Fuselage is out of the Attic - After 10 Years

 After taking off the cowling and horizontal tail surfaces the first big task was to remove the engine.  I used the come-along on my slider tubes, from earlier, to hold it while removing the firewall bolts.  I then bolted 2x4s to the back of the engine mount and slowly lowered the engine to a cart.

We've got to carry it down the steps so I added a stiffener to prevent accidentally bending the engine mount.

We'll carry it down after we rest up from moving the fuselage.  All these things seemed much lighter 10 years ago when our son Wade and I carried them up the steps.

 When we carried the fuselage up the firewall was not on and it was easy to hold the front of the fuselage.  I made up some handles from 1" conduit to make it easier to lift the front end going down the steps.

 The gear is off.  It's setting on a small saw horse and suspended from the ceiling so we don't damage anything until we can move it.

 After 3 weeks of rain we had an afternoon when my neighbor Dan was available to help move the fuselage.  We slid it out onto the porch railing with some rugs to pad the railing

 With the tail wheel on, the tail is the heavy end despite how much is hanging over the railing.  Because I built the house with 10 foot ceilings on the first floor the deck railing is 15 feet above the ground.  You just need faith it won't fall.

 With the tail finally clear of the door we could slide it back.  Then we had to slide the fuselage to the left to get it aligned with the stairs.

Once it was lined up we could lift the tail over the railing.

 We slowly slid it to the edge of the railing so Dan could use the handles to lift the nose off the rail and start down the steps.

Dan really had the heavy awkward end coming down the steps and kept urging me to hurry.  We just had to go slow and easy as we each moved down a step and made sure we had a good footing before taking the next step.

 On the ground it was back onto the small saw horse while we positioned the gear under the fuselage.

Muscle man Dan Doing the lifting while Patricia and I put the gear bolts back in.

 It's out of the attic and on the gear.

I think it's time to put this thing back together.