Mike S

Mike S

Senior Curmudgeon
I saw this neat tie down anchor a few weeks ago at Nancy’s airport café in Willows Ca, it was in a RV 6 213JM. I thought it was a good design well worth “Borrowing” so with permission of the owner, here it is.

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Here is a piece of scrap aluminum angle that I am going to make a baggage hold down with.

First step was to drill a couple pilot holes apx 1/3 up from the side of the angle. Next, I used a Unibit to enlarge the holes until the edge of the hole was even with the side piece. The two center holes are what I am working with. The other two holes were already there, but will not be used-----as I said, this is scrap material so I just used what is available.

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Here you can see that I have cut off the end of the piece, just barely cutting into the hole I just drilled.

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OK, I have cut off the other side now, and done a bit of shaping on the top edge to get rid of the sharp corner, and lighten it up a few miliounces -----(if there is such a thing as a miliounce). As of yet, no deburring or finish work done. I drilled a couple holes to rivet in in place.

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Test fit with a bungee cord--------looks like it will do the job. Still needs a few minutes with a file, and Scotchbrite wheel.

Total time to make this was not even 5 minutes---------way less than to upload the photos, and type this description.

All measurements were done by “TLAR”.
 
Here is a much simpler version that works very nicely:

tiedown.jpg


I have four of these riveted to the baggage compartment floor. The tangs stick up through slits in the carpet so bungees can be hooked to them.
 
Mcmaster-Carr supplied mine. Simple and easy loop clamp, pull out a baggage screw and put this on it. I can't say what the load bearing ability is but stainless should hold as well as the aluminum it's bolted to I think. Still testing tho.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#8863t67/=rszezl
 
What I like about the ones Mike did is that if you are using ropes instead of bungee cords with hooks, you can treat these like cleats...boaters will know what I mean!
 
Ironflight said:
What I like about the ones Mike did is that if you are using ropes instead of bungee cords with hooks, you can treat these like cleats...boaters will know what I mean!
Click to expand...

Or, the bungee cord itself if needed---

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Slick idea, Mike! Nancy's in Willows is a great place. I've done some car racing at the nearby ThunderHill track and have eaten there a couple times. It's exciting to think that I'll be able to fly there in a couple of years!
 
Drill a hole in the middle of Mike's cleat and you can have the best of both worlds.
 
Tie downs

Very cool idea for a tie down! I may use this for two of the points.

I've seen a good idea someone else posted on here where they make a spot to thread the wing's tie downs into the floor of the baggage compartment. It's dual purpose and may gain you about 0.001 knots of free airspeed.

Steve Wolfe
 
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