If you are flying your plane to Oshkosh you’ll need to bring your own tie-down anchors and hardware. Even if you are not making the journey, these anchors are handy for fly-ins. The EAA has designed a set that is light weight and effective. You can find plans for them on the Airventure site. It’s basically a triangle base plate with three holes for stakes and a U-bolt for rope in the middle.
When looking through my scrap box for a piece of 1/8 inch steel for the ground plate I spied a pair of gate hinges. Wow! the triangle is practically cut and it has three of the five required holes.
I cut the hinge pin off with a Sawzall and rounded the corners with a grinder. Drill two additional holes for the u-bolt and you are almost done. Just thread the ends of nine 1/4 inch rods 18 inches long. Install some washers with nuts. The washers give a place to use an “S” hook and rope to pull up the stakes when you leave. I finished the whole project in under an hour.
The picture shows how I cut off the hinge pin, a couple of completed plates and some stakes.
John Pitkin
Greenville, TX
Last edited by jtpitkin06; 07-08-2011 at 07:42 PM.
Reason: corrected text
Portable tie-downs
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