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Kupe's Zodiac 650B
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Date: 5-24-2013
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Number of Hours: 1.50
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: The Big Flip
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I finally got to the point where I needed to flip the wing back over right-side-up so I could finish drilling out the nose skin. If you recall, I manually flipped the wing upside-down in the first place by first stabilizing the wing in a vertical position with the main spar face down on the work table. With the nose ribs in place this would not be possible, so I had to try something else.
That something else came in the form of a long piece of PVC pipe and a pulley system attached to the ceiling of my garage. The The pulley system is a product called the Racor Ladder Lift (http://www.racorstoragesolutions.com/p/detail/ldl-1b) which is designed to store a ladder out of the way on your garage ceiling. The Racor kit only comes with one pulley set since the ladder initially rests in a stationary hook attached up on the ceiling and the pulley is only used to raise the other end. I purchased two of them so that both ends could be raised independently. Also, the pulley system has a built-in locking mechanism, much like a venetian blind, which allows to to raise/lower in small increments and then move to the other end and do it again.
So this morning I installed the 2 pulley systems (~45 minutes) and flipped the wing back right-side-up (~45 more minutes). The job was a bit nerve-wracking until I knew I could trust the pulleys to carry the weight, trust the locking mechanisms to hold securely, and trust the PVC pipe to maintain its rigidity throughout the process. Once I got past all that, the job went pretty smoothly. Next time, I'm going to enlist a second person to help with the fine horizontal positionin required to land back onto the supports - should be an easy job for anyone to do.
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Pulleys installed, PVC in place, and the wing being lifted the first few inches. Holding my breath...
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Wing pulled higher and half-way rotated to right-side-up. Looks like this might work!
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Just before final touchdown. A lot of small horizontal nudging here to land on the right spot.
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