When it comes to lifting Grumman AA-1 and AA-5 aircraft, specific procedures should be followed to assure safe and damage free lifting.

For nose gear, wheel and tire servicing, current Grumman AA-1 and AA-5 series aircraft lifting procedures include placing sand bags or other weight on the top surface of the horizontal stabilizer to lower the tail section and consequently raise the nose.

Recent evidence suggests that excessive loading of the horizontal stabilizer has contributed to stabilizer spar support fatigue and cracking. As a result, an Airworthiness Directive was issued by the FAA to address this issue.

The Fresh Aero EasyLift V was developed to completely eliminate loading the tail section and correctly places the lifting load precisely where Grumman maintenance manuals specify – at station 51, just aft of the firewall on AA-1 and AA-5 series aircraft.

The EasyLift V can also be used to lift each main gear and wheel assembly without loading the strut. The load is spread out almost 4 feet along the lift points specified in Grumman maintenance manuals (station 125). This is very useful for strut servicing too.  

To make our  new EasyLift even more versatile - and to reduce your cost, we’ve redesigned our new EasyLift V to bolt onto a “Harbor Freight” #61632/60536 ATV/Motorcycle lift. The Fresh Aero EasyLift V bolts on to the ATV lift in just minutes and provides a stable and secure lifting platform for lifting Grumman AA-1 and AA-5 aircraft.

An added benefit -- you can use your ATV/motorcycle lift for other lifting chores with the EasyLift V removed. Very versatile indeed!

The Harbor Freight #61632/60536 ATV/motorcycle lift available at all Harbor Freight stores for under 80 dollars (even less expensive with a coupon). If you don’t have a Harbor Freight store nearby, you can order one.

Innovative Features Include ---

   Just bolts onto the stable and robust Harbor       Freight ATV/Motorcycle lift in minutes.

An articulating support beam that mates perfectly with the bottom of the aircraft and pivots to compensate for the increasing angle of incidence as the aircraft is raised.

Lifts the aircraft at the locations specified in the Grumman manuals for excellent access when performing strut, wheel or tire maintenance.

The support beam features a structural aluminum "C" channel core fastened to a treated wood sub plate and cushioned with a heavy duty wrap around carpet.

The beam extends the width of the aircraft with a large load lifting area – considerably more than required by Grumman service manuals.

The support beam ram socket is designed to locate the ram end (and pivot point) as close to the aircraft as possible. This increases the overall stability of the lift.

The Other Side of Wide

Remember the “Wider is Better” commercials on TV several years ago? They were touting the virtues of wide wheel base vehicles and how wide platforms were always better from a stability perspective. 

This is right on the money because wide supporting platforms do substantially increase the overall stability of objects like the vehicles in the above scenario.

The Fresh Aero Easy Lift  v uses wide platforms at the base and crossbeam to increase the overall stability but there is another side of wide – the spreading of the lifting load out across a large area to greatly reduce load concentrations.

You see this applied everywhere in manmade and natural creations. Consider how snowshoes spread the weight of a person’s body over a large area to prevent sinking into the snow. You can try this yourself by standing in snow or mud with just boots and then laying down a piece of wood and standing on it.  The wood spreads the load out over a larger area and “sink rate” diminishes proportionately. 

Now consider the EasyLift crossbeam and how it mates with the bottom of Grumman AA-1 and AA-5 aircraft. The load  lifted at Station 51, the nose wheel lifting location, is approximately 550 pounds, give or take for fuel, engine and other weight factors.

The EasyLift crossbeam makes contact with the aircraft with 253.5 square inches (42.5” x 6”).  If the total load is 550 pounds, one square inch carries only a little over 2 pounds (253.5 / 550)!  The Easy Lift spreads this weight so there are absolutely no load concentrations at the point of lift. Each square inch of supported aircraft only carries about 2 pounds – well within the design parameters of Grumman AA-5 Series aircraft.  The AA-1 Series aircraft fairs even better because of its lighter weight.

For you tech types, we know there is a very slight beam deflection factor that will load the the aircraft closest to the ram a little more then migrate out with a slightly lighter load towards the ends of the crossbeam. This is really very minor and certainly hundreds of times better the concentrating the load in a small area.

Yes, wider certainly is better! Bob

Watch a youtube Video of an Easylift lifting a Grumman Main Gear

Watch a youtube Video of an Easylift lifting a Grumman Nose Gear