Shipping a Super Cub Overseas in a container

Looking for any information especially pictures of tieing down a Super Cub in a sea container. Did you ship with just wings & tail surfaces removed? Prop still on? 40 ft container? How were wings & other pieces supported? Good photos inside the container showing details of how everything was strapped or bolted down would be much appreciated.
Thanks, Darrel

The container is 8'*8' to the outside, a little less internally, so you will need to remove the tail feathers, but it can stay on its gear. Removing the prop is a good idea.
Making everything as immobile as possible is well worth the effort as you don't know what sea conditions are going to be.
I sent one aircraft through Skyview at Tracy. It may help to look at their gallery for ideas.

A long time back, I got a C120 sent to UK from Ohio and a whole day was spent building wooden frames and trusses to secure everything. Money well spent.

Or you could follow the example of the guys who flew a Supercub to Kenya from the US in 2013 via Greenland, Iceland etc

Not quite a shipping container, but a metal floor and walls. This was a 22' U-Haul. There was a bit of structure to fasten to, but not much. The wing cradles were wedged tightly into the walls and gussets were attached to stop them from moving. the wheels were chocked and tied to stop the plane from moving forward and back. I wasnt too concerned about side to side movement cause we just moved it a hundred miles or so over freeways, not oceans.




I believe for the trip you are prepping for, the bracing should be quite a bit more significant.

Wayne

You need to call Cully Culwell from Dallas Texas, now spending most of his time in Florida. He no longer flys, but shipped his cub to Africa, Europe, New Zealand, and Australia in a 20 ft container. His wife Marilyn flew every trip with him, and wrote a short book on the travels. He was also a glider pilot, and the container was set up much like a glider trailer. PM me and I'll give you his contact info. He is a SuperCub.org member and was a frequent participant at J Creek while he was flying.

Back in 2003 I took apart 2 WWI Biplanes and 2 1911 circa aeroplanes and packed them into 3 containers heading to Australia and back. The problem with containers is you have no control on how they are handled once you close the door. The truck ride could be full of potholes and once it's on the ship could go thru a Hurricane or worse. It is always moving. Everything needs to be made so that it has no movement in all directions. I used the corrugated walls of the container to build the overhead wing racks. Stand 2x4 vertical in the widest corrugation and wedge horizontal beams side to side between the vertical 2x4 and toe screw them together. They also have a wooden floor that you can Tapcon 2x4s to the floors as tyedowns. Put a 3/4" dado in bottom of 2x4 every couple feet before screwing to floor will give you a hole to slip a rope thru to tie things down. I used 1/4" quality cloths line for almost everything because it strong and holds a knot. Australia and back without any damage.

Glenn

Darrel

You might contact Jay DeRosier up at Javron. He has shipped several kits (which are essentially the same) in containers. He has it all pretty well mapped out.

Best regards. Sorry to see your beautiful Cub go.

Bill

i've done this several times. You MUST tie the engine and fuselage up to the top of the container as well as down. Tying down only supports in one direction, and when they drop the container (they will) the engine takes a 15G shock load downwards. Stresses the daylights out of the engine mount. I'll look for more photos.

Skinny 1 inch straps will NOT do a proper job. You need big straps and bolt on wing spar mounts. Steve Pierce has made these before. The air show guys that do this all the time strap up and down. Wheel blocks are fine, but totally inadequate. Be SURE to mount the wings spars to slip in plates of a bolt on mount Strapping the wings to the side with a carpet or pad is insufficient. Remember that sea shipping involves massive waves and the boat (and containers) swing up and down severely. Then when they unload the container the cranes tend to drop them- even a foot or two is damaging.

See the wheel in the photo up against the side of the container.

Twice burnt, now learnt.

Darrel,

I've recently shipped a Super Cub from Holland to Boston. We used a 20 foot container with the engine removed, tail feathers off and it was tight. The price difference for a 20' vs 40' container was around $600-$700 so keeping the engine bolted to the fuselage in the bigger container might be a good idea. The floor of the containers are wood, so there is lots of opportunity to secure everything to the floor. Wood blocks, straps all screw nicely to the floor. Everything arrived in excellent condition so this story has a good ending.

Most recently I imported two damaged Super Cubs from Europe and that all fit in a 20 footer. Two fuselages on gear, two wings and one FWF engine. Another success in ocean shipping.

Please contact me privately if I can help you with more information. Broker, insurance, customs experience and costs are all nice things to know.

Good Luck... Bill

Thanks folks, I will pass all of this along to the buyer and make arrangements for him to make contacts with those who have offered to help with more advice. I'm not sure of the extent of his knowledge or experience so he might be good to go.
And if others want to chime in, please do.
Thanks again, Darrel

Just sent my J3, EDO floats and a Murphy 1800 amphib kit all the way to Ireland.. made it there just fine. Believe it cost him about $5K and $1200 of that was dropping the container and picking up again the next day with a tilt and load. If we were younger and wanted to work 4 feet up it would have been about $3800.

Also shipped a Rebel to Maui years back and squeezed it all into a 20' container.

Either way.. biggest part to success is to bolt the thing down to the floor. I made U shaped metal straps to go up over the axle stubs.. and 4 lag bolts into the container floor on both sides.

Thanks for both the descriptions & the pictures.

Flybynite sent along this encouraging thought.

A few pictures from several years ago.



Just enough length for everything.

A fellow zeroed is G meter in his yac and then shipped it from Romania to the US read seven positive four negative when I got here

Yarddart said:

A fellow zeroed is G meter in his yac and then shipped it from Romania to the US read seven positive four negative when I got here

Click to expand...

I had a recording G meter mounted in a Lake amphib. It would record greater numbers than +7/-4 just in normal rough water landings. A sharp jolt will generate a large G reading.

26 ft truck


Packed the flaps and ailerons in the fuse along with the struts and stringers.

N.H. is a lot closer than Texas so you may get more help to get that thing back flying some day ;-).

Hi Darrel, if you still problem with 40 ft container to load aircraft, it is best to try with 45 ft container (dimension: 1358cm*234cm*272cm , MAX load weight: 29000KG, MAX vloume:86 cubic). Some of shipping company like OShip dot cc offered this, hope it may solve your problem. thanks

It is absolutely imperative that you secure the engine "up" as well as tying the plane down. If not, the engine mount may receive very high G shock loads. Many many planes are damaged n sea freight. Secure with HEAVY nylon straps through the engine bracket with the top cowl off. Remember not to leave anything lying around loose inside the plane. Some times the sea is gentle enough, but more often than not there are massive waves on ocean trips, and containers can get dropped a few feet in the unloading process. Make no assumptions, nor trust to luck, The plane and engine should be suspended both up and down. Also the wings are best secured by making flat steel plate inserts into the spar caps if you have removable wingtips. Make a wood or steel frame and secure it into the structure of the container. Tying everything down is only HALF the job. A 40 footer is adequate and some have done it in a 20, but the price difference is very little, usually. If you're in NH, Craig Sinclair at Hampton did this for me the last time, and my plane arrived without a scratch in England. We saved the packing material, and are now sending it to China. Le me know if you want photos. I'll have to look. Good luck!