Posted for "George Shattuck" <sgs@plantationcable.net>:

A recent posting of an incident where the airplane came off the jacks somehow
and damaged the airframe brings me to this. Note the attached pictures.

Having the airplane on jacks, suspended there with the landing gear retracted
has always seemed to me to be an unnecessary risk during routine maintenance.
The pictures show how I do it. I tie down the tail of the airplane for nose
gear maintenance and do one leg at a time on the mains. If I feel I need to
check the retract using the hydraulic system I'll cap off the up line for the
other two and cycle the one I want to check. Works for me.

George Shattuck
N320GS