Thorp Air Command - T18.net

I've recently been lucky enough to purchase a home in an Airpark. It's been absolutely wonderful to have our airplanes 15 feet from the house! Saying that, it does present some new challenges.

We have a bit of slope to our driveway/ taxiway in front of our hangar. I previously maneuvered my Thorp by pushing or pulling on the propeller as the apron was very flat and didn't require much force at all to get in and out of our previous hangar. At our new home, a good bit of pushing is required to get the planes up the slope and in to the hangar. To further complicate things, I've recently installed a Whirlwind ground adjustable composite propeller. Whirlwind is very clear that their propellers should not be used to push or pull the aircraft.

Has anyone previously installed a retractable tail pull handle in their T-18? I can easily maneuver my 1300 pound Cessna 170 in to our hangar by myself using the tail pull handles. I'm thinking that would likely be the easiest solution for our Thorp as well.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Marshall

Here's what the BAS handle assembly looks like. I would make something similar to fit the Thorp.



Here's a couple photos of the BAS handles I installed in our 170.

I have installed an AC powered winch from Habor Freight in our hangar and it pulls plane in by thr tail just fine. That said, the small sized "Taildragger Dragger" works on the Thorp.

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Bob Highley
N711SH
SN 835
KLAL

Marshall. How do you like the Prop? Does it perform as expected? Dan

I also have installed a harbor freight 12 volt winch to pull my Thorp up into it's hanger. You can get them for under $60.00 on sale, they come with a battery hand held remote. The grade I have to go up is about three feet in about twenty five feet of distance. I have fabricated a attach point on tail wheel pivot bolt for a place to place the hook that comes with the winch. I only have about 8" clearance on each wing tip and this set up is about the right speed to safely move to plane.
Phil

I think the pull handles would be a great addition. I was thinking about it myself until I decided it wouldn't hurt to taxi it in, shut down and spin the aircraft in place by hand. I have a friend who drags his Skyhawk in using an electric motor belted to a big pulley to drive a spool with a cable. He uses a Christmas light remote to control it. It's not very pretty but he spent less than $30, works great and is a good bit faster than most winches.

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson

I made a homemade tail dragger, dragged.

I got a couple wheels from harbor freight and made it out of 2x6 and 2x4 with a 1 inch or so wooden dowel for a handle. I made a strap the holds the tail wheel to the cart. For an axle I used a threaded rod.

It allowed me to pull and push my Aeronca Chief around on gravel and even with effort grass. I have to believe it would easily move a thorp on pavement with an incline with little effort.

While electric winches are cool and all. You can even buy these tail dragger drafters or do what I did and build one with far less cost and effort than digging up a winch and cable system. Just my opinion YMMV

If interested maybe I could find a picture of the homemade dragger I made.

Here is my tail pull handle. Cost about 10$ and some scrap steel laying around. Handle is electrical conduit. It fits the Scott 3200 on a Citabria as well as the ACS 6" tailwheel. Probably fits most tailwheels with bolt sticking out both sides.

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Bernie Fried
N18XS

Nice work as usual Bernie ! I bought one of the Bogart tow bars and after looking at it I said to my self , yo...I can make one of those ! I keep one at home and modified the other one to take with me in the AC to use as a real tow bar to slipover a trailer ball or attach to a pintail hook . About $10.00 worth of steel tube , a few nuts and bolts and some red & black paint and my most excellent welding skills . Pretty sure someone has mentioned some time ago they use a rope to gag the tail wheel and haul the sucker in !

RB
Shazam

I have been using a tie down strap. I just put the hook at the top of the fork so the wheel can swivel and pull it into spaces too tight to taxi into. Not really the best option but it works well enough to get the job done.

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson

You must be an Airline Pilot ? Too cheap to buy the correct tool ? Too ashamed to go to Harbor Freight !

RB

Thanks for all the ideas guys. I've got a single fork aviation products tailwheel, so that complicates the tow bar option. A tail dragger type deal would work at home, but still leaves me without a good place to push/ pull the airplane around when traveling. Rope is cheap and easy, but hard to push on to maneuver around our other planes in the hangar. I'm still leaning towards a retractable handle. It's really taken all the hassle out of moving our Cessna around. I'll post some photos when I get it installed.

Dan, I haven't flown the new prop yet. I'll let you know how it performs as soon as I fly it.

Marshall

I don't make nearly as much money as "those guys" do. I mostly just operate and maintain gas powered farm equipment.

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson

Here's my take on the tow bar. Its a bit ugly having seen 20 yrs of use. The handles are bent so it will fit in the luggage space. Pictures should make it self explanitory, well I hope so. Will be in the Houston area in a couple of days so will look out for Thorps in the sky!
Tony Schischka
ZK-VMS
T-18C

Ah, should have mentioned that it is made out of 20mm square steel tubing. The cross piece needs a small kink in it to clear the tail wheel pivot retaining nut.
Tony S
ZK-VMS