Howdy y'all,
I'm going to be moving the Voodoo soon (maybe as soon as this weekend) and I was curious if any of you have some info that I'm going to need....
I'm hoping to get the fuselage and wings moved in one load, but not sure just how far apart things gotta come. I know the horizontal stabilizer needs to be removed, but I'm wondering about the aft end of the fuselage, which includes the vertical fin. I've seen pictures of other folks moving Voodoos, and they unbolted the ass-end. Heck, that's what they did on this airplane. However, the truck driver (Buddy Chapman) and I talked about it and with the bed of the trailer being only 3 ft. high, we may not have an issue with the height of the vertical fin.
We know the airplane is 18 feet tall on it's gear, but the dimension I'm needing is from the bottom of the fuselage to the top of the vertical fin. It's not the end of the world if I have to unbolt the tail section, but it's just more work and more chance to damage something.
And while I'm begging for help, I'm told that the gear on the Voodoo requires not only hydraulics (which I can get around), but also electricity, in order to release the down locks. They tell me that they were unable to retract the gear on this very airplane and that it was "impossible" to do so. I'm sure y'all know that I don't believe that, but I'm curious just what would be required. As the late Gerry Beck used to say, "The difficult stuff takes a while, and the impossible takes just a little longer."
So, if y'all have any thoughts on this, I'd appreciate it.
Gary