My FBO, St. Charles Flying Service, offers a wonderful service. They will put my airplane back in the hangar for me after fueling it. It seems like a little thing but it’s nice. There was only one tiny little detail which prevented me from taking them up on it: none of the attachments on their tow vehicles would fit my airplane. I think that, just perhaps, mine was the only airplane at KSET which they could not tow.
Poor me.
Most of the airplanes on the field are either Cessnas or Pipers. The tow bar attaches to a Cessna by clamping onto two round studs. The tow bar attaches to a Piper by dropping two pins through holes in a horizontal bar. On a Bede BD-4C airplane, the tow bar has to have big round holes, over one inch in diameter, which clamp onto the axle nuts.
I examined the nose gear on a friend’s RV-7A. It uses Cessna tow bars and the “mechanism” is stone simple: a pair of socket head bolts with a few washers to lend a little extra length.
I bought a couple of stainless steel socket head bolts and a couple of lock nuts. I drilled a hole through each nose gear “arm.” I inserted the bolts, tightened the nuts, and I was done.
Here are the photos. Click on them to see larger versions.
There are only two things that you need to be careful of in this high-precision operation: Do not use a bolt so long that it can touch the tire, and do not put the hole so far forward that you cannot get a nut onto the bolt. Not too tough, eh?
I’ll bet you didn’t think that I could write a whole blog post in just 316 words, did you?
I have an L-shaped fitting on an antenna mount, with two holes on one side of the L. There are two studs that go through the holes. Unfortunately, the holes are so close to the bottom of the L that a wingnut cannot turn on the stud, so something that should be hand attachable needs a wrench — or a nut-driver.
Hi Art. I Liked your tow bar creation . I finally took early retirement and moved closer to my plane in Fort Pierce with my wife Consent obviously. I know live in Vero Beach. I hope to meet you in person on the ramp in the future air shows. I am almost done with my BD 4C panel and the new engine is in the crate waiting to be installed. Fly Safe, Fly Often and Post more Videos.