Bay Area Soaring Associates (BASA)

BASA Members –

Last Saturday, Charlie Hayes, Scott Boynton, Charles Haynes and I put in some new tie-down cables and chains for our gliders at Hollister. In the last storm, it was becoming obvious that the rusty old chains and hooks on those tie-down spots just were not working (36L managed to shake off its chains entirely in that storm, and almost went flying on its own).

The current tie-down set-up is:

1. For 36L, there are new chains sized to keep the glider snug, with carabineer-type links at the top of each chain. The chains run vertically down to new steel cables that run between the permanent tie-down rings mounted in the pavement. Screw the links shut when you put the glider away (but don’t screw them so tight that the next guy will need a wrench to loosen them). For the tail boom, there is a tie-down strap that goes on the permanent steel ring mounted in the pavement. Park the glider so the tail boom is centered over the permanent ring, and anchor the strap to the ring.
2. For the 1-34, there are also new chains sized for the glider, and a strap for the tail. Park the glider so the tail boom is centered over the permanent ring mounted in the pavement, and anchor the strap to the ring. The chains for the wings have carabineer-type links at the top similar to 36L, and these links should be screwed shut (but not too snug) when you put the glider away.
3. For 1LV, there are new steel cables that run between the permanent tie-down rings mounted in the pavement, so that the tie-down ropes at the wingtips can run vertically down to the steel cables. This allows the tie-down ropes to be much more snug. If we can find some metal links that will go through the tie-down holes at the wingtips, we will convert this tie-down to chains as well. When tying down the wingtips, place the tops of wingstands so that they run mostly parallel to the wings and do not touch the ailerons. If the wingstands are allowed to impinge on the ailerons, this puts stress on the ailerons and control linkages, which is not good. The tailboom should be centered over the permanent ring mounted in the pavement, and the tie-down strap anchored to that ring.

There should also be wheel chocks for all the gliders.

The BASA maintenance trailer is in a fenced storage area on the north side of the Gavilan Aviation hanger (not the Gavilan College hanger).

– Harry Fox

This entry was posted on Monday, January 9th, 2006 at 12:06 pm and is filed under news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.