Quick release oil drain on front engine.

[SkyKing]

Richard,

Here's how we do the 'drain-thing' for the front engine on the Skymaster. You don't need a funnel or anything fancy. Just find yourself a wooden block, say 6 X 6, or 8 X 8, that's almost the same height as the nose wheel tire... then place one of those 30-lb square plastic laundry detergent buckets on top. The blue ones that Albertson's (Good Day Brand) carry (blue color plastic) fit perfectly across the width of the internal wheel well opening, and they have a couple of grooves in the top part that will slide neatly onto the side-lip of the wheel well for additional support.

What we do first before positioning the wooden block and the bucket, is to cut and remove the safety wire, then loosen the plug with a socket wrench. With the wooden block positioned against the nose wheel tire and the laundry bucket on top, centered under the drain plug, there's still plenty of room to get your hand up to unscrew the plug using a latex rubber glove and/or paper towel. The paper towel is needed because the plug will be too HOT to handle barehanded and it will also shield your hand from the hot oil should you fumble the plug.

The trick to keep from losing the drain plug in the bucket is to very carefully unscrew the plug with a couple of paper towels folded over the cap until you can just feel that it's free, then quickly pull it away using a side motion. The first time you do this you'll probably splash some oil on yourself, but practice makes perfect!

Oh, and when you re-safety the drain plug... make sure that the safety wire is knurled under and is tucked away from the plug so that it won't gouge the nose wheel on retraction... things are a close fit.

SkyKing