Taylorcrafts & Hammocks

[Jim Meeker]

Recently I have attended a few fly-ins where you ended up camping on hard surfaces. I am looking for a softer sleep off the ground. I found the attached picture of a hammock hung on a plane. (other pictures can be seen at http://www.mosquitohammock.com/mosquitohammock.html) Has anyone out there tried this on a Taylorcraft? If attaching to the strut I am sure you would have to attach at the point the strut is attached to the wing (I currrently have my tie down loops attached here instead of the original loop that was clamped to the strut). The other end would probably have to attach to the step where the strut is attached to the plane.
Thanks
Jim

[FunkyMonkey]

Re: Taylorcrafts & Hammocks

Seems sort of awkward to me. I would think a t-craft would be leaning a bit from the weight.

I fell asleep in the cabin once (parked), wouldnt recomend it. Painful afterwards.

[N95179]

Re: Taylorcrafts & Hammocks

I wouldn't use one with a T-craft.

[VictorBravo]

Re: Taylorcrafts & Hammocks

Jim, you goin' to Columbia again this year?

That Wilga is a lot heavier of an airplane than a Taylorcraft. My GUESS is that an air mattress would be a good bet, or two foam pads, or something like that. Heck, an aluminum frame camp cot would do you just right.

[8708]

Re: Taylorcrafts & Hammocks

I backpack a lot and use either a thermarest mattress or big agnes air mattress. The Thermarest is self inflating and the Big Agnes just needs a few lung fulls to inflate. Both are insulated and roll up quite small (8 inch diameter x 10 inches long) and weigh about 2.5 lbs. When inflated they are 2 to 2.5 inches thick (depending on the model) and will give you a good nights sleep!
Jay

[tim]

Re: Taylorcrafts & Hammocks

but i do know the perfect airplane to use this on its an an-2 its pefect for it it has tuns of places to hag it from lol

[Jim Meeker]

Re: Taylorcrafts & Hammocks

Bill
Yes I plan on being there assuming no weather problems are you going? I posed this same question to Forest and he thought it would work. Said he has hung a hammock chair from the strut wing connection.
Cheers
Jim

[VictorBravo]

Re: Taylorcrafts & Hammocks

I will try to be there if I can get the !($#*%# baffling done in time. I lost 6 months chasing a better cooling system that didn't work, or that needs some more effort to make work. So I'm refurbishing my old baffles and trying to get them installed and tested.

I'm really pissed because I wanted to use this time to get my control sticks installed before Columbia to show off. But now I just want to get there.

If FORREST can hang in a hammock under the strut then I'm sure you can But it still doesn't sit well with me, just like walking out on top of a Cherokee wing halfway out. Sure it probably won't break, but it's kinda insulting to the airplane IMHO.

Jim, have a crack at this idea... draw out a very simple tripod/teepee frame made of 1" aluminum poles or carbon fiber poles or whatever. Strong enough to support your sleep hammock. Anchor the three "feet" of that tripod to the ground with stakes. Anchor the top apex of the tripod to top of the strut. The airplane STABILIZES the entire contraption so it won't keel over, but the carbon tubes actually support your weight. You also get the added shade protection of the wing over you so you don't need a rainfly. You might even be able to just use TWO of the poles and have the airplane stabilize the poles upright. The two poles would be at an angle of 80 degrees (top inboard) so they would take the majority of the weight, and the strut would keep those poles at that angle. The bottom of the two poles would be about four feet apart to stabilize it fore-aft.

Since I met you up there last year, I've been thinking about making up a custom ultralight camping tent for the T-craft that uses the struts instead of tent poles (the struts only have to support the weight or wind loads of the fabric, not a person).

I figure you could have a very useful tent with lots more room in it than a standard 2 person camping tent, offering almost stand-up room, that doesn't have any poles at all. Basically just a shaped and sewn piece of fabric, a zipper, and four or six light aluminum stakes. Maybe even down around one pound if it's done right. If it's designed cleverly, you could even have some loops in the roof to hang your gear inside the tent and leave the floor clear, which means you get more usable space AND you can easily see any critters that come in for a visit when you go in to sleep at night.

Anybody try this already? It seems too obvious of an idea that somebody should have figured this out before ???

[Ed O'Brien]

Re: Taylorcrafts & Hammocks

For your consideration. I used a 20ft x 8 ft blue heavy plastic ground cloth/tarp for years. I spread it over one wing of a 180 and 182. It had grommets so it was easy to stake at either end of the length. I nestled one side against the plane's door. I kept the airplane between me and the prevailing wind/weather. I used a similar ground cloth for the floor. I lashed the windward side of the floor to the tarp over the wing. I also lashed the wing tarp (using the grommets up the side of the tarp) to the bottom of the wing by running rope between the grommet that were just below the wing. Although not for winter camping it worked great, went through some pretty good rain storms, kept me quite dry, and cost was less than $30 and packed up tight. The only problem was, in the wind, the metal grommets marred up the paint on the wing in a couple places. I took it all over - EAA, CAF, Reno, not a problem that I can remember. For EAA I added an interior mosquito net. Just an idea.
With regards; ED OBRIEN
With regards; ED OBRIEN

[1938BF50]

Re: Taylorcrafts & Hammocks

Ed,

Camping Pietenpol Air Camper style!

[1938BF50]

Re: Taylorcrafts & Hammocks

Bill,

As if you do not already have irons in the fire......

I would encourage you to follow thru on the strut-tent. If designed to somewhat accomodate the thousands of strut using aircraft, you might just have great idea here! I agree that you could package this thing under a couple of pounds. Beats the heck out of 10# tents.

Mike

[VictorBravo]

Re: Taylorcrafts & Hammocks

Bill,

As if you do not already have irons in the fire......

I would encourage you to follow thru on the strut-tent. If designed to somewhat accomodate the thousands of strut using aircraft, you might just have great idea here! I agree that you could package this thing under a couple of pounds. Beats the heck out of 10# tents.

Mike

As soon as I have the time to make one up and try it out myself I would think about offering them. To be honest, I just assumed that other people had thought of this already, and upgraded themselves from the impromptu tarp wrap like Ed used. Who knows, if I offer the product and it is successful, I might even be able to make enough money to buy shares of stock in the Taylorcraft company from Mr. Barnum...er... I mean Mr. Ingram.

[VictorBravo]

Re: Taylorcrafts & Hammocks

OK Mike, you got my gears spinning... here's a sketch of what I was thinking.

The red lines are the outline of the tent. The green lines are the aluminum stakes. The yellow lines are lightweight tension cords that go to grommets sewn into the middle of the large tent side walls (to oppose wind collapsing the walls inward). The light blue loops are loops where you could hang some stuff at the jury strut junction without bending the strut.

Notice that this is almost stand-up room at the entrance, and it appears to have a fairly large amount of floor space.

Maybe a couple of hundred square feet of light fabric, a couple of hundred feet of Spectra or nylon cord sewn in to the seams and edges, five feet worth of strong webbing for loops and grommet tabs, one zipper, and ten square feet of mesh for a screen door at the entrance?

Anybody else think this is a particularly good idea?

[1938BF50]

Re: Taylorcrafts & Hammocks

Looks EXCELLENT! I want one.

Elastic cords in the entry end to account for for wing rock?

[VictorBravo]

Re: Taylorcrafts & Hammocks

I don't know... maybe elastic cords but they'd have to be backed up with webbing after a certain point. Shouldn't be too much wing rock if both wings are tied down?

OK, off to the hangar to work on the stuff keeping it on the ground...