From highflyer@alt.net Thu May 23 15:33:42 2002 Path: cygnus.com!enews.sgi.com!nntp1.phx1.gblx.net!nntp.gblx.net!nntp.gblx.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.alt.net!usenet From: highflyer Newsgroups: rec.aviation.student Subject: Re: Tie down's, what do you carry with you? Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 09:50:36 -0500 Organization: Highflight Aviation Services Lines: 51 Message-ID: <3CED01BB.7F8ADEB8@alt.net> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.78 [en] (X11; U; SunOS 5.7 sun4m) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: cygnus.com rec.aviation.student:213657 Eric Gauthier wrote: > > Related to the other tie-down thread, I am interested in what folks > carry with them for tieing down. I am a renter student, soon to be > PP-ASEL hopefully, but will unfortunately remain a renter ;^(. > > Most of my flying will be to small-town fields. Do you just assume > that they have tie-down's and bring your own ropes? Do you carry some > sort of spike or something to which you tie? > > Seems like alot of stuff to add to the flight bag for us poor renters. > A simple spike does not work very well for a tie down. They pull out entirely too easily. I made up a set of tie down stakes that work real well. I took two links of large logging chain. The opening in the link has to be large enough to put three 3/8 diameter steel rods through. Then I cut three lengths of 3/8 steel rod about two feet long for each tiedown. I bent one end of each rod over about three inches. You lay the pair of chain links on the ground where you want to insert the tiedown. Then drive the three rods through one of the links to make the three corners of a tetrahedron. Then you tie your tiedown rope to the free link. The angles of the rods makes it very unlikely for a pull on the tiedown rope to pull them out of the ground. When you want to remove the tiedown, you grab the angle on top of each rod and turn it to loosen the spike. Then you pull it straight out opposite the direction it went in. The come out easily then, but you have to pull them one at a time. I carry a set of three of these tiedowns in my airplane. I also carry three lengths of 3/8 inch nylon rope for tiedown ropes. Nylon is the ONLY stuff to use to tie down an airplane. It has a bit of spring so it won't break things. Tie the ropes using a "rolling line hitch" so you can tighten them even after they are tied. Always get your tiedowns as snug as you can. That keeps the wind loads on the airplane from jerking the tiedowns and damaging something. :-) I made up a bag to carry them out of the leg of a pair of jeans that turned into 'cutoffs'. It keeps the airplane clean and keeps the tiedown stakes in one place. I just coil up the ropes. I have to carry my own tiedown ropes in any event, because I have never seen an airport where the tiedowns they supply will reach my tiedown rings. My tiedown rings are a good seven to eight feet above the ground when my airplane is parked. :-) I carry a short three foot ladder in the baggage compartment so I can reach the darn tiedown rings! :-) -- Highflyer Highflight Aviation Services