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"Ron Natalie" wrote in message news:3f15d088$0$24566
Aviation Consumer tests resulted in ...failure occurred at 500lbs (straight up) and 475lbs (at unspecified angle). They stressed that tiedown strength varies significantly by soil type. That's not a very good recommendation. 500 lbs is hardly enough. I agree and so did AC. I think they said a tiedown should be worth 1600 or 2600lbs. The big question is what can we get from the best 'temporary, installable, removable' tiedowns? And who makes/designs the best? Fortunately, I suspect that most pilots, most of the time, are not faced with having to use temporary tiedowns. The big fly-ins being the big exception. OTOH, when I used to fly soaring competitions, there was the need to setup temporary tiedowns at many airport locations for 5 to 10 days at a time. I managed it by first, NEVER keeping the ship assembled overnight. Obviously a glider-only option but one that not everyone exercised. The trailers they were stored in were beautifully engineered and it was possible to roll them over without damage to the a/c. I justified the daily assembly work and the risk of mis-assembly by thinking 1) Any damage means losing the comp and 2) weather is not the only risk - cars driving around darkened airports where 50' wingspan a/c are parked in non-standard locations are another. How often do cars hit a/c at the big fly-ins? Once the glider is 'in the box' (covered trailer), the question then becomes how to tiedown the trailer. I never did have a very effective tiedown system and too often the trailer was vulnerable but there were other options. Leaving it attached to a vehicle is one. Parking it next to a building and tieing off there was another. Permanent tiedowns were sometimes available. Many of us felt pretty secure with the bird in the box. But I always remember pics from a comp in Chester SC back in the 70s where a mini-tornado or downburst of sorts tore thru the line. A half dozen glider, in and out of trailers as I recall, were thrown around thru the woods. The rest of the line was almost untouched. |
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