Best way to tie down in very high winds?

Leavitt

Leavitt

Pre-Flight
Joined
Jan 27, 2010
Messages
52
Location
Alaska
Display Name
Display name:
wanabe
We had a few that were damaged a few months ago, when it was gusting 80kt and was coming from all directions it seemed, you would park somthing infront of it and the wind would change.

Has anyone tryed running rope or wide straps over the fuseulage?

Also thought about a tieing it down at the wheels, like a tow truck sucking the wheels down?

What works best? the biggest failure was the spars, and tie down rings.
 
Put it in a hangar. :D

80kts, outdoors...good luck. The more points and surface area you could spread out the forces, the better you would be. I would still start with the tie downs, then maybe go with a 4-6" wide strap with some sort of foam under it and go over the wings, and empennage as well.
 
Probably the first thing to do in a big wind is check your insurance. When discussing Mother Nature's capabilities there is only so much physical contrivances can do.

Find out in advance what direction will make for the most into-wind position. Except microbursts, you can typically get a prediction on sustained wind direction from the usual wx sources. I saw a cub get spars and strut busted from a quartering tailwind once. Tiedowns held but it was not designed to go in that direction!
When considering tiedown possibilities, don't forget that the biggest chain may not help if the tiedown ring pulls out of the ground, a common problem. The other issue is, yours may be tied down good, but what is going to blow into it? You end up checking all the neighboring a/c.....and this gets back to my first para.

What tiedown material and how to apply it...I leave to others and you can find reams in past posts.
 
Hmm,... maybe put the plane on a round-table with castor wheels, pinned in the center, so it can weathervane around in a circle in the wind :yikes:

I've seen photos where they were tied down good, and the tail strap broke, in which the plane then proceeded to flip forward onto it's back. :eek:

I'd guess you won't want to use chains in this application, to stiff or they could break,.. some type of nylon or polyester rope might be better??
 
Put it on a treadmill that's running in the same direction and speed as the wind ;)
 
I would think that a line thrown over the top of an aircraft would be whipped and saw into the paint at least, if not bend the aluminum beneath. I cannot figure out a way that the wheels could be secured to the ground. Tie-downs are usually a couple of feet away from the wheels and that would allow quite a bit of play, too.

One suggestion I heard of recently is wing spoilers:
Wing Spoilers
The problem of wing lift from the wind can be overcome to some extent by the use of spoiler boards placed span-wise along the top of the wing. If the anticipated winds will exceed the lift-off speed of the aircraft wings, the makeshift spoilers should run the entire length of the wings.
Spoiler boards are constructed from lengths of 50 x50 mm (2 x2 inch) with a number of 10 mm (3/8 inch) holes drilled at frequent intervals. A strip of 25 mm (1 in) foam rubber is then glued to the underside. Lengths of nylon or rubberised shock cord threaded through the holes and around the wing leading and trailing edges, tied together underneath the wing, hold the spoiler firmly in place. Before tying, place pieces of foam rubber as a buffer to prevent chafing damage. [FONT=Trebuchet MS,Trebuchet MS]​

The position of the spoiler should be located at about the 25 percent chord point.
[/FONT]
Click to expand...
My plane was parked and tied down as usual with very sturdy ropes. It bounced out of the chocks, but the ropes held it in place. Unfortunately, one aileron push rod was bent and broken. (2nd time). Next to us a twin was not so fortunate. Two tie-down rings were bent and the tail tie-down ring was pulled completely out of the fuselage. Across the field, another airplane was found belly-up against a hangar.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you have hurricane strength winds, there will be damage.

http://www.flymafc.com/docs/Tiedown-Knots.pdf
 
There are wing covers that have spoilers sewn in. Like these, shown on a Cub Coupe. Mine have them too though I don't have a good photo of my plane that shows them clearly:

IMG_1194.JPG


But it is all about the tiedowns. Lots of stories of planes "flying" in their tiedowns, tiedowns holding, tiedown points holding, ropes holding, no damage. But only up to a certain point.
 
Ditto this. About 10 years ago, Chicago had 2 days in a row with frontal driven winds mostly out the West above 40mph. Gusts were into the 50 and 60s.

At 3CK, a few planes were on tiedown and facing 180degress away from the predominant wind. At least one ended up with damaged control surfaces after the aileron cables (or pushrods?) failed... leaving the aileron to flutter/bash around until the owner was notified and able to secure it with duct tape.

Based on this... I would say it is critical to face into the predominant wind and have the gust lock installed. Further, it is also probably a good idea to have some sort of physical restraint on the aileron and flaps. I've seen foam covered clamp like setups, but do not recall the source.



Let'sgoflying! said:
Find out in advance what direction will make for the most into-wind position.
Click to expand...
 
Looking for uncoventional ways of doing this, like I said the winds change so fast and often that you cant point the airplane into the wind, it was changing around 120 deg every 20 mins.

They had the wing covers with the spoilers, the problem is the airplane bouncing in the ropes, bending the spars and the and the tiedowns on the airplane.

Thats why we were thinking using straps, over the wings or the nose, tail.

Also was thinking if it would mess up the gear if its used to help hold it in place.
 
I don't have a clue about how to tie down a plane in winds the NWS is about to assign a name to.

One point not mentioned yet is the tiedowns should be tight, much of the damage I've seen is due to loose chains where the plane can build up speed and then get jerked when they reach their limit.

I learned this one from the line guys at Fox field in the Mohave. Put on the wing chains then push the plane back until they are taut, then use a strap with a ratchet for the tail, not tight enough to put force on the attach points but no slack to allow the plane to move. They also have large tie downs so that all the "ropes" are at a good angle to prevent forward and backward movement.
 
Last edited:
Areeda said:
I don't have a clue about how to tie down a plane in winds the NWS is about to assign a name to.

One point not mentioned yet is the tiedowns should be tight, much of the damage I've seen is due to loose chains where the plane can build up speed and then get jerked when they reach their limit.

I learned this one from the line guys at Fox field in the Mohave. Put on the wing chains then push the plane back until they are taut, then use a strap with a ratchet for the tail, not tight enough to put force on the attach points but no slack to allow the plane to move. They also have large tie downs so that all the "ropes" are at a good angle to prevent forward and backward movement.
Click to expand...

Chains are bad news. If any slack develops the airplane will leap around against the chains, which have no shock-absorbing capacity, and serious damage to the tiedown structure of the airplane is certain, with probable damage to struts or spars as well.

Those ratchet-straps I sometimes see used as tiedowns, but the force they can generate can cause damage just from being cinched up too tight. And most of them have simple hooks that can be tossed out of the tiedown ring or off the ring in the ground, leaving the airplane with nothing holding it. There are numerous stories from folks using these straps complaining of UV damage after as little as three weeks in the sun, with the strap falling apart. Cheap, usually Oriental stuff with no UV blockers in it. If you use rope, replace it often. It doesn't weather well under the sun, either. I know of a vintage 180 tied down with small-diameter, rotten polyproplyene rope that will let go first chance it gets. A $75,000 airplane held down by rotten rope to save five or six bucks' worth of new rope?

The stall-strip idea works. I used to use it when tied down outside. Couple of longer two-by-fours with some carpet stuck to them, held down by some rope that runs fore and aft and under the wing to the struts. Set the strips at about 20-25% chord.

Dan
 
We used chains in the Navy to tie-down, usually 3 on each tie-down point when weather was unknown. And they were cranked down as tight as possible to make the aircraft part of the deck.
 
shywon said:
We used chains in the Navy to tie-down, usually 3 on each tie-down point when weather was unknown. And they were cranked down as tight as possible to make the aircraft part of the deck.
Click to expand...

yeah, but our tiedown rings on Navy airplanes were a bit more substantial than the typical aluminum can with wings ... :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top