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Now I know how Dorothy and Toto felt!

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ronschreck

ronschreck

Well Known Member
The Summertime Kansas winds can really pack a wallop! I visited Salina for a few days last week and tied down on their massive ramp. When I was ready to depart the winds were 170 degrees at 38 knots, gusting to 45! Two large men held down the wings while I untied the ropes, loaded and started. I told the tower I was unable to taxi crosswind to runway 17 and would they mind if I took off from the ramp. "No problem, cleared for takeoff." The takeoff roll must have been all of 100 feet!

When I landed in Houston I unscrewed the tie down rings. Here's how they looked!

tiedowns bent
 
And THIS is the place they pick for an aerobatic championship ?!?! The aerobatics will be just getting off and on the deck!

Wow! ;)
 
I learned to fly at KSLN, I recall landing a C150 with full flaps on a similar day and was stopped before I could touch the flap switch.
 
Years ago I experience similar winds, request, clearance and bent rings at ROW. Except it was in a Mooney.
 
Ok, Ron, are you sure this isn't an early April Fools joke? If so, I like your sense of humor, and you punked at lot of people! If not, pretty unbelievable! :)
 
ronschreck said:
The Summertime Kansas winds can really pack a wallop! I visited Salina for a few days last week and tied down on their massive ramp. When I was ready to depart the winds were 170 degrees at 38 knots, gusting to 45! Two large men held down the wings while I untied the ropes, loaded and started. I told the tower I was unable to taxi crosswind to runway 17 and would they mind if I took off from the ramp. "No problem, cleared for takeoff." The takeoff roll must have been all of 100 feet!

When I landed in Houston I unscrewed the tie down rings. Here's how they looked!

tiedowns bent
Click to expand...

I don't know if it would make any difference at all, but were these screwed in as far as possible (is the tie-down bar tapped deeply enough)? Probably would have just bent them closer to the ring, I guess.

I have the same tiedown rings, so curious (although I hope never to have my plane experience such winds on a ramp!).
 
RV7A Flyer said:
I don't know if it would make any difference at all, but were these screwed in as far as possible (is the tie-down bar tapped deeply enough)? Probably would have just bent them closer to the ring, I guess.

I have the same tiedown rings, so curious (although I hope never to have my plane experience such winds on a ramp!).
Click to expand...

They were screwed in all the way.
 
Yup, that's a big ramp at Salina.

19A1Lu.jpg
 
I use the same tie down rings as these, and had one bend like this while jacking up a wing to take the tire off !! Luckily the receptacle kept the ring captured and it stayed on the jack, or I could've punched a hole through the wing skin. I was surprised how soft the metal was and thought that it hadn't been hardened properly after manufacture. I bought mine through Mc Master-Carr, I think.
 
Update on Kansas wind terminology.

FYI

Your picture shows a less than 45 degree bend in the rings. The Beakers would list that day as "light and variable".

John Koonce
RV10
N78MU
 
I had two tie downs like that in my Cherokee 6 many years ago. A hurricane took it out by snapping both of the rings in half and flipping the plane down the taxiway a few times.
 
Darned interesting, not because Kansas is windy, but because everywhere can be equally windy given a large enough thunderstorm.

At what point do they break? In comparison, what might it take to tear the extrusion off the spar?
 
BlackhawkSP said:
I use the same tie down rings as these, and had one bend like this while jacking up a wing to take the tire off !! Luckily the receptacle kept the ring captured and it stayed on the jack, or I could've punched a hole through the wing skin. I was surprised how soft the metal was and thought that it hadn't been hardened properly after manufacture. I bought mine through Mc Master-Carr, I think.
Click to expand...

I bought some Grade 8 bolts and wide washers at Tractor Supply that I screw all the way in and the washer is snug against the wing. I put duct tape on the washers so they don?t scratch. Easy to raise the plane now with no ring part to bend.
 
installation suggestion

Using the right side of the below photo, if the shoulders are not flush with the wing surface and anything other than a straight up load (straight down on the plane) can bend the threads as you have shown. The solution is as Pilot135pd mentions is to use washers to align the plane of the eyebolt to that of the load applied. For critical lifts the rule is only one washer is allowed, but for a plane tie down I could see using 2 or 3 to get the angle just right.

110824047_191.jpg
 
N941WR said:
It is like Oklahoma, if the winds stop blowing people fall over.
Click to expand...

I represent (excuse me ?resent?) that comment! Of course it helps to have my feet buried in two 50 lbs bags of concrete and a steel pole shoved up my behind!

Tornado season is just around the corner. Here comes ?the wind, right behind the rains.?
 
ronschreck said:
They were screwed in all the way.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm...then how did they bend at a point partway along the threaded portion?

You mean screwed in all the way *to the skin*? With the tiedown bar behind the skin some fraction of an inch? I know this was a concern when I built mine, and I tried to get the tiedown bracket (whatever the part is called) as close to the skin as possible...
 
RV7A Flyer said:
Hmmmm...then how did they bend at a point partway along the threaded portion?

You mean screwed in all the way *to the skin*? With the tiedown bar behind the skin some fraction of an inch? I know this was a concern when I built mine, and I tried to get the tiedown bracket (whatever the part is called) as close to the skin as possible...
Click to expand...

They were bottomed out on the threads. The shoulder of the eye bolt is about 1/8 inch from the skin at that point.
 
RV7A Flyer said:
So that's what I was referring to about the tiedown bar not being tapped deeply enough...
Click to expand...

If it was deeper the shoulder of the eye bolt would hit the wing skin and mar your paint job. Since there is a gap between the skin and the face of the threaded block there would be no advantage to have the shoulder of the eye bolt in contact with the skin.

This was an extreme occurrence. The point is to make sure your ropes are sufficiently strong and that you tie down at three points with no slack in the ropes. Use a very secure rudder stop, not the wimpy wires that tie your rudder horn to the rudder stop and secure your stick with a seat belt. Turns out that my eye bolts were the weakest link in my tie down effort but they did hold and there was no damage to the airplane. I just have to buy two new eye bolts. Nuff said! Over, out.
 
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