Had a pretty good blow in Death Valley yesterday...



The cables broke on the other two planes there, and pulled out some of the cement anchors.


This one did a complete backflip.


We watched them both flip, while hanging on tight..... Couldn't let go of ours...


We held onto ours, and it survived pretty good..... We held her for about 3 hours...


Pretty Wild night and morning.....

shoulda just got in and flew it. probly coulda hovered in one spot

That's really a shame. Had a similar (not quite as bad) night at Lesser Slave Lake in Alberta. I really didn't care for those long cable tie-downs. When you try to tighten them up, they just rise up and chafe on the gear and the brake lines.

Glad you weathered it OK. The blowing dust must have done a number on surfaces, though.

denalipilot wrote:That's really a shame. Had a similar (not quite as bad) night at Lesser Slave Lake in Alberta. I really didn't care for those long cable tie-downs. When you try to tighten them up, they just rise up and chafe on the gear and the brake lines.

Glad you weathered it OK. The blowing dust must have done a number on surfaces, though.

I know, it was terrible to watch the planes flip, and yea, I look at cables in a whole new way now, it's like tieing down to a rubber band. When I first tied down, they were pretty tight at about 8 inches above the ground, but during peak gusts, I bet were stretching to more like 4 feet. I saw the bottoms of my tires about a foot off the ground several times, and had the cable pulled right up to the bottom of the plane.

I don't think I really got too much chipping etc, but havent washed the plane yet, and it's really dirty.

A contributing factor too, was that I had flaps down and controls tied up, because the wind was from the opposite direction all night. Then in the morning, it suddenly reversed, and when I realized it, I was afraid to cross the cable line. Because if it broke, it might really nail me, so I just left it and held on.

We had sleeping bags, shoes, pads etc. scattered all over. It was so windy that my wife couldn't hear me yelling at her from one wing to the other. But after while, you just start screaming, rebel yelling and laughing at the top of your lungs.

At one point, we got really tired, and I told my wife we should just let it go and collect the insurance.... She said she couldn't remember if she paid the insurance or not, and we both got a bunch of extra energy to HOLD ON.

...well how about that insurance? If she paid it, I'd say she deserves another soak in that hot tub! jg

Good save.Well done

I've heard of ragwing owners slashing the fabric as a last resort in conditions like that. Tough when you're traveling and have little or nothing to work with.

Man I hate to see bent metal like that. Were the other owners around during all of this??

Coyote Ugly

I identify and sympathize with what you went through. Not to take away from from your experience, but I have been there as well, and it is no fun. We often have those kind of "blows" up here and the end result is often not pretty. Out here at Palmer where it blows all the time, I once had a Maule that had its wing tiedown rings break off from the constant rocking of the wings and (of course) severely damage the wings when they hit the ground before the plane castered around and stuck its tail into the wind. Generally when the wind comes up we all just drive out and park a truck in font of our airplanes.

However with those absolutely worthless tiedown cables with several planes attached, the "Truck" technique just doesn't work unless everyone is out there protecting their airplanes. I remember several years ago when a tiedown cable let loose at Birchwood and several airplanes got rolled into a ball. I will not secure my airplane to a tiedown cable such as you experienced.

Thanks for the pictures. It is a good lesson for others.

Nizina

Coyote Ugly,

Similar thing happened to me, I thought I was one of only a few.

A few years ago my wife and I landed at Green River UT in our AC Scout. Several reasons limited us to landing there in steady 40, gusting to 50mph winds with dust that looked like the storm in the movie Mummy. Not a sole around. There was no way I could taxi it off the runway so I tied the stick and we both got out to push it into the dirt on the side of the runway. The sun had set, and just like you we yelled at each other while holding on to the wings for dear life. At one point a wing lifted my wife 3 feet clear off the ground while I pushed the other side back up. Scared the hell outta me. I was just about to let it go after an hour and freezing temps.

So as a last ditch effort we called 911 and the sheriff finally arrived with the airport manager in tow. It was amazing how stable the plane became as soon as we rolled the tail UP an embankment. Duh. I wish I thought of that earlier. The manager drove a fuel truck in front, an old farm truck in back, and we tied the hell out it, leaving in between the runway and taxiway for the night. It wasn't going anywhere after that.

11pm that night we got into town exhausted, with sand and dirt in every possible place imaginable! BOY could I have used a drink after that! And the town is DRY! That night it snowed, and we where stuck there for 2 days. I told my wife (fiance at the time) I didn't blame her for leaving me after all that.

Glad you guys and the plane are ok.

Splashpilot, You remind me of something my Alaska buds do. They dig a hole for the mains to roll into, then fill in around the tires. That holds fairly well, and it levels the plane with the tail higher.

Glad you're unscathed, sad to see the other planes. I did the wheels in a ditch thing once-worked good but I got no sleep in the tent due to the noise of the wind and the worry my plane was going to get bent.

Yea, the 170 that did the backflip, I would have bet $100 it was going to go over again, but it really sank into the dirt when it landed hard, and sat right there with no problem through the worst of it, and you can see, when it landed, the tail was on a slight hill too.

Oh, my wife had paid the insurance, guess I do owe her a trip to the Hot Spring... Huh? One of the rare few times in the last 40 years, I was insured.

And, the flyin that day, at that elevation, with a pretty good wind was quite simply amazing... A whole bunch of fun..

SixTwoLeemer wrote:Man I hate to see bent metal like that. Were the other owners around during all of this??

No, me and Teresa were the only ones there, and the wind took out the phone and power lines. We finally left after it died down a little, and told a ranger at stovepipe wells what happened.

Wheee..... There was one time that you can actually be thankful for those extra jelly donuts you ate! Sure am glad you were able to save your plane from damage.

I wonder if a guy could make some wing covers with spoilers on them to kill the lift? Or at least cut it down a little.

Whats up with the boots...?

Clay wrote:Whats up with the boots...?

Shit, if the pictures were taken an hour earlier, all I had on most of the time was my skivies... Legs red as hell from crap hitten em... I had just gotten up to take a leak, when the wind switched and all hell broke loose.

Ma Nature's gotta cranky side too...

Lesson from this, and several similar episodes:

Don't EVER, like in EVER, tie down using cable tiedowns. They are the most worthless, and dangerous tiedowns available on planet earth.

The situation described earlier reference Birchwood, the cables came out of their moorings. Airplanes slid down the cables and hit other airplanes, etc. It was ugly.

Good on you for getting your butt out there to take care of your airplane.

I was babysitting my two airplanes in Kodiak one night, when a friend's Cub (which was tailed into the wind--duh) started to fold it's wings. I jumped under the one wing, and managed to keep my back under it, and kept the wing strut from folding. While I was holding this, waiting for SOMEone to show up, I watched a nearly new Cessna 185 on floats jump out of its tiedowns (which were crappy) and destroy itself on the rock wall behind it. Brand new airplane.....

Finally, a city police officer showed up, and I asked him to call the guy who owned the Cub, and get his butt out to the airport to take care of his airplane. I was under the wing of that thing for over an hour.

People who don't care enough about their own airplanes to go out when the wind blows and tend them don't deserve to own an airplane.

Sermon over,

Good on YOU, Coyote Ugly,

MTV

Hey Joe, now I see why you always wear a hat. "most of the time was my skivies" Must have been in the Navy

Tim