Little Help From My Friends on 2334S
 

Just an update on my previous gear-up landing. The NTSB refuses to downgrade it to an incident so I am now forced to pull the wings and tailbooms off and transport it to my home for repair. I have a sheet metal specialist as well as an A & P and a previous army crewchief to help with the teardown. My question for you all is how much is entailed in removing the wings and tailbooms? Any special tools other than a hoist? Just how much work is there time-wise to tear it down? Any Pearls or words of wisdom before launching into this? Luckily there is less than 10 gallons of gas in either side so at least I don't have to deal with that issue. Any advice is gladly accepted. Thanks, KD

How much is entailed in removing the wings and tailbooms? A lot. When we examined Cessna's draft SIDs, we looked at this and determined it would be about 200 man-hours. Plus, fixtures (could be wood) should be built to support elements of the structure during the demating to avoid damage. For reference, go to www.SkymasterUS.com, on the left of the page click on the second silvery horizontal line (below the Fuel Supply Management link), click on Page 1, read Paragraph 4.

Ernie Martin

I was thinking that I cold just remove the tailbooms at the wing roots and pull the back engine and mount it on a trailer sideways. The engine is going to be removed anyway to work on the aft firewall. Would that decrease my work load substantially?

That's not the original question you asked (how much is entailed in removing the wings and tailbooms?). Removing just the tailbooms (not the wings) should reduce the labor, but I don't know by how much. (I worked on and compiled the SID work I referenced, but I did not contribute to the man-hour estimates.) Perhaps others will jump in here and provide estimates for removal and re-install of the tailbooms. We just removed and re-installed the rear engine on my normally aspirated 337G and it took about 22 man-hours. That's not all A&P (read: expensive) manpower, because one A&P and one mechanic-apprentice (supervised by the A&P) worked well.

Ernie

Removal and installation of the rear engine does not require the disassembly of the tail booms. That would be way overkill.

I understand that. What i am looking to do is remove tailbooms and rear engine in order to make the plane short enough that I can put the plane sideways on a trailer with wings still on and transport it to my homestation. In that configuration, I need to get it down to about 12-14 feet wide so as to get a permit to move it on the trailer about 30 miles to the repair facility. KD

I would suggest that you ask Don Nieser

I did get up with him. I also went out to my pane. It appears that with removing the rear end, front prop and the bottom cowling to the rear engine (would require drilling out permanent rivets for this piece) I could make the fuselage about 13.5 feet long. Although this IS an option.....I think my best bet is to bite the bullet and have the local FBO there do the necessary work in order to make it legal again to fly. Will be about 2 weeks for them to give me an estimate, what to start a pool on how much? Nearest person to the actual bid gets the bill. Any takers? KD

Well after "biting the bullet" and asking the FBO to give me a bid, nothing has happened with my plane. I have found out that I can transport the plane sideways as long as it is less than 16' wide. I can easily make that. So I got one maint. shop there to take the tailbooms off and they will also pull the the rear engine off so I can send it off for teardown. I am still short 2 rear prop blades so if anybody knows of someone trying to get rid of some please let them know of my situation. I have an entry on the part site here with the pn for the blades. Wish me luck, I'll let you know how the haul goes in two weeks. KD

Did they give you a bid or did they decline to bid? I'm guessing they were over $40K if they did, engine rebuilds not included.

Don Nieser now has a prop shop and may have blades.

Ernie

There's a D2AF34C59/76C-0 prop listed for sale on barnstormers.com.

http://www.barnstormers.com/ad_detail.php?ID=704944

Jim C,
They did not even give me a bid. Thanks for the tip on the prop. I don't know enough about props to know if that one will fit my plane. Have e-mailed him about that and price. He's only 7.5 hours away so may go pick it up myself. If this doesn't pan out then its a call to Don. I'm still hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars away from needing the prop, but it would be nice to have it in hand. KD

My own dis-assemby
 

When Hagarstown aircraft came to pick up my 337, to start a rebuild, it took them three guys a long day. By the end of the day, the airplane was leaving on a trailer, wings off, and the booms + rudder + elevator assembly still together, but on the same trailer.

Its hard to motivate people when they are getting paid by the hour! KD