How NOT to tie down your aircraft

[smv]

Should you also learn to fly on your own airplane too? I'm sorry but that's a pretty sad attitude. It's the instructor basically admitting that they're not competent enough to teach a student how to read an EGT gauge or to use a checklist or to teach them about, and understand, leaning technique

Rest assured that my students are trained to lean aggressively enough on the ground that if they do attempt a takeoff without using their checklist (Mixture - Set Full or for DA) they will kill the engine when going to full throttle. Unfortuately our primary training aircraft has no gauges that can be used for setting the mixture in flight (beyond the tach and their ears) so I do what I can there...

 

[rwellner98]

When you tie something down from the wind, it's best to "guy out" the lines, rather than have the lines lead vertically to the ground.

One trade off is that temporary tie downs (like flyties, for example) recommend tying straight down as they tie down itself is vast stronger pulling as close to vertical as possible.

 

[Juliet Hotel]

Except it doesn't. There isn't a cone in front of the van, just behind it.

Nope it doesn't. But they won't always walk to the vehicle from behind. And if they don't, it forces them to walk to the back of the vehicle and thereby see any potential hazards they might be about to back into. It won't work every time, but it if works once in a while, that's better than nothing.

Most semis have the fifth wheel release handle on the driver's side but I've seen companies spec their trucks with the fifth wheel handle on the passenger just so their drivers would be forced to walk around that side of the truck at least once in a while.

 

[smv]

Example:
Drive is a one way heading east. Angle parking on the south side of drive nose into a curb. Building is on the north side of drive. Driver returns to vehicle, approaches it from the back, tosses the cone in the van, walks up the driver's side of the van, gets in, backs out into the drive, and leaves. Never walks around the front, never walks around the passenger side. The cone did nothing other than cause them to open up the rear doors and toss it in.

P.S. As was pointed out above, in your example the driver was forced to clear the rear of the van regardless from which direction they approached. When I was a tech/supervisor/Safety Guru for a major satellite TV Regional Service Provider, the reason we were given for the cause for all this was an incident where the driver approached the van from the rear, got in, fired up, and drove off forward without ever clearing the front of the van. Did not see the kid sitting on his bicycle leaning up against the front of the van until after he crushed the kid. Had the driver used a cone, and used it properly in a manner to force him to clear his exit path, he likely would have seen the kid sitting there.

 

[MuseChaser]

Example:
Drive is a one way heading east. Angle parking on the south side of drive nose into a curb. Building is on the north side of drive. Driver returns to vehicle, approaches it from the back, ...

Ummmm.... teardrop entry? Parallel?

Sigh...been studying for the ifr written....

 

[Tantalum]

Rest assured that my students are trained to lean aggressively enough on the ground that if they do attempt a takeoff without using their checklist (Mixture - Set Full or for DA) they will kill the engine when going to full throttle. Unfortuately our primary training aircraft has no gauges that can be used for setting the mixture in flight (beyond the tach and their ears) so I do what I can there...

where I got my license had fairly basic instrumentation, I want to say it had an EGT ?? but the easy technique was to pull it back until it got rough then advance it until it started to feel smooth again

The first few times I did that out here when renting apparently scared some of the other pilots I flew with who were taught the 1/2 turn thing

 

[smv]

but the easy technique was to pull it back until it got rough then advance it until it started to feel smooth again

The first few times I did that out here when renting apparently scared some of the other pilots I flew with who were taught the 1/2 turn thing

That is how we do it in the Warrior. On the ground I have them pull it back until the RPM starts to rise slightly. When it goes from 1000 to 1100 you know you are leaned out pretty well. I also demonstrate what happens when you try to go to full power with that setting. Sometimes it is leaned "too much" to get enough power to get up a hill or over a bump but typically about a 100 RPM rise works well enough to get around on the ground but there is no way you will be able to get to full throttle without noticing something very wrong.

In the air I pretty quickly get them over the fear of messing it up during their first "leaning lesson" (like flight #2) by asking out loud the question they want to ask, but usually do not, "What if you pull it back too far?" by demonstrating what actually happens if you pull back too far and how simple it is to recover.

The last time the plugs were pulled on the Warrior for its annual the were perfectly clean with only a slight oil fouling on one plug. Must be doing something right...

I, like you, am flummoxed over the number of certificated pilots who are deathly afraid of that Big Red Stop Knob. ...but then I have also seen new-to-me students with logbook entries for "basic instrument flying" on flight #3 and eleven touch-n-go landings on flight #5. Finding out that folks are not being taught how to properly tie down or self-service fuel an aircraft really is not all that surprising.

(whew.. managed to almost keep it on topic... )

 

[Tokirbymd]

Tie downs at "fancy FBOs"? I travel to some higher end FBOs and usually they have me taxi up to the building where my rental car awaits. They then tow my plane to be tied down elsewhere on the GA ramp and pull it backup for me when I'm ready to leave. How does anyone assure that the plane is tied down appropriately in this situation? I at least have turn limits painted on the nose gear so hopefully they don't bend the turn stop.