Hangar Winch in concrete floor

[NordicDave]

Wench is usually a first step, until enough frustration sets in and the pilot pony's up for a tug. No doubt there are people here who popped out of the womb pulling airplanes into a hangar with a wench, and will do so until the end. A winch seems logical, but not as practical as imagined once tried.

I've seen more than one guy hangar rash a plane using a winch without a remote cut-off. That sucker just keeps pulling to matter what.

 

[Doug Reid]

A tug is not the best choice for all airplanes. I use a tug for a Bonanza, but pull in a Cessna 195 with a winch using a harness on main landing gear ... you cannot pull in a C195 with tailwheel..the structure was not designed to carry the load. Remote winch cut-off is mandatory, IMO

 

[Narwhal]

Obviously from this post, winching the airplane in is a common way of doing it. But I have also known more than a couple of people that ended up with damaged aircraft from using a winch connected to the tail tiedown. The tail tiedown on most aircraft isn't designed to have that much load applied at a 90 degree angle, and can cause the structure around it to bend. Just throwing that out there.

Not to say mechanics can't be wrong, but our A&P IA is the one who recommended that I use a winch.

 

[Tarheelpilot]

Based on the slope and amount of ice you are talking about I don’t think a tug will work.

 

[bnt83]

Not to say mechanics can't be wrong, but our A&P IA is the one who recommended that I use a winch.

A winch would be fine depending on where you pull on the airplane. Tail ring? Likely not a good idea, there isn't as much structure attaching that ring as you might think.

Winches are slow so if there is any mismatch between the ramp and the hangar floor its gonna very slowly pull the airplane up to that stepped area, then pull like a monster to get the tires up and onto the hangar floor. The peaking pull could easily damage the tie down ring structure.

I'd pull on the main gear legs.

 

[NoHeat]

A Cirrus should definitely not be winched by the tail ring. It's just glued into the composite, in a manner that cannot take that rearward force, they say.

To solve that problem, I attach the cable on my winch to a home-made harness, and that harness pulls simultaneously on the two sides of the towbar for my Cirrus. To operate this, I hold the tow bar with one hand to steer, and the corded remote switch in the other hand to pull the plane. So the towbar is everything in this scheme, it's where you pull the plane and it's where you steer it. It works fine.

This scheme would probably work not only with a Cirrus, but almost any tricycle fixed-gear planes.

Alternatively, instead of using the towbar to make the two points of connection on the towbar, one could connect the harness to the two main gear. That would require a much bigger harness, which would create more hassle to move it around and set it up, but I'm sure it would work just as well.

 

[NoHeat]

Here’s my harness. It’s made of items found at a hardware store. It hooks onto both sides of a tow bar. A clear plastic tube (not easily seen in the photos) surrounds the cables where they can rub on the nosewheel or its pant.

 

[JP182]

As to the post above about hanger rash. Stand next to the plug when winching so you can unplug it quickly.

 

[Narwhal]

I finally got a chance to put the winch in. Not a perfect job but it seems to work OK. I ended up with two extra holes close to the wall with exposed anchors because the first two anchor holes I drilled weren't deep enough/even enough and I pounded on the anchors so hard attempting to drive them in that they deformed at the top of the threads. I moved a few inches forward and tried again, making sure to go deeper and move the drill bit around a little bit more to even it out before inserting the anchors. I guess I could dremel the extra-mess ups off eventually.

The 4 anchors (3" size) I eventually got installed somewhat properly didn't line up 100% perfectly with the holes in the winch baseplate either....took some hammer adjustments to get it on. I had to use nuts w/washers as spacers underneath the winch baseplate because the hardware that attaches the winch to the plate protrudes 1/4" on the underside. Then there is the giant crack in the floor that comes close to the left side anchors. Oh well, it seems pretty stout and had no problem towing the airplane in, up the hill in about 60 seconds.

Unfortunately the controller isn't long enough to allow winching while steering with the towbar, but luckily it pulls straight enough for that not to matter much. On the upside I can stand right next to the plug if it doesn't stop at the correct time for some reason.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

Looks fine.
If you don't use a large hammer in any project can you really call it a project?

It looks like that winch does not have a safety switch in front of the spool.
Mine does and it has helped when the hand switch failed in the running position! (If the hand switch won't shut off, it will keep pulling the airplane into the wall unless there is a blocky thing attached to the cable which activates the safety switch to shut it off)
Maybe your hangar has large permanent chocks in the floor which will stall out the motor.

Also, I bought a 100' 14ga-2wg* electric cord and swapped it out so I can be with the towbar the entire time (* might check before you buy that this can be done with yours. I had to rewire the connections slightly to make it all work on mine)

Good job!

 

[Ghery]

Unfortunately the controller isn't long enough to allow winching while steering with the towbar, but luckily it pulls straight enough for that not to matter much. On the upside I can stand right next to the plug if it doesn't stop at the correct time for some reason.

The ones in the club had that problem solved rather easily. We simply patched in more cord for the controllers.