Yes, as one who often crewed for Bruce Tuncks at that time I can affirm
that his system of extending the rails to the outside of the trailer
worked very well. He did it with the fuselage dolly tracks also. As I
recall it was still a two-person rig, but the basic idea was dead
simple, cheap and is easily transferable to other types of trailer.
On most Cobra style trailers the wing dollies are made such that the
spars sit slightly below the edge of the trailer sides. However the
dollies don't have sides, so the wing is free to rotate on the pin. He
seems to have simply raised the dollies a bit (or perhaps just put more
carpet on) so that the spar is above the line of the trailer sides.
This allows him to rotate the wing through 90 deg while it is still
inside the trailer. Then he just lifts the spar off and rotates while
carrying it to the fuselage. Very impressive.
Cheers
/Tim/
/tra dire e fare c'รจ mezzo il mare/
On 18/07/2011 9:49, Mike Borgelt wrote:
At 05:43 PM 17/07/2011, you wrote:
Pretty simple idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcRipsiPgdk
The carpet covered tube is brilliant. It is easy to make something
complicated. The hardest solutions to arrive at are the simple and
easy ones.
That's why you want smart, lazy people.
There are actually two inventions here though. The second isn't very
visible. He's modified the wing root dollies to have flat tops with
removable pins so that he can rotate outwards and then pull the pin
and twist the wing flat.
An even better mod is to extend the wing dollytracks with a removable
extra section to take the wing root outside the trailer body. Bruce
Tuncks invented that idea. Means you don't have to reach inside the
trailer. I've been using that since 1984.
Anyway, after all that, the invention is pointless in Australia as the
bozos running the GFA insist on a second person to inspect and sign
the DI. Funny how there is a world market for one man rigging devices
to make you independent isn't it? And how the selling point used by
manufacturers of motorgliders is "independence". Still wondering why
gliding is going down the drain?
Mike
Borgelt Instruments - manufacturers of quality soaring instruments
since 1978
phone Int'l + 61 746 355784
fax Int'l + 61 746 358796
cellphone Int'l + 61 428 355784
email: [email protected]
website: www.borgeltinstruments.com
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