Tie Down For Hand Propping For Sale

[M Towsley]

I probably should have mentioned I made from plans one of the retractable tie downs for hand propping. It is also on Ebay and very cheap at the moment. It cost me over $100.00 in materials and welding costs to make it. It works great.

[mike bc12d]

Re: Tie Down For Hand Propping For Sale

Do you still have the tie down, if so could you send a pic. or two and the selling price. How does it mount and release.

Thanks
Michael

[M Towsley]

Re: Tie Down For Hand Propping For Sale

Mike,

It sold and I am currently looking for the plans I had to share with someone else. If I find them I will share them with you, unless someone here has the plans. It is not difficult, requires about $100 in parts and labor.

[Larry Lyons]

Re: Tie Down For Hand Propping For Sale

Does anyone have plans to make a sail plane release? I would make one for mine while it is down for recover. Larry

[VictorBravo]

Re: Tie Down For Hand Propping For Sale

There's a device used on sailboats, which for the life of me I cannot remember the name of... but it is nearly the equivalent of a sailplane release hook.

If you put one of these things on the end of a rope, and tie a cord to the release lever, you can have a mechanism that holds the airplane securely, then pull the cord and drag the whole mess inside through the door and fly off into the sunset.

Schweizer made a simple and effective release for the back of towplanes, try www.wingsandwheels.com and see if they are available. The German releases by Tost are far too much machinery for this use, the Schweizer lo-tech one is ideal.

[mulwyk]

Re: Tie Down For Hand Propping For Sale

Bill:
That sailboat device is a "snap shackle". Simple and reliable, made of stainless steel. I've never seen one used for a tail tiedown release but it would certainly be an excellant application. Good idea.

[mohawktipi]

Re: Tie Down For Hand Propping For Sale

Here is a web address to an article on tail hook releases. Couple of pictures that could be used as a guied for fabrication.

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/tech/tailhook.html

[M Towsley]

Re: Tie Down For Hand Propping For Sale

There was a gentlman who was selling the plans on Ebay, with a link to the plans on the web. It is not a sailplane release or the one from the Flybaby page. It uses the snap shackle releases. Someone mentioned here some time ago the plan was free, now. This is the one I am looking for. Thanks.

[VictorBravo]

Re: Tie Down For Hand Propping For Sale

The sailplane release is fine and a very elegant solution, but it is dependent on you having a chain from an airport tiedown (or something similar) that gets left behind after you take off. It also requires a little modification to the airplane.

The snap shackle system is far less elegant, but you can use a rope or nylon webbing to tie the tail to a bare airport tiedown cable with no chain, or a fencepost, or a truck bumper, or a large rock... and pull the entire contraption inside the airplane when you leave. No modifications, no FAA ramp checks (as stupid as that would be), and nothing left behind when you go.

If you're using a "minimalist" philosophy to minimize dead weight and the number of items carried in the airplane, you can even re-use your wing tiedown straps as the starting tiedown by attaching it to the snap shackle.

However, the Fly Baby link above has a couple of really slick ideas for those wanting to install a glider release style device!

[Larry Lyons]

Re: Tie Down For Hand Propping For Sale

I to have been looking for that article to build a release like the one just sold on eBay but no luck. I do like the "no change to the aircraft aspect. Larry

[mohawktipi]

Re: Tie Down For Hand Propping For Sale

Here is link to a tie down on Aircraft Spruce. Not sure how it works but it is inexpensive.

http://aircraftspruce.com/catalog/pspages/jebsRemoteTiedown.php

[Larry Lyons]

Re: Tie Down For Hand Propping For Sale

Ingenious photo. Looks like a good shot but you can not make out as to how it is made, or attached, you have to buy to find out! Capitalism at its best. Not upset, just disappointed I did not think of it first! LL

[M Towsley]

Re: Tie Down For Hand Propping For Sale

I'm still looking here and there for the plans I had, no luck yet. It definitely worked well, just took a little time and effort to make.

[Ron Greene]

Re: Tie Down For Hand Propping For Sale

Here is a quick and simple way to do it. Don't need a $40.00 snap shackle and everything was available in 1941. From Vintage Aircraft.

[Joel Severinghaus]

Re: Tie Down For Hand Propping For Sale

Even simpler way to do it, taking the rope away with you:

One long piece of rope, long enough to reach from your struts on one side of the fuselage, back past the tail and around a fencepost, then up to the struts on the other side of the fuselage. Tie the rope around the struts with a mooring hitch at each end.

Start the engine, climb in the cockpit. Lean out the right door, tug the free end of the rope to un-tie that mooring hitch. Lean out the left door, un-tie that mooring hitch, and wind in the rope through the left door. Stow the coiled rope in the baggage compartment.

(I can't take credit for this -- someone else posted it on a handpropping thread here a while back. Attached scan is from Cliff Jacobson's "Knots for the Outdoors.")