Completing the annual on the Corsair. 5 of us doing the gear swing and it is always a scary adventure. Unfortunately the aircraft is waiting on a repair of a leaking vernatherm on the right oil cooler. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I see no problem if you have the proper jacks under the airplane. I witnessed a gear swing on the No. 1 747 that did not have the proper jacks under it and it was a near disaster. Five jacks were required and two of the outboard wing jacks were not adequate. The head sheared on one and the airplane came down with two jacks puncturing the wing structure. Repairs were quickly made and just as quickly covered up. The F4U is an incredible looking machine!
It really is amazing to see how much an aircraft structure moves when doing gear swings on jacks as opposed to video shot in air for testing. We require a minimum of 10 full swings and a left system hydraulic reservoir bleed and service to ensure function and that there is no air in the left system. The Nitrogen blow downs are fun if you have the proper recovery drum. We use Skydrol LD4 in our aircraft and the system vents a nasty cloud of 800 PSI (we measured it!) nitrogen and Skydrol out the right side overboard port when the emergency handle and dump valve is reset.
We just did our two T-28 YCIs and I was the designated noo dood that got to man the hand hyd pump to bring those bastards up. I'll manage to be elsewhere next year...
I can see the wing tip of a PT-19 in the foreground and the tail of a UPF-7 in the background. I can't quite make out what that big thing is that they are working on in the center.
Lucky for us the dash 5 Corsair has an electric aux pump. So no hand pumping 60 to 100 times. PT-19 is to the right of the Corsair. Wings on the floor to the left are to my Fleet Model 9. It is almost done, hopefully it will be flying in the spring of 2020. Previous owner took it apart in the mid 50's so about 65 years since it last flew.
The hardest part about jacking an aircraft is centering the tripods. The spring-loaded casters always bind one way or another.
