Ship 172 Remove Wings

[bman]

If I wanted to ship a 172 can the wings be removed and replaced? Is this more trouble than its worth?

Thanks in advance

 

[GravityHater]

can be done in a day, usually shipping results in more hangar rash than just flying it somewhere.

 

[erj-145mech]

It depends on how careful you are in packing and shipping the wings. If the wings are to be shipped on a commercial carrier, I'd build a crate with lots of foam rubber padding.

I've disassembled a couple of aircraft to be shipped overseas (Holland). One airplane, one 40 ft container. We used some army surplus two inch wide webbing and suspended the wings, leading edge down, from the ceiling.

 

[cforst513]

i read in a magazine a few months ago that a school in china is now getting their planes this way. quicker and cheaper, i think.

 

[FearlessFreep]

It all depends where you are shipping the aircraft - and the size. I have worked for a company that does aircraft "containerization" and shipping. There is definite specific disassembly and packaging procedures that need to be followed in accomplishing this task. We could put one small aircraft in a 24' ocean freight container for shipment to Hawaii. Typically most worldwide service is utilizing 40' containers and we could fit from 2-4 aircraft in one. All this was accomplished with absolutely no damage.

The preferred method of shipping an aircraft like either C-172 or PA-28 overseas long distances is "Knocked Down". Ferrying these types of aircraft over the Pacific or the Atlantic are challenging, long (about 22-24 hours out to Hawaii) and high risk affairs. I have been out of this side of the industry for a while but right now I would think that ferry insurance premiums will probably exceed the cost of the ferry flight itself.

 

[FearlessFreep]

Arrgh! Double post! How do you delete?