One-man rigging aids - is the electric up/down control worth it?

On Sunday, 2 June 2019 16:27:04 UTC+1, jfitch wrote:
On Sunday, June 2, 2019 at 7:44:34 AM UTC-7, Paul Kaye wrote:
My new club seems to have a culture of rig in April and derig in October! Personally I prefer to rig and derig for each flight, unless I know that there is a run of several days good weather and I'm available to fly. I have covers (Cloud-dancers) but I really don't think they offer the protection against UV that is needed for leaving it outdoors for long periods.

Anyhow, as a consequence, it's not always easy to get help to rig/de-rig so I'm thinking of getting a on-man rigging aid. It seems that I can get one from IMI for about €900 that is manually-adjustable for height and sideways alignment, or I could pay around €1500 for an electrically-adjustable version. I'm happy to pay for the more expensive one, if it's worth it. So, if any of you have any experiences/opinions, I'd be happy to hear them!

Thanks in advance.

The electric jack is a convenience, but has downside as well. With practice, and especially if rigging in the same place several times, you can get the height set and leave it alone. The electric sideways adjustment is actually more useful. I have both on my Cobra rig.

For height, if you are close simply use the fuselage ramp jack to adjust fuselage height instead of adjusting wing height. You are right there and can see what you are doing and how much.

The downside of electric is it must be kept charged, and it adds significant weight to the one man rig dolly. On the Cobra, it's almost a tossup whether the dolly or the wing is harder to lift out of the trailer.

It's funny you mention the weight of the dolly. I did my back in many years ago helping someone rig their Lak 12. It wasn't the wing-panel that caused the issue - it was dreadful one-man rigger he had acquired that weighed an absolute ton!