Apparently there was some one in Ulster who towed his nipper on a trailer with the nose down travelling sideways. Any details would be most helpful.
Joe
Nipper trailer
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JimCrawford
- Posts: 145
Re: Nipper trailer
I remember seeing that Nipper trailer long ago in the PFA mag, it may even have been a cover photo. More recently it was the inspiration behind my design of a Nipper Tipper which was to allow my Nipper to be parked in an otherwise unusable part of the hangar at lower cost than the standard aircraft hangarage fee.
If you are thinking of resurrecting a Nipper trailer there are a couple of things you might like to think about, discovered during the Nipper Tipper design:
The aircraft will have to be nearly vertical to keep the trailer width down. I had to go to 45' to keep the width below 3.5 metres. How do you react the weight? I guessed that any support on the nosewheel would probably end up with a bent nose leg so I ran the mainwheels into boxes so that, when tipped, the weight was reacted primarily in the drag direction by the main legs. The nose wheel would rest against a stop to prevent the aircraft trying to pitch down inverted around the mainwheels. I was happy with this arrangement for the tipper which would just be wheeled about on the smooth hangar floor but would be very uncertain about this for a road trailer - try to imagine the forces as you go over a speed bump a bit fast.
The tail will be very high, allowing for the trailer clearance the rudder could be 6 metres above the ground. This is starting to put you into low bridge country and also the yaw forces due to drag have to be reacted. This could easily be done by having the wingtips in 'cups' but then any weight supported at the tips has to be reckoned with, speed bumps again.
One last point; if the aircraft is left for any significant length of time tipped, then the foremost cylinder(s) could flood with engine oil leaking past the rings. I envisaged de-oiling the engine via a battery powered pump through a filter, and re-oiling via the same route at every tip. The fuel tank filler will probably be ok as long as there is less than 50% fuel.
As luck would have it I moved from my 3.5 metre wide unusable space into a 5 metre wide unusable space so I now push the Nipper onto a skate which allows me to insert the 4.8 metre long aircraft sideways into it's home. So the Nipper Tipper was never required.
I think that, for a 'one off' move I'd take the wing off and use a conventional car type trailer. I'm not sure that vertical trailering is a suitable plan for taking the aircraft home to avoid hangarage charges.
Good Luck!
Jim
If you are thinking of resurrecting a Nipper trailer there are a couple of things you might like to think about, discovered during the Nipper Tipper design:
The aircraft will have to be nearly vertical to keep the trailer width down. I had to go to 45' to keep the width below 3.5 metres. How do you react the weight? I guessed that any support on the nosewheel would probably end up with a bent nose leg so I ran the mainwheels into boxes so that, when tipped, the weight was reacted primarily in the drag direction by the main legs. The nose wheel would rest against a stop to prevent the aircraft trying to pitch down inverted around the mainwheels. I was happy with this arrangement for the tipper which would just be wheeled about on the smooth hangar floor but would be very uncertain about this for a road trailer - try to imagine the forces as you go over a speed bump a bit fast.
The tail will be very high, allowing for the trailer clearance the rudder could be 6 metres above the ground. This is starting to put you into low bridge country and also the yaw forces due to drag have to be reacted. This could easily be done by having the wingtips in 'cups' but then any weight supported at the tips has to be reckoned with, speed bumps again.
One last point; if the aircraft is left for any significant length of time tipped, then the foremost cylinder(s) could flood with engine oil leaking past the rings. I envisaged de-oiling the engine via a battery powered pump through a filter, and re-oiling via the same route at every tip. The fuel tank filler will probably be ok as long as there is less than 50% fuel.
As luck would have it I moved from my 3.5 metre wide unusable space into a 5 metre wide unusable space so I now push the Nipper onto a skate which allows me to insert the 4.8 metre long aircraft sideways into it's home. So the Nipper Tipper was never required.
I think that, for a 'one off' move I'd take the wing off and use a conventional car type trailer. I'm not sure that vertical trailering is a suitable plan for taking the aircraft home to avoid hangarage charges.
Good Luck!
Jim
Re: Nipper trailer
Jim.
Thank you for taking the time to reply and in such detail. I take your well made points.
Whilst I do have a 400m strip it certainly isn't the place to be conducting the first flight of a Nipper from. Five miles away is the former RAF Machrihanish now reduced to 1750 m but any form of hangarage is proving a problem. The trailer seemed the ideal solution, but I now think the effort might be better spent on building a temporary hangar that would allow the final rigging , inspection and initial test flying . My LAA inspector , who is an Ulsterman , remembers the chap with the Nipper trailer but can't recall much detail beyond that he managed to load/unload the aircraft quite easily and used it often. Newtonards are having a flyin this weekend and I plan to go across. I shall ask about whilst I'm there, more out of curiosity , and report back.
regards Joe
Thank you for taking the time to reply and in such detail. I take your well made points.
Whilst I do have a 400m strip it certainly isn't the place to be conducting the first flight of a Nipper from. Five miles away is the former RAF Machrihanish now reduced to 1750 m but any form of hangarage is proving a problem. The trailer seemed the ideal solution, but I now think the effort might be better spent on building a temporary hangar that would allow the final rigging , inspection and initial test flying . My LAA inspector , who is an Ulsterman , remembers the chap with the Nipper trailer but can't recall much detail beyond that he managed to load/unload the aircraft quite easily and used it often. Newtonards are having a flyin this weekend and I plan to go across. I shall ask about whilst I'm there, more out of curiosity , and report back.
regards Joe
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Neil Spooner
- Posts: 625
- Location: Ardleigh, Colchester, Essex, UK
- Contact:
Re: Nipper trailer
Hi Joe,
I still have my Nipper trolley if that is of any use to you.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=486&hilit=
Regards,
Neil
I still have my Nipper trolley if that is of any use to you.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=486&hilit=
Regards,
Neil
A little help goes a long way.
Nipper G-BRPM and G-BALS
RV4 G-IKON
Nipper G-BRPM and G-BALS
RV4 G-IKON
Re: Nipper trailer
Neil.
That might be the ideal solution and I shall be in touch very soon.
Joe
That might be the ideal solution and I shall be in touch very soon.
Joe
Re: Nipper trailer
From Popular Flying 1972
THIS MONTH’S COVER shows a novel way of reducing hangar fees. Dennis Lowther built this trailer for his Nipper. A complete on-load/offload takes just two minutes. Patt Bott took the photograph.
GARBG
THIS MONTH’S COVER shows a novel way of reducing hangar fees. Dennis Lowther built this trailer for his Nipper. A complete on-load/offload takes just two minutes. Patt Bott took the photograph.
GARBG
- Attachments
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- Nipper trailer002.jpg (2.83 MiB) Viewed 9393 times
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JimCrawford
- Posts: 145
Re: Nipper trailer
That's the photo I saw many moons ago. It looks like the cover price of the mag has crept up a bit since then!
As it happens possible hangar space problems may force the re-incarnation of the Nipper Tipper to keep the floor area down.
Here's looking forward to 2018
Best Wishes
Jim
As it happens possible hangar space problems may force the re-incarnation of the Nipper Tipper to keep the floor area down.
Here's looking forward to 2018
Best Wishes
Jim
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