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Road Trip


CT2kflyer

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Took a trip in my CT2k N385DM from Longmont Colorado, to Puget Sound.  Attached Pic is of the North Cascades... on the far horizon is Mt. Rainer from the eastern side.  Good trip, about 3,000 miles and 28 total Hobbs hours.  Wicked winds in Gillett, WY.  North Star Aviation in Missoula was an excellent FBO..... use them.

 

Pic is in my gallery...... 

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Jaques:

 

 I use the only place available, the brackets for the ailerons.  I also use a velcro band around the empennage towards the rudder, and have fashioned a clip to use on the engine mount (haven't needed that yet).  I can do a 4 point tie-down.   

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Dave, Jaques,

I think we may be the only CT2k pilots on this forum.

I used to tie my plane down by the control surface brackets too. But at a Rotax class in Sebring I meet a Flight Design engineer from Germany who I think had come out to advise on some major repairs to a CT. He saw my plane tied down and said, "If you knew how those brackets are attached to the wing, you wouldn't tie anything to them." I'm sorry I don't remember his name but his words were sobering.

This had always been a concern for me, especially considering how far back the brackets are on the wing. Tying the plane down to them does not hold the nose down, which is critical to limiting tie down loads. I asked Flight Design for approval of a modification to add tiedown rings, but they refused.

Anyway, since then I have been tying my plane down to the lowest bar on the engine mounting frame, under the cowl. I carry a short nylon sling (pre-tied loop) with a carabiner on it to facilitate this. I pull into the standard "T"-shaped airport tiedown backwards so my nose is over what would be the tail tiedown for other aircraft (the bottom of the "T").  Our short wing and tail makes it easy to fit between other aircraft. I slip one end of the sling over the engine mounting bracket then slip the carabiner through it and clip it on the tiedown ring or the lowest link of the tiedown chain. The distance is always the same since I position the engine bracket right over the tiedown, but it has a little play in order to get the carabiner on the ring. So after securing the plane I roll it back against the tie-down and set the brake so its tight. Sometimes chock the wheels as well but niehter the brakes or the chocks are critical to this tiedown method. I always tie the stick forward against the rudder petals both to help hold the nose down and to prevent damage from the controls banging against their stops.

The breaking strength of the carabiner (24 kilonewtons) and sling is at least 5 times the weight of the plane. The engine mount looks fairly secure as well.

This one tiedown point does nothing to inhibit roll or yaw but it very effectively addresses the all import issue of angle of attack. As long as we keep the nose down, especially with negative flaps, the plane won't fly... at least not in winds less the 50 knots. A very strong crosswind may catch under the upwind wing and drive the downwind tip into the ground, but it will take a lot of force to pivot the weight of the plane around the downwind main gear, especially with the nose tied down. I'm sure this would damage the tip but I don't believe it will buckle the wing or allow the plane to flip over. Even in a hurricane, I would expect the plane to bounce around, weather vane about the nose and bang up the tips, but stay tied down and generally in one piece.

Your mileage may vary, but I have been using this tiedown method for 8 years now. I watched the plane ride out a 50 knot quartering crosswind at Fox Field (WJF) with no problem at all. After a night of thunderstorms at Burns (WKBO), which I was not there to watch, the plane had moved around a bit and knocked the chocks clear, but without damage. Obviously, we have to make sure we don't hit other aircraft, but other than the night at Burns, I have never seen the wheels displaced more than inch.

Mike Koerner

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I think i know who you are talking about. That guy is a tad bit of a something something. He's good at his job but seems to really got a stick up his butt about Americans.

 

But he's right. Don't tie to those brackets. They are built to take longitudinal loads, not vertical. They are layed into the skin near the ribs and there's not a lot resisting vertical loads. And they are an UNBELIEVEAVLY HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS to fix.

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