the thin tube on the steps, may cause them to loosen up in the future. There’s already a little movement on the left step, though not sure whether it was already like that. In any case, it’s no big deal.
Posing for a picture before leaving for the airport.
Here it is leaving the neighborhood. I rode in the truck, and Kelly followed in the car.
Going up 405 towards Everett.
Through the gate and onto the Paine Field ramp.
And finally, at the hangar.
This picture shows the tail clearance when going on/off the ramp. With a little over one foot of clearance, it’s no problem.
Pushed the plane in the hangar. Without the wings on, there’s more than enough room.
At the end of the day, perhaps the best part was finally being able to put a car in the garage. In a couple weeks, when everything else is moved, we’ll be back to having two cars in there.
Hiram, from Clark’s Towing in Issaquah, did a great job with the move. He went slow and made sure we were in agreement on how to move and secure everything, which made the whole process much less stressful than I anticipated. Ours was the second RV he’s moved, so I definitely recommend him if you’re looking for someone to move your RV.
