Ties downs
Today was for wrapping things up before I take the plane back to the airport for the final test flight prior to flying to California.
I machined a set of bushing to be floxed into the wings a guss locks for the rudders. The pins have a little ball bearing in the ends to hold the pin in place when inserted into the tube. Only thing left to do is to install them into the wing.
I also made some alerion locks for the wing.
This year was a tornado on Wed at the 2011 SNF event. I was supposed to fly down there on Wed and am really glad that I didnt after seeing all the distruction and damaged planes.
While looking at the damage I happed to come across a big pile of broken “Claw” type tie downs which all failed in exactly the same place. One thing which was really apparent was that ALL of them failed in exactly the same spot. It is a poor design made of inferior cast aluminum materials. I have never liked the cork screw type of tie downs either..
I found a much better design called “Storm Force” tiedowns which I really like. Check out this video
I made my own set for about $10 instead of $100. All I need is a hammer and bag to complete the set.