I don't think using the flap hinges is a good idea anyway. You may
not have a choice as to spacing between the anchors. Ignoring that
metal doesn't bond to epoxy real well, given enough angle on the
ropes, how many times can you bend metal before it fractures? The
problem with using the main gear legs (+ obviously your own anchors)
is the further inboard you do this, the greater leverage in both lift
and yaw.
My rear tie down is the tail skid - a 5/8" thick strake with big hole
in it. It is affixed with bolts through an aluminum hard point
glassed into the canoe bottom ala Europa.
For wings, I glassed a metal plate with a 5/16" hex nut onto the tip
of each spar, facing outboard. There's a hole in the wingtip foam (+ a
reinforcing ali tube). The theory is I'll weld a threaded rod onto a
standard tie-down ring. Remove a plastic snap plug at the wingtip,
and screw it into the wing. I'm not sure this is good enough, as
forces even out there can be enormous (as evidenced by damage to the
AA-5's STEEL wingtip ring mounting arrangement, but similarly not a
structural concern.
Best is maybe affixing a thread metal block to a metal strap, bonded
and glassed around the spar, at maybe 70% of span for structural
considerations. Bit of surgery on the XS, though. And needs to be
fabricated to withstand pull from all directions, given no laws here
as to an airport's tied-down spacing.
Regards,
Fred F., A063
> David Cripps wrote:
>
> Has anyone worked out a good/safe way of tying down a Europa Trigear
> once the speedkit is fitted? The speedkit very neatly covers up all
> the nice solid things like gear legs that you would otherwise tie
> to. A rope round the fairings on the gear legs will surely crush
> them if it's tight enough to be of any use? May also damage the
> brake pipes. The prop seems to be the only semi-solid thing to hand
> but I can't think it's a good idea to attach anything to that even
> if it could be done.
>
> Now that it's getting windy here in the UK, this is becoming a bit
> of an issue! Any bright ideas?
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