Jacking

[Dana]

I'm trying to determine the best way to jack up my plane for tire changing or whatever. On the other planes I've owned, there was always enough of a flat surface somewhere on the landing gear leg to put a jack. On my Hatz, though, the plates the spring strut fits between are angled on the bottom so there's no place for a jack to sit, and the brake caliper is also in the way. How have others dealt with it?

[rawheels]

I didn’t build our plane, so I’m not sure how unique our gear are. There is enough room to place a jack on our gear for tire removal (see attached pic). Maybe yours is similar?

[Dana]

My Starduster was like that. My Hatz is different:

landing gear.jpg (24.63 KiB) Viewed 3719 times

[Dana]

I ended making up a post with a plastic saddle on top to fit against the lugs on the fuselage:

IMG_20200517_102937_reduced.jpg (131.74 KiB) Viewed 1840 times

The jack is left over from my Fiat Spider days, the plastic saddle is a chunk of HDPE cut to a 16° angle to match the angle of the lug plates:

IMG_20200517_102928_reduced.jpg (85.42 KiB) Viewed 1840 times

It's notched about 3/16" deep so it won't slide off:

IMG_20200517_103006_reduced.jpg (95.53 KiB) Viewed 1840 times