Tent basics // Oshkosh prep

In article .net,
Mike Rapoport wrote:

Bring a hammer for the stakes. If you can get them in without a hammer,
they are unlikely to hold on large tent. You want longer stakes too.
hardwood or rebar work well. The tent is probably OK since the winds will
not be sustained.

The Tuesday afternoon windstorm pulled out my 9" pole barn nail stakes
on the downwind side of my tarp as I was in the process of taking it
down.

Polebarn nails are cheap and come in various lengths and diameters. Get
some washers to slid up under the head to keep your guy lines from
sliding off.

Hardwood my split and or splinter as you attempt to drive it into the
hard, rocky Oshkosh North 40.

Mike's suggestion of rebar is sound. Cut them to 12 to 18 inches and
file or grind the ends smooth. You will encounter rocks as you attempt
to drive the stakes into the Oshkosh "soil".

I have a set of Fly-Tie aircraft anchors for my plane. They are 18" x
3/8" stainless steel rods. I bent one of them this past AirVenture,
going around a rock while I was driving it in with my Estwing 8 pound
mallet. You definitely want a hammer with some mass. A ballpeen hammer
will also work well if you have a good heavy one.

My tent was just three rows east of Jay's. It stayed put. Aluminum vice
fiberglas poles and a full rain fly make a difference. The more guys
and stakes you use, the less your tent will flex and move in the wind.
It's the flexing and moving that breaks and bends poles.

My tent was just three rows east of Jay's. It stayed put. Aluminum vice
fiberglas poles and a full rain fly make a difference.
I just shielded yours from the wind! :-)

I had 3/4 inch (!) and 1 inch (!!) aluminum poles on that tent, a rain fly,
and the whole thing was staked down with 10 (!!!) stakes.

Didn't matter a bit -- the wind pulled those stakes out of the "soil"
(basically gravel under an inch of topsoil), and bent the poles over the
backside of my right aileron. Incredibly, the poles bent -- while the
aileron did not.

That was a perfect example of straight-line winds in the MidWest, which can
be as damaging as a tornado. We found the ground cloth -- previously under
the tent -- wrapped around a Skyhawk prop several rows down...

That old tent had survived four OSH fly-ins and a host of other trips,
including some near-tornadoes, without problem. Our new tent, while bigger,
has thinner fiberglass poles, which I don't much car for -- but I didn't
have much choice at the time. (It was the only tent available at a store
within walking distance of the North 40!)

Luckily, it doesn't stick straight up like a pole barn, like the old one
did -- so it should present a lower profile to the wind.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article FLJEb.604866$Fm2.547625@attbi_s04, Jay Honeck
wrote:

I had 3/4 inch (!) and 1 inch (!!) aluminum poles on that tent, a rain fly,
and the whole thing was staked down with 10 (!!!) stakes.
Didn't matter a bit -- the wind pulled those stakes out of the "soil"
(basically gravel under an inch of topsoil), and bent the poles over the
backside of my right aileron. Incredibly, the poles bent -- while the
aileron did not.

OOPS!!! I forgot about the aluminum to aluminum transfer on Atlas' wing.