Best stakes to tie down on grass?

NoHeat

NoHeat

Final Approach
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I will park a couple of nights on a turf field that has no tiedown facilities. I must bring my own. So I need stakes and some kind of rope.

Suggestions?
 
I've found that heavy duty screw in dog tiedowns have worked best for me. Cheaper than anything you'd find in aviation catalogs
 
I bought a set of EAA screw-in tie downs, and they held my plane firmly in place in GAC camping at the approach end of 9 when a lot of planes broke loose and rolled around (2010, the Year of the Tornado ). The metal is thicker than in my dog tie outs, they're a little longer, and the spiral is different.

The key is to use a piece of pipe or a stick and screw them all the way into the ground, until the triangle at the top is touching. I didn't move at all, the two planes on my right wingtip rolled forward,and more than I could count in GAC were pointing in any direction other than forward.
 
EAA has directions on the airventure site for making a set of tie downs that are light and really hold well. Cheap , easy to make, and they work well.
 
NoHeat said:
I will park a couple of nights on a turf field that has no tiedown facilities. I must bring my own. So I need stakes and some kind of rope.

Suggestions?
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For the stakes ... 4 links of proof chain that will accommodate 3 each 10-12" bridge spikes (heavy nails), one nail through each link. Drive the spikes into the ground on a 45° angle to the surface of the grass in 120 degree horizontal angles (i.e. one north, one southeast, and one southwest) to each other.

Polypropylene (sp?) rope through the fourth link to both wing and the tail tiedown. (A rubber stress link works real well to keep wind gusts from excessively jerking on the wing tiedown.)

Cheap claw hammer, the hammer to put the nails in, the claw to take them out. I did a Kitplanes article on how they are made. I'll post the article here if you wish.

Ten bucks for the whole mechanism. Proved at Oshkosh in the worst weather they can throw at me.

Jim
 
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weirdjim said:
For the stakes ... 4 links of proof chain that will accommodate 3 each 10-12" bridge spikes (heavy nails), one nail through each link. Drive the spikes into the ground on a 45° angle to the surface of the grass in 120 degree horizontal angles (i.e. one north, one southeast, and one southwest) to each other.

Polypropylene (sp?) rope through the fourth link to both wing and the tail tiedown. (A rubber stress link works real well to keep wind gusts from excessively jerking on the wing tiedown.)

Cheap claw hammer, the hammer to put the nails in, the claw to take them out. I did a Kitplanes article on how they are made. I'll post the article here if you wish.

Ten bucks for the whole mechanism. Proved at Oshkosh in the worst weather they can throw at me.

Jim
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I built these about 10 yrs ago but used marine line from WestMarine. Total cost was $35. Also have 3 pieces of 1/2 in plywood, foot square to out under each wheel. Gets soggy at OSH.
 
The claw seems to hold the best at Osh and sun n fun. ,I carry the heavy duty screw in type ,due to cheaper cost.
 
I can tell you from 23 years of Oshkosh (some of which was spent on tiedown patrol looking for untied aircraft) and parking at everything from the beach to 70 MPH windstorms at Oshkosh and Cody Wyoming:

The first one's I started with were swingset anchor (essentially a metal rod with an eye and a welded on disk twisted into an auger). Cheap, work fine, but can be a real pain to install if the ground is hard or rockey.

I disagree with the above. I would never use the corkscrew doggy anchors. I've seen far too many of those snap at Oshkosh.

Then there are the "nail" kind. The first of these I saw were essentially a hockeypuck with three nails going at different angles. My friend had a great set made in Australia out of carbon fiber (even the nails). These worked fine until a Basler truck ran over them at Oshkosh one year and snapped them.

The commercially available ones are pretty much the Claw and the Stormforce tiedown kits. I have them both. I've had things break on the claw (usually the nail heads) though in Cody my plane pulled hard enough in the storm to BEND one of the claw legs (and the nail) but didn't pull out. The Claw folks at Oshkosh have always just told me to take what I need off their table to refresh mine.

I have to say I like the Stormforce tiedowns. They're easier than the claw and seem to hold as well. I've used them in the sand when tieing down at a beach front airport and they held well against my attempting to rip them up by pulling hard on the tiedown ropes.

I've got a few large pound in stakes as well that I've used at times (not tent stakes but the large ones they use to tiedown bigger things).

At Fond du Lac they were selling to arrivals who didn't have them, a Z shaped piece of metal. Seemed to work pretty good.

At Oshkosh, the registration (and security guys) have a bunch of tiedowns that are essentially a T-shaped piece of rebar. You can borrow our hammer if you leave your drivers license.
 
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I've used basic 16" tent stakes like those available for about $4 apiece at Home Depot. I guess if they can handle 50 KT winds in Kansas overnight, they do their job pretty well.
 
frfly172 said:
The claw seems to hold the best at Osh and sun n fun. ,I carry the heavy duty screw in type ,due to cheaper cost.
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The Claw holds well in most conditions, BUT it depends on soil type (not so good in sandy soil) and installation technique. I saw several pulled loose at the SnF Tornado. That was the mother of all tie down tests, and the EAA screw ins held wonderfully!
 
Only trouble I've had with the claw is the stakes. After pounding them in a couple times, the head of them feature off, making removal interesting.
 
I followed the directions on the EAA Airventure website. Caution: They worked too well and I couldn't get them out for an hour. I slipped a disc in the process! They worked very...very well. That airplane wasn't going anywhere.
 
Started with screws but found that most times they were useless so went with the Claw. The OP did specify "grass" so in many cases the screw would probably work but grass covers many different types of turf and they aren't gonna let you tie down on that nicely manicured and watered grass strip where you landed.
 
frfly172 said:
The claw seems to hold the best at Osh and sun n fun. ,I carry the heavy duty screw in type ,due to cheaper cost.
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The Claw at SnF I found pretty much useless. When it was time to leave I just pulled them straight up out of the sand, which is all there is beneath the grass.
 
Henning said:
The Claw at SnF I found pretty much useless. When it was time to leave I just pulled them straight up out of the sand, which is all there is beneath the grass.
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Yeah, sand is your enemy with any system.
 
Duckbills. You can't get them out but that's kind of the point.
 
Some rigid fiam spoilers strapped on top of the wing seem like a good bit of extra insurance....
 
rwellner98 said:
+1 for Flyties
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If they were made out of carbon fiber that describes the ones my buddy had. Never could find one's similar (the original guy in Oz who was making them went out of business).

One more thing...NO ROPES/STRAPS with S-HOOKS. We were given these slick slack adjusting ropes by the flying club when we went to Oshkosh the first time. During the storm I heard a pop and realized that the plane was rocking and rolling enough (and the ground soft) that the S-hook had jumped the tiedown ring. Fortunately I had 50' of rope with me and ran out and retied it (though not having a knife handy it was a little daunting trying to tie the knot with 40' of free rope end).
 
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jhausch said:
Some rigid fiam spoilers strapped on top of the wing seem like a good bit of extra insurance....
Click to expand...

That won't keep strong wind from pushing your plane around. Have you seen any pictures of SnF after the tornado? Sure, tornadoes are frequent, but even away for. The direct path, planes were blown around a lot by the wind. Where I was parked, it was pretty much a direct tailwind, planes were pointed every which direction afterwards.

With the EAA screw ins, my plane was still pointed in the same direction that I parked it in. The plane to my immediate right was not.
 
EdFred said:
I've found that heavy duty screw in dog tiedowns have worked best for me. Cheaper than anything you'd find in aviation catalogs
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that's what I use. work very well!
 
Hank S said:
That won't keep strong wind from pushing your plane around. Have you seen any pictures of SnF after the tornado? Sure, tornadoes are frequent, but even away for. The direct path, planes were blown around a lot by the wind. Where I was parked, it was pretty much a direct tailwind, planes were pointed every which direction afterwards.

With the EAA screw ins, my plane was still pointed in the same direction that I parked it in. The plane to my immediate right was not.
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Nothing is going to hold your plane on a tornado, especially at SnF.
 
Anybody have a link ro the eaa screw in tiedown mentioned above? I have a set of the triangle tiedowns that use three long nails but they require a hefty hammer to bring along to pound the nails into the ground. I'm already going to be pushing towards gross weight on my sonex with two on board, full fuel, and some minimal baggage and would prefer to not bring a heavy hammer just to use for five minutes one time all week.

Keith
 
kmacht said:
Anybody have a link ro the eaa screw in tiedown mentioned above? I have a set of the triangle tiedowns that use three long nails but they require a hefty hammer to bring along to pound the nails into the ground. I'm already going to be pushing towards gross weight on my sonex with two on board, full fuel, and some minimal baggage and would prefer to not bring a heavy hammer just to use for five minutes one time all week.

Keith
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There will be someone nearby with a hammer.
 
kmacht said:
and would prefer to not bring a heavy hammer just to use for five minutes one time all week.

Keith
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I'd be surprised if your next door (on all four sides) wouldn't have a hammer on board, and I know that there are things like this that you can check out (leave your pilot certificate or drivers license) from some of the EAA sites around.

If all else fails, I'll bet you can get one at the emergency repair hangar.

Jim
 
kmacht said:
Anybody have a link ro the eaa screw in tiedown mentioned above? I have a set of the triangle tiedowns that use three long nails but they require a hefty hammer to bring along to pound the nails into the ground. I'm already going to be pushing towards gross weight on my sonex with two on board, full fuel, and some minimal baggage and would prefer to not bring a heavy hammer just to use for five minutes one time all week.

Keith
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I've never seen "EAA" screw in tie downs. Just these:

http://www.eaa.org/en/airventure/eaa-fly-in-flying-to-oshkosh/ground-operations/tying-down-aircraft
 
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I bought a set of those "portable shelter" screw downs. You get 6 for $50 and they are 36" long. They've held up so far really well until my hangar gets built.
 
+1 for Stormforce. I would NEVER use the screw-in type. They're way to easy to pull out and especially don't use the ones for dogs. Protect your plane! Watch the video on the Stormforce website. They do a good job of comparisons. Of course, it's their website, but I believe they do a fair job of comparing the brands. http://www.stormforcetiedowns.com/
 
I made these form the aviation department at Home Depot. Used them at 6Y9 in 2013 but weather behaved.
 

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I like the stormforce design so I built a set using 1.5" angle iron from Home depot and some stakes. Far cheaper than purchasing and just as effective.

They double as chocks when not using them as tiedowns.
 
I bent some 10mm rebar into a 15 inch long "U" shape. I hammered them in at a 45 degree angle and the three were at 120 degrees to each other. Worked great last year at OSH and at a couple of other places. I loaned my hammer to several folks in the area. The "U" shape allows me to use the hammer to get them out as well as put them in. It also provided a good ground for me and the refueler.
 
I just made these tonight from about $20 of stuff from Lowe's: 1" aluminum angle (3' cut into 1' lengths), 5/16 x 1-3/8 x 2-1/2 u-bolts (3 ea), 5/16 nuts (6 ea), 12" galvanized spikes (9). A little quality time in the shop with a hack saw and drill press and this is what I got. Basically the same as the Storm Force only with 3 spikes instead of 4 (you could do 4 if you want). Place them so that tie down rope extends from the plane at a 45 degree angle to the ground, and drive in the spikes at a 45 degree angle so that the pulling force is 90 degrees against the spikes. I will test them out at Oshkosh next week :D
 

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