What are good jacks and a tailstand, to help me carry out proper lubrication, etc.? Are the tailstand kits any good?
Search strings: jack stands, tail stands, tailstands, aircraft jacks, jacking
Technical Editor:
My jack preference is the relatively inexpensive jack from The Jack House. A set currently runs $428. When I bought my first pair about twenty years ago, they were $99, so the current price is pretty decent. Most things have gone up a lot more than that, in twenty years. And mine have held up very well.
You can find tailstand kits, but they are all much too flimsy for me. They usually consist of a thin galvanized tub on castors, with thin rectangular tubing for the vertical post. The inner tube is a very loose fit in the outer tube, so the plane can sway around too much while on jacks. The caster attachment is weak, because of the flimsy tub metal. The best bet for a good tailstand is to make it yourself. Try to come up with a drum dolly with wheels, and a beer keg to match. Bolt the keg to the dolly. Use two pieces of galvanized pipe that will nest fairly snugly together (but not binding). I think mine are 1” pipe inside 1.25” pipe; but it could be 1.25” inside 1.5”. You can check at a place like Lowes, to see what fits together the best. Cut the notch in the top of the inner pipe, with a hole through the resulting ears, to mate with your tail lug. You can line the bottom of the notch with something like leather, if you wish. The notch should allow the hole to reach the tail lug opening; but the notch should be shallow enough to keep the stand ears from hitting the fuselage. Drill 3/8” holes two inches apart on the outer pipe, and 1.5” apart on the inner pipe. I put a short bolt through the bottom of the outer pipe, through a bottom plug, before putting it into the beer keg. The plug keeps the pipe from filling with concrete, and the protruding ends lock the pipe in the concrete. Then fill the keg with pea-gravel cement or sand cement. Make a short upper bolt for the tail lug, with a beveled end on the bolt so the nut starts easier without being dropped. Ditto for a longer bolt for the outer pipe. I make wing-nut bolts for the lower bolt, for easier handling, but there isn’t room for the wing style on the upper bolt. The resulting tail stand will be far more secure than the kit style. You don’t want the plane’s tail shifting around while it’s on jacks.
Be sure to read and understand the information on jacking, both in the Shop Manual and in general references, before taking this one. I strongly advise you to get a demonstration from an A&P, before tackling it on your own. It is not hard to do; but even a simple mistake can quickly become very costly (such as a big hole under the wing).