How do you move cockpits / large aircraft sections

I remember driving past the fed in a layby with a lightning cockpit overhanging on a trailer (ex A1 scrappy) behind a 4×4 and my crimper going ten to…..:eek: and another occasion arriving at a farm yard with my hunter fuse on a farm trailer when someone shouted “its off in that shed” reply was “no it aint”. Also nearly took a bus out with a CALL AIR A9 being towed backwards with the tailwheel strapped into one of those tiny tiny halfords trailers:D From these few exploits I have learned that planes get big quick when taken out of context and its cheaper to call a pro in!

Big Toys

Here are some shots of my Lightnings being moved, XR725 from Rossington to Binbrook on a motorway bridge waiting for the relay police escort to arrive, XM192 going from the Bomber County Museum at Hemswell to the Thorpe Camp Museum at Tattershall Thorpe (photo Darren Swinn), and the cockpit of XS899 on its bomb trolley (now available for another cockpit – see the bomb trolley thread) being manoeuvred around. You need a lot of heavy kit, a lot of specialist knowledge and a lot of muscle.

Sorry i can’t help with the cheapest, but i can with most impressive (and quite possibly most expensive).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=268B_VXQ-Kw&feature=related

Sorry i can’t help with the cheapest, but i can with most impressive (and quite possibly most expensive).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=268B_VXQ-Kw&feature=related

A jolly good clean!!! She was mighty historic so we thought 564 was worth keeping. The original plan was to to use the other cockpit as a donor and transfer stuff into it to create a ‘spin’ hunter. After a while, other projects meant she was unlikely to go further in museum ownership. I remember my last flight in her….

Just a few more pics of the Lasham disposal plus a very heavy bomb!!(inert I hasten to add)

[ATTACH]202161[/ATTACH] or just plain manpower

XL564 Pretty well burnt out!

Can’t be many ejected then crashed cockpits out there (would not know where to start with it)

Baz

Nice link Baz thanks. The other T.7 would be a bigger job i think.

Yes weather was ok. Almost made the high seas mini cruise enjoyable, except for the prices the ferry cartel’s charge !

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This one.

http://www.paulnann.com/Make.asp?Make=Hawker&Family=%20Hunter&ImageRef=pn_w0472.jpg

IOW, big restoration job.

This is the frame i used on a job today…

Hunter T.7?

This is the frame i used on a job today…

IOW sunny today then?

A good trailer is the key.

I have loaded and unloaded my Spit single handed a few times but the ground had to be level. The Hurricane is a very different beast and we found it could only be pulled by a late model Disco (as opposed to earlier models)

The trailer tilts and the load is winched onboard.

Baz

….great idea with the A frame

This is the frame i used on a job today…

Matt, are they clamps on the ends of the forks to keep the lifting straps coming off? I bet you did those up tight!

Paul

Hi Paul yes there clamps on the end of the tines ….just to be on the safe side, i do this with every lift;) Below is a picture of a recent lift with ZF590….had to make do with molegrips 😮
Keep the pictures coming its great to see how others lift and move these big lumps…..great idea with the A frame 😉

all the best Matt

Undo ’em, unscrew ’em, push ’em, lift ’em, anyway which way.
Where there’s a will…there’s a way.
More hands …less money…sometimes !!!

I will be picking up some more flexello castors in the next 2 weeks. I will get spares but cannot hold too many in stock as it were.

An A-frame, which is unequalled when it comes to lifting items on and off trailers, raising engines and other heavy items for stands to be made around them.

I did wonder how long it would take you to mention it…… :p

Few pictures I have found of it in use on here –

Collecting Meteor T.7 WL405 from Bruntingthorpe

Delivery of Graham Sparkes Sea Hawk cockpit to Hooton Park

Fitting Sea Hawk WV838 to the trailer

Keep the pics coming

Matt, are they clamps on the ends of the forks to keep the lifting straps coming off? I bet you did those up tight!

TO23, some interesting photos there.

Here are 2 of mine, winching the Su22 from the front of the house through the garage to the back and then rolling it back upright using a ratchet strap and some old fence posts, in this photo you can also see the broom handles it was rolled through on, I felt a bit like an ancient Egyptian moving blocks of stone for a pyramid. A few steel bars are also very useful.

Paul

Tommy Stafford

Good old Tommy!?, what would we do without him. We’ve used him dozens of times (including delivering the Phantom cockpit to Newark this summer as in T.O.’s pic).

We have a pallet truck – a device worth more than its weight in gold when it comes to moving large items such as engines safely. An A-frame, which is unequalled when it comes to lifting items on and off trailers, raising engines and other heavy items for stands to be made around them.

I’m not on my usual PC but when I am, I’ll post a few pics of the usefulness, and portability, of the latter item. I was banned from using it at my last museum because it lacked a safety certificate and it seemed we had our hands cut off being unable to accomplish a fraction of jobs that it made possible. In fact, we were endangering our own safety more by not being able to use it and having to make do with planks and poles

Don’t use the rollers too much, in fact not at all. Engines don’t roll, nor do cockpits and things that are likely to be damaged by the method.

Good old grunt is a regular one, with scaffolding poles or lengths of wood as lifting bars though if you’re into this much weight then safer and easier means are required.

But back to the start; there’s nothing better than a couple of big wide slings and Tommy Stafford’s hiab. Just take a look at the recent Saving Sisyphus thread; that’s him doing all the lifting and shifting of the 748 for us there too.

He operates in and around NW England. If you need his contact details PM me.

Anon.