Gear position to rig

I noted in John's USA team Blog that he lowers the gear before
rigging. I know other pilots do this too. I have to ask why.

For modern glass gliders and Cobra trailers ...

Reasons for leaving the gear up until the wings are on:

1. If gear is down and a hydraulic trailer jack bleeds down the
fuselage may fall over and be damaged.

2. If gear is down the fuselage is about 6 inches higher so the crew
has to lift the wing tips 6 inches higher to rig.

3. If solo rigging there is more freedom to adjust the fuselage height
to insert the main pins.

Reasons for putting the gear down:

None that I know of - please enlighten me.


Andy

On Aug 8, 8:42 am, Andy wrote:
I noted in John's USA team Blog that he lowers the gear before
rigging. I know other pilots do this too. I have to ask why.

For modern glass gliders and Cobra trailers ...

Reasons for leaving the gear up until the wings are on:

1. If gear is down and a hydraulic trailer jack bleeds down the
fuselage may fall over and be damaged.

2. If gear is down the fuselage is about 6 inches higher so the crew
has to lift the wing tips 6 inches higher to rig.

3. If solo rigging there is more freedom to adjust the fuselage height
to insert the main pins.

Reasons for putting the gear down:

None that I know of - please enlighten me.

Andy

Hi Andy,

I put my gear down when I rig my glider, although it is not in a Cobra
and my wingtips are very low anyways since the SZD-59 has VERY little
dihedral. I put my gear down and lower the fuse until the wheel is
just touching. This helps to stabilize my rickety ramp the fuselage
dolly is resting on. If I don't put down the wheel and lower the fuse
until it is creating a little lateral friction, the fuse wants to
rotate that much more when I am putting in the first wing, and my ship
has the rashes to prove it (previous owner...), so there's one reason.

-Paul

BTW, the difference in ramp hight whether the wheel is up or down is
only a few inches in my case, but again my trailer is a far cry from a
Cobra...(improvements are of course in the works)

I had a lot of trouble rigging a DG300 until I spent several hours
with a construction laser level and other tools. It turned out that
there was a low spot in the grass right where the left wing rigger
ends up, and a slope from right to left. The end result was two marks
on the wing rigger that are 4" apart, one for right one for left. They
require the fuse to be an exact height off the ground which I
determine by lowering the fuse until the gear is exactly one fist off
the ground. I don't have hydraulics on my ramp. Now the wings go on
the pins about as hard as buttoning my coat.

BTW, I found that a laser pointer lying on the flat top of the DG's
console will put a dot on the exact center of the leading edge of the
wing right at the spoiler midline when the wing is at the correct
height. I may rig up a little jig with two laser pointers, if I ever
have a problem again.

Brian




Reasons for putting the gear down:

None that I know of - please enlighten me.

Andy

Andy,

I rig my DG600 on a Cobra trailer with the wheel down.

I have a mechanical jack (better in my opinion), so hydraulic failure not
a problem.

I have the wheel just touching the ground so the fuselage is at the same
height every time, and the fuselage doesn't easily rotate. I put a chock
behind the wheel so the fuselage can't move back.

I have the trestles set at exactly the right height so the wings slide in
to the fuselage and don't need to be lifted or jiggled, just pushed. The
trestles obviously have to be put at the same place on the wing every
time.

With everything set like this, the pins slide straight in with the wings
resting on the trestles.

The overall rigging height is only an inch or two higher, and not a
practical problem.

Cheers

Martyn



At 15:42 08 August 2008, Andy wrote:
I noted in John's USA team Blog that he lowers the gear before
rigging. I know other pilots do this too. I have to ask why.

For modern glass gliders and Cobra trailers ...

Reasons for leaving the gear up until the wings are on:

1. If gear is down and a hydraulic trailer jack bleeds down the
fuselage may fall over and be damaged.

2. If gear is down the fuselage is about 6 inches higher so the crew
has to lift the wing tips 6 inches higher to rig.

3. If solo rigging there is more freedom to adjust the fuselage height
to insert the main pins.

Reasons for putting the gear down:

None that I know of - please enlighten me.


Andy

On Aug 8, 11:42*am, Andy wrote:
I noted in John's USA team Blog that he lowers the gear before
rigging. I know other pilots do this too. I have to ask why.

For modern glass gliders and Cobra trailers ...

Reasons for leaving the gear up until the wings are on:

1. If gear is down and a hydraulic trailer jack bleeds down the
fuselage may fall over and be damaged.

2. If gear is down the fuselage is about 6 inches higher so the crew
has to lift the wing tips 6 inches higher to rig.

3. If solo rigging there is more freedom to adjust the fuselage height
to insert the main pins.

Reasons for putting the gear down:

None that I know of - please enlighten me.

Andy

Story time;
About 6 or 8 years ago, Bob Epp was getting ready to assemble his
ASW-24. He pulled the fuselage, lowered the gear, and went off to do
something else, leaving the canopy open.

You guessed it!- the hydraulic jack crept down, the fuselage fell
over, and a piece of the canopy about the size of a basketball got
blown out of the canopy.

What would you do?

Well Bob calmly went over to his neighbor who also had a '24 and
calmly said "My canopy is broken, can I borrow yours?

We fell over laughing. The good news is we were able to glue it back
together well enough to fly it.

Moral of the story is there are, as you said, several good reasons not
to put the gear down till the wings are on, and not too many for
putting it down.

Cheers
UH

Reason for putting gear down before rigging: I've been doing it that
way for 35+ years and I figure if I change now, then one day I'll
forget and push the assembled glider out of the cradle without
dropping the gear.

Don't have a hydraulic jack. With my solo rigging device, the wheel is
several inches off the ground anyway. Also, when the fuselage is
recently waxed, it tends to slide aft occasionally during rigging.
Dropping the gear and lowering the cradle to where the wheel just
touches the ground helps mitigate that.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"
USA