HANGARING A SWIFT...

TOW HOOK...
From the Yahoo! Globe Temco Swift Club:
Is there anywhere in the tail or at the tail wheel where it is safe to attach a hook to pull the plane back into the hanger? Don Cumpston <don@penn.com>

Don,
I was in a hangar for a short time that occasionally flooded (only when it rained!). My short term answer was to winch the airplane backwards up onto a set of auto ramps placed behind the main gear using a chain hoist attached to a bolt I installed into the concrete floor. I used a steel hook, padded with rubber tubing around the "Y" at the aft point on the tail wheel trailing link, and routed the towline around the tail wheel spring/shock. I considered installing a hook of the bolt that attaches the spring/shock to the trailing link. It certainly is strong enough as two shears on the AN3 bolt is good for about 6,000#. Unfortunately the required FAA paper and that due to the geometry of the bottom end of the spring/shock required a complicated assembly to prevent it from bearing against the bottom of the spring/shock encouraged me to look for alternatives. The padded hook worked for me, required no modifications to the airplane and didn't even chip the paint on the tail gear assembly. -- Jared Smith <jedswift@aol.com> N3378K

Don,
I, too had a hangar that required winching the plane in. I passed a couple of 1/2 inch nylon braided lines from the winch cable hook through the tail wheel a-frame and then on to the main gear legs. The a-frame helped steer, but was not loaded in tension, since the lines were not directly attached to it. The main gear legs carried the load. I only had to be careful to not catch the brake lines when I attached the lines to the legs. Worked well for me. I did it that way because I didn't feel the tail wheel structure was strong enough to handle the tension I would impose.

Rocky Rutter <gc1bflyr@yahoo.com>