Starting to actually get serious about this stuff.

What are you guys using for field tie downs?

I already carry three 25' lengths of climbing rope for places that don't have ropes, but they're pretty bulky. I've been thinking of going to some sort of web stapping, but the research isn't done yet. When the Birddog Association came to KFSI, almost everyone of them was using them.

Secondly, what do you carry for anchors when out in the woods?

Don

For portable tiedowns, I use FlyTies. They work good, in MOST soils, and seem to hold well. Good quality climbing rope of 10 to 11 mm is what I carry for tiedowns as well. You don't need 25 foot lengths, just three of maybe ten feet each.

As for permanent tiedowns at home base, I've used Duckbill Earth Anchors for years. They are available from most electrical contractor suppliers, they're used for guy wires on poles. Relatively easy to drive in and they hold really well. Use the biggest ones you can manage. Instead of buying the obscenely expensive drive rod they sell for them, get a good straight piece of ReBar.

MTV

I second what Mike said, love the duck bills... I have the fly ties as well and also have some homemade stuff as well.

mtv wrote:For portable tiedowns, I use FlyTies. They work good, in MOST soils, and seem to hold well. Good quality climbing rope of 10 to 11 mm is what I carry for tiedowns as well.

I made my own "FlyTies" as a fraction of the cost...about $40 when all said and done as apposed to upwards of $100 for the name brand.

Just go to Tractor Supply, Home Depot, or Lowes and buy one piece of 1/8" x 3" x 24" steel, (3) eye bolts and (6) nuts to match, (9) 15" steel nails, (9) nuts that will slide up the nail to the head, (18 ) flat washers that will slide up the nail to the head. Don't forget your favorite brand of rope.

Now all you have to do is a bit of cutting and welding...

- Cut (3) equal triangles out of your steel and round the edges so they will not cut you. You will want to make the sides of the triangle about 5" - 6" if possible.
- Drill (4) holes in each triangle piece of steel...(1) near each corner and (1) in the center. The corner holes should be big enough for your 15" nails to slide through at about a 45 angle. ***DO NOT DRILL TOO CLOSE TO THE EDGE OR IT WILL WEAKEN THE PLATE - I LEFT 1/8 " BETWEEN HOLE AND EDGES*** The center hole should be just big enough for your eye bolt.
- Install (1) nut onto the eye bolt and run it all the way up to the eye.
- Install eye bolt with nut into center hole of steel plates and install (1) nut on bottom half of eye bolt. This will leave one nut on top of the plate and one on the bottom.
- Weld eye bolt nuts into place on the eye bolt and the steel plate.
- Weld the gap shut on the eye bolt to give it extra strength.
- Cut off excess threads on eye bolt
- Install (1) washer, followed by (1) nut, followed again by (1) washer onto the 15" nails and slide to the head. It should look something like IOI----- This give the nail a stopping point when driven into the ground and will allow a pull point for you to wrap the rope around when removing from the ground.
- Weld the washer / nut assembly to the nail.
- Paint the entire tie-down anchor to prevent rust.

Voila...a home made FlyTie anchor system. It took me about 2 hours to build the entire system.

The key to this tiedown is just like the FlyTie system...it must be placed directly under the tie down point and the nails must all be driven at a 45 angle in towads the center of the plate.

I will try to take some pics this evening and post them for reference, but it is a pretty simple setup and does not weigh all that much. I found a little canvas bag that the entire setup fits into (including (3) 10 ft pieces of rope) and takes up very little room.

I also have had good experience with FlyTies. I especially like the bag it comes in. Keeps the plane "tidy".

At OSH I bought the "claw" kit. cast aluminum and has a nice carry case. Works well. JG

I once copied flyties too- by drilling hockey pucks at angles. Never did strength-test them, but in sand or soft turf I think the ground would probably fail first. I don't use them all that much, but they were easy and cheap to make, and a fun couple hours spent on them. A crampon bag holds them all quite tidily.

As for home, any VW engines laying around? Drum rotors from a commercial-size veihicle? Helps if you have a backhoe. You can tell how my tastes run...

On the subject of cord, while there is nothing wrong with good old kernmantle 11mm climbing rope, the climbing community has some much fancier stuff these days. I carry 5mm Tech Cord in the plane for when I'm away from home:
http://www.neropes.com/product.aspx?mid ... d=3&pid=66
It is something on the order of 10 times the tensile strength of steel, highly abrasion resistant, and unlike dynamic climbing rope, does not stretch at all. Tie it tight the first time, and there's no slack or slop in your lines. Super compact, lightwieght, and does not absorb water. Find any rock-climbing store and inquire about spectra/kevlar accessory cord.

At home I like the webbing cam straps with the two, opposing hooks at each end, but in the field, I find that I anchor to all kinds of stuff, trees, industrial mining scrap, contents-of-airplane-distributed-into-piles, big rocks placed inside empty duffels, mounded compacted snow with an improvised deadman, ice screws, etc... I really like having 20' or so of cord to work with at each tie-down, and the advantage of the modern climbing cords is that the weight and bulk isn't excessive.

Last thought: Kennon's Spoiler Mesh wing covers are another trick I like on windy winter days. Breaks up the airfoil and helps stop the plane from trying to fly itself:
http://www.kennoncovers.com/wingcovers.htm

denalipilot wrote:Last thought: Kennon's Spoiler Mesh wing covers are another trick I like on windy winter days. Breaks up the airfoil and helps stop the plane from trying to fly itself:
http://www.kennoncovers.com/wingcovers.htm

We Maule drivers just place the flaps into the negative range while tied down and accomplish much the same thing.

lowflybye wrote:We Maule drivers just place the flaps into the negative range while tied down and accomplish much the same thing.

I just look my Cessna in the eye, and in a stern voice say, "STAY!"

And if she doesn't, a smack with a rolled up sectional works just fine.

Gump

GumpAir wrote:I just look my Cessna in the eye, and in a stern voice say, "STAY!"

And if she doesn't, a smack with a rolled up sectional works just fine.

Gump

ROTFL

I could just picture that happening.

I've found this works pretty well too, if you have a couple of these things laying around:

I got "The Claw" kit and it seems to work well.

As with the Flyties deal the pins are driven in at angles such that there is no direction that will pull out all three.

I like the fact it folds down to a compact kit and other than the eyebolt is pretty flush with the ground.

Cheers.

TD

I like the Fly Ties and three, 12' lengths of tiedown rope. I use a Bowline to attach a very strong carabiner (from REI) on the end of each rope, which clips onto the Fly Ties or the tiedown point at an airport. A Hurricane knot is used to tie the rope to the wing tiedown loops with a wrap around the strut.

I also carry four, 6" long, 2"x2" aluminum angle for chocks.

I like your tiedowns, Denali, do they fit into the back of the airplane when you roll them up in a duffel?
Reminds me of an old derelict C-47 that's parked on the grass at Arlington WA tied down to a couple old chevvy vans.

I've found this works pretty well too, if you have a couple of these things laying around

So denalipilot let me make sure I have this straight, it only takes one airplane to hold down two busses? Cool!

Skystrider wrote:So denalipilot let me make sure I have this straight, it only takes one airplane to hold down two busses? Cool!

This was in Healy, Alaska (HRR) just after a ferry flight home from Maine. I guess I was pretty sick of getting up all through the night in the prairie provinces to deal with those strung-along-the-ground cable affairs they use there. Lesser Slave Lake was especially windy on that trip, I recall, with the cables lifting off the ground and chaffing the brake lines on the trailing edge of the gear legs. HRR was as close to home as I could get upon arrival in Denali, (apart from landing on the highway), since my home strip was still under snow. HRR always blows like hell. I thought blocking the wind on the wings would help me sleep better at night, and it did.

Just got a copy of the Alaska Airmen's newspaper today- they talk about tying down with your tailwheel up on a crate or a sawhorse to reduce the angle of attack.

p.s. Zane- Thanks for making the picture appear in my post.

That is a sweet photo!

denalipilot wrote:p.s. Zane- Thanks for making the picture appear in my post.

I didn't do it...must have been one of the other moderators. That, or you got it right all on your own.

Caution here: ice screws will pressure-thaw the ice if they are under much tension for long periods. Works great otherwise. Cover screwhead and biner with snow to stop solar thawing.



Standard deadman anchor using trash barrel covers at Watson Lake, when other tiedowns were still burried under snow:



...And this is how they keep them from blowing away in Whitehorse, evidently (For those who haven't been, this DC-3 is actually a functional weathervane)

Hey i already posted the whitehorse dc3 pic you thief.

11mm "climbing rope" is a bit of overkill, in my opinion.

7mm prusik cord breaks at roughly 2600 lbs. and is less than a third the cost of the Titan / kevlar / spectra cords. It also holds a knot better.

8mm prusik cord breaks at around 3100 pounds, which is a whole lot more than most of the larger diameter ropes people routinely use.

Show me a field anchor that will withstand 2600 pounds of force...

For no good reason I don't trust soil anchors...there's too much guess work involved. While it's a bit more labor intensive than other approaches, I've found putting rocks into a heavy net bag makes a good anchor, providing there are rocks where you fly. I like it because it weighs almost nothing and it's actually pretty easy to put a couple hundred pounds of rocks together