Oy - - the things you see when you don't have a camera. =~ (

At the airport today and the guy in the next hangar taxied his running aircraft onto a car trailer.

OK, you ship, your loss, nobody got hurt.

He then jacks the plane up and removes the wheels and bolts on pontoons. These pontoons are water only, there are no little wheels underneath them. Hmmmmm.... He keeps it on a nearby lake, but how's he getting out of here?

Next thing ya know, truck, trailer and plane are headed out the taxiway toward the runway. Truck shoots down the runway at 70 mph, the plane lifts off and circles right with a quick wave.

Clever.

Foolish?

GRM-ish.

Impressive. Most impressive....

I can't recall anything in AIM/FAR about any FAA regs against it. Still, common sense should have prevailed.

What I want to know is how did he get the wheels on it? If its usually on a lake with pontoons.

Totally excellent, I'd do it.

In reply to 7rx:

Land it back on the trailer, duh.

Back the trailer down a boat ramp? Swap them out in the parking lot.

Wait, fly out of the parking lot? No, no, no, trailer down the boat ramp, plane on, swap wheels, drive a few miles to a Hiway!

Ta Daaaaaa!

Can that plane comfortably lift off at 70mph? Because the thought of applying any meaningful amount of thrust while on the trailer is scary. Seems reasonable otherwise.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

Yes. They can. A Piper J-3 stalls at 33kts. or 38mph.

That is awesome.

Yeah, I really want to see the landing when he brings it back to the airport.

I've seen that done on video. Pretty sure those guys clank when they walk.

Appleseed wrote: In reply to GameboyRMH: Yes. They can. A Piper J-3 stalls at 33kts. or 38mph.

Or less if it's a windy day.

OK, I am missing something here. Why remove the wheels after taxing into a trailer? Where the tires flat?

Now... he ran that plane into a trailer. Did it stop the prop? If so, flying a plane after forceably stopping the prop, not a good idea. Out of balance prop, throwing blades, etc.

As far as taking off from a trailer. The FAA cannot think of everything (at least until someone does something so stupid they have to make a law) so I would be highly suspect there would be any guidelines about this. He is most likely to only kill himself anyway. So there's that.

Honestly, you could probably gun the engine on the trailer (not a lot of power + a good amount of drag on skids) and drive up to take off speed (keeping the nose down), then lift off. Not a big issue other then the nose coming up before takeoff speed. My primary concern would be the angle of attack of the wing as it sat on the trailer (e.g. if the nose points up, that could be very bad). Any significant amount would be a concern of course.

In reply to aircooled:

To put the floats on it. I suspect they attach where the wheels do.

The internet needs to get a grip on itself, everyone went nuts over that video a couple weeks ago.

This is standard procedure in the bushplane business. If you're not running amphibs (floats with landing gear in them) you need to get that plane in the air somehow.

Floats get put on in a maintenance facility which is not normally partly submerged. If you have no beaching gear to put the floatplane in the water, you need to do it this way.

Beaching gear at work, at the airport where I used to work: https://youtu.be/BjNpSPJn5dk

In reply to Trans_Maro:

That's not at all what I expected. I thought there'd be more truck...

Pretty cool, but, I clicked on this thinking it would be a whole bunch of random weirdness, so I'll start it off. One time I was at a traffic light. There was a fat guy in a three wheeled mobility scooter on the sidewalk heading in one direction and a guy in a regular powered 4 wheel wheel chair heading in the opposite direction. The 4 wheeler had american flags, a POW flag and he had no legs. They come face to face on the sidewalk in front of the Chevy dealership and start yelling at each other. Next thing I know, they are side by side throwing haymakers at each other. Every time they would swing, the wheelers would move around and the fat guy eventually tipped over and fell face down in front of the other guy. I sat there through and entire light change instead of turning when I got the green arrow to turn left into the stop and shop. Another time I was coming home from Boston and there was an accident in the HOV lane. Seems a 15 passenger van full of chinese restaurant workers had rear ended another 15 passenger van full of chinese restaurant workers. Common site to see these vans taking workers from China town in Boston out to work in the suburbs. Anyway, the passengers were spilled out onto the now clogged HOV lane and there were at least a half dozen different fights going on. Looked like the worst Kung Fu movie you ever saw. Wish I had a camera. I drive a lot doing service work, so I see some pretty messed up stuff.

Sidebar:

My Dad's cousin used to restore vintage airplanes down in Lakeland. He did a lot of fabric covered wing and fuselage stuff. At one point, a customer brought in a plane that he had just bought and had pontoons on it. He asked him to remove them and said that he didn't want them back. They were stored in the hanger and more or less forgotten about.

About 25 years later, another customer contacts him to have some work done on his new plane. He casually mentions that he'd also like to find a set of pontoons for it and asks if he knows anyone who might have a set for sale. As a matter of fact, he does...

Same plane.

That's crazy. Have you seen the prices of certified EDO floats?

It's really not an uncommon launching technique. Trailer or truck. The floats are tough enough to handle a grass landing upon return, if necessary.

Wow, any thoughts on what they weigh?

In reply to foxtrapper:

Yep, my uncle would land his on a wet grass field across the street from his house. Swap to skis/wheels for winter.