• If You Are Having Trouble Logging In with Your Old Username and Password, Please use this Forgot Your Password link to get re-established.
  • Hey! Be sure to login or register!

How to tie down an airplane??

windy

SPONSOR
Utah
Is this the new way to secure an airplane?? I saw this single-point tie-down scheme at the airport where I’m based, during the 55mph winds. The winds were blowing perpendicular to the direction that this Cessna was facing. I’ve never seen a plane tied down like this & wondered if maybe I was missing something.
IMG_1258.JPG
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1260.JPG
    IMG_1260.JPG
    690.2 KB · Views: 421
  • IMG_1258.JPG
    IMG_1258.JPG
    698.2 KB · Views: 740
Seems like if you make the tail line tight enough to unweight the nosewheel, it would make a nice wind vane.
 
Well if it twists enough around the tiedown it'll self tighten the lines like a spanish windlass. Must be an engineer after all.

Gary
 
I ran into the guy who owns the plane. I pointed out a “normal” tie-down spot 50 feet away that faces into the wind & might be a better spot to park, with an electrical outlet right next to it. Apparently he parked where he did to be sort of close to another electrical outlet. He’s not an engineer, rather a home health aide. He’s looking to build hrs in the C-152 (only 500 hrs so far) to get hired into the airlines & switch careers. It all makes sense now!
 
500 hours sound pretty good already, but are the airlines looking for big private flying hours and do they help?


Sent from my iPhone using SuperCub.Org
 
For years, my good friend and mechanic that got me into flying, has told folks that wind from the side is easier on the plane than from in front. Less issues with them flying also... BUT, lines need to be angled into the load, not away from it.
 
Ok I apologize to suggesting he had an engineering background. He will make a good professional pilot with that ambition and some further help with securing the ship.

Gary
 
I bit my tongue when I saw your post. I wanted to respond but held back. Am I to assume that he will now be a good pilot because he is not an engineer? I must be an anomaly. Maybe you jumped to a conclusion?

Eddie Foy
Chemical Engineer
Fighter Weapons Instructor Course Grad
Airline Captain.

Ok I apologize to suggesting he had an engineering background. He will make a good professional pilot with that ambition and some further help with securing the ship.

Gary
 
Last edited:
I ran into the guy who owns the plane. I pointed out a “normal” tie-down spot 50 feet away that faces into the wind & might be a better spot to park, with an electrical outlet right next to it. Apparently he parked where he did to be sort of close to another electrical outlet. He’s not an engineer, rather a home health aide. He’s looking to build hrs in the C-152 (only 500 hrs so far) to get hired into the airlines & switch careers. It all makes sense now!

He's practicing his "cheap assed airline captain" mentality already! "Hmmmmmmmmm, I've got good insurance on the hull........ I know Home Depot has those 50 foot extension cords on sale but jeez, that equals about 3 gallons of gas.......... It'll be OK............" :roll:
 
I bit my tongue when I saw your post. I wanted to respond but held back. Am I to assume that he will now be a good pilot because he is not an engineer? Maybe you jumped to a conclusion?

Eddie Foy Chemical Engineer Fighter Pilot and Airline Captain.

Maybe I did, your call. As my friend Joe says..."you can tell an engineer but you can't tell them much"

Gary
 
Good on you!


I ran into the guy who owns the plane. I pointed out a “normal” tie-down spot 50 feet away that faces into the wind & might be a better spot to park, with an electrical outlet right next to it. Apparently he parked where he did to be sort of close to another electrical outlet. He’s not an engineer, rather a home health aide. He’s looking to build hrs in the C-152 (only 500 hrs so far) to get hired into the airlines & switch careers. It all makes sense now!
 
Actually it is "You can tell a fighter pilot but you cannot tell him much!"
Narrow minded repy.

My friend Doyle was like that until you got to know him better. His service to this country was exemplary. Flew two tours with the AF demonstration team. Great fellow and fisherman. Not an engineer.

Gary
 
Copper wire was invented by two Captains fighting over a penny. That is the myth. I spent 21 years as one of those stereotyped cheap bastards. The number that I saw that fit the mold I could count on my fingers and I only have nine.

He's practicing his "cheap assed airline captain" mentality already! "Hmmmmmmmmm, I've got good insurance on the hull........ I know Home Depot has those 50 foot extension cords on sale but jeez, that equals about 3 gallons of gas.......... It'll be OK............" :roll:
 
I’ve never done it but I have seen it done on the Alaska peninsula by some very experienced old time cub pilots. It was done only on flat ground specifically on pumice blows. The tail wheel would permit the tail to blow down wind and the nose would cant on an angle into the wind. The wind would strike the wing at an angle thereby developing less lift. It was always done where there were no planes or anything else to impede movement of the plane. The up wind tied wing would be pulled down . I was told that if the wind shifted slowly the plane would move maintain the angled orientation toward the wind.

The only advantages I could see would be the necessity of digging only one deadman instead of three and the plane would not fly on the lines. I also don’t see how it could work with a nose wheel plane.

i would also suggest that the tail must be tied in severe winds if this method is not used. I have seen a plane tied by the wings only into the wind be pushed aft far enough so that the downward angle of the lines pulled the nose down till it ended up with its nose on the ground.
 
Not me. The more the wind blows on the nose the higher the nose will be. Likewise for the tail. But I don't tie nose draggers. With tail draggers I can do better, even with a single earth anchor.
 
...

i would also suggest that the tail must be tied in severe winds if this method is not used. I have seen a plane tied by the wings only into the wind be pushed aft far enough so that the downward angle of the lines pulled the nose down till it ended up with its nose on the ground.

at a minimum tie from main bottom at ground level tie downs to rear lift handle to prevent it from blowing/going backwards... helped set one back down last winter or winter before here... wasn't even that much wind, in the 30's but tail wasn't tied...
 
Just cuz I'm feeling contrary at the moment....

There are a bunch of us here with engineering degrees, but who are doing something else professionally, myself included. We are thereby, by simple fact, not engineers.

That's not what what we do, even though we have some related education and hopefully some residual knowledge.

So - I consider myself exempt from Gary's mean, prejudiced, thoughtless, just-plain-nasty - - - and humorous wisecrack. I mean, it sounds like a biologist, so gotta cut some slack, I guess.:roll:lol
 
Last edited:
Just cuz I'm feeling contrary at the moment....

There are a bunch of us here with engineering degrees, but who are doing something else professionally, myself included. We are thereby, by simple fact, not engineers.

That's not what what we do, even though we have some related education and hopefully some residual knowledge.

So - I consider myself exempt from Gary's mean, prejudiced, thoughtless, just-plain-nasty - - - and humorous wisecrack. I mean, it sounds like a biologist, so gotta cut some slack, I guess.:roll:lol

Gordon thanks for the frank assessment of my harmless comment and what an engineer like you might call a "wisecrack". I went to school with, worked with, and have as good friends...engineers.. electrical, mechanical, and civil. Most in my experience are parrots of what they were taught and have proceeded to replay that to their employers, associates, or underlings they had as students. It appeared to me some have a problem with thinking beyond actual learning experiences. Yes I know what you did for a living and where. But no matter. Not my interest.

A few that have gone into aviation have likely prospered by the reality of flying's deviations versus conventional aeronautical theory, and I hope you are included as your posts here have documented. Eddie has done and seen quite a bit for example. He didn't invent copper wire and served our country and aviation community well.

Now back to reality...the best engineers I've known were farmers of our land and resources. They could take limited opportunities and apply to a process or production unit concept by turning dirt with tremendous labor into product for others...meat or dairy in my family's case. Mineral miners in Alaska are another example of self taught engineers.

I suggest that's an example of the reality the topic of this thread is about...why would someone do that unless they were either ignorant or driven by education and not experience? It's a flip of the coin to me. Maybe not you.

The new pilot will move ahead and hopefully change occupations and enjoy a better life.

Gary
 
I ran into the guy who owns the plane. I pointed out a “normal” tie-down spot 50 feet away that faces into the wind & might be a better spot to park, with an electrical outlet right next to it. Apparently he parked where he did to be sort of close to another electrical outlet. He’s not an engineer, rather a home health aide. He’s looking to build hrs in the C-152 (only 500 hrs so far) to get hired into the airlines & switch careers. It all makes sense now!
So did he move it after you showed him?
 
Back
Top