Slinging a Cessna 210 fuselage
 

Hi

I have been asked to sling the fuselage of a Cessna 210 that did a successful emergency landing after an engine failure. The area is to short and rough for a take-off should the engine be repaired/replaced.

The engine and wings are being removed at the moment, and will be transported by boat, there are no roads nearby.

Has anyone any experience in slinging a fuselage?

- Where and how to attach the strops?
- Length of line to be used?
- any other factors to take into consideration?

I expect it should fly like a fat EM bird, which I have experience with.

Please let me me know here or email me.

Thanks

Thilo

personally i would let the insurance company strop the machine for you, that way if it is damaged not your problem !
What heli are you using
what length of line are you comfortable flying with ?

A lot depends on the machine you are using to lift it too. I wouldn't go any shorter than around 120' line if you are using a squirrel. I recently lifted a Gyro copter that had suffered a similar fate. Initially i was told it was an fixed wing so had planned the lift around that, and spoken to an old school pilot who had done it a few times. He reckoned you should lift it nose low, and if there is any worry about the aircraft trying to fly then break up any lifting surfaces with tie downs and rags or even timber. That was wings on though so your job should be more straight forward. I imagine the 210 fuselage will fly quite nice, but a drogue off the tail wont hurt in keeping it straight. Good luck and send some pics!

I'll be using a B2 for that job.
I am happy using a 100+ line, and a drogue chute is a good idea.
Any other suggestions, especially from previous experience is welcome.
Thilo

Pity they took the engine out of it.

Do some calcs on getting the C of G somewhere back to where it was with ballast in the engine bay.

I am guessing the only hard point to sling it from would be the wing attach points and obviously that will be near the normal C of G. The wing beam is pretty sturdy.

Control lock will probably keep it trimmed slightly nose down and as it has no wings should fly pretty stable as it still has the tail feathers?

Heres one with the wings still on it - albeit slung by an experienced guy and a decent long line.

Slowly slowly catchee monkey.

Make sure that the rudder and elevators are locked. Strips of wood fore and aft top and bottom with freight straps similar to 1930s control locks. Rudders and elevators can do stupid things if they are influenced by downwash.

Maybe Cessna has got something in the manuals (maintenance, ...) how to tie and lift the fuselage and where to attach all the stuff while not damaging the structure.
An experienced maintenance shop may be able to help you with some information, if you don't know any other company who regularly does liftings of Cessnas.


Thracian

Thanks for all the comments. Much appreciated.

How to catch the plane when the downwash hits it
 

If you have a bit of wind and a long line it's not usually too much of a problem but if it's dead calm it WILL start to spin when the downwash hits it especially if you are using a larger helicopter.

Two ways that I know of to deal with this:

(1) Fly the airplane right to the spot and touchdown fairly quickly. Basically a "no-hover landing" for the plane.

But if you have to put it on a truck that is tough to do, so;

(2) I tie a 30-40 foot rope to the tail tie down and then tie a heavy shackle to the bottom end of the rope. Position a man on the approach maybe 100 short of the touchdown spot. As you approach come in low enough so the ground crew can catch the rope. It takes surprising little effort to stop the plane from spinning. Now you have all the time you to need to position it nicely on the truck or trailer.

Most of the other stuff about rigging the plane has been covered by others but I cannot stress too much the importance of getting this part right.

FWIW I have done this with helicopters too. Just tie the main blades level otherwise the forward blade will bend down at speed.

Wilco. Thanks oleary.

Thilo,

Two more advice:

- Arrange photo/film support
- Read the sticky Pprune messages about uploading photo and YouTube links.

Succes!
We are stand-by for incoming recordings.

SLB

Pictures of the C210 Rescue
 

Hi

Here are some pictures of the C210 rescue. It flew very nicely for 21 nm to the nearest airport.

In the mean time another C210 had a propeller strike, and I was asked to do the same exercise, this time over 60 nm to the nearest airport.

Cheers

Thilo

Nice conclusion to this interesting thread that I've been following. Job well done :ok:.

Those plank drivers must be really lucky they can turn to us - and do it all over again.