I vote for parking into the wind.
I vote for parking into the wind.
I can't vote for arbitrarily turning everyone in HBC toward the west; Jeff Point's comment about unintended consequences is spot on. If I did my research correctly, peak winds during the Saturday storm were out of the south-southwest at 36G60ish. How much of that wind was the result of frontal passage and how much was outflow from the storm? I'd submit that outflow was a major contributor and could be very different during the next storm. If individual owners want to pivot in their tiedown spots based on their expectations of the wind, that's up to them.
Seems to me that the better solution is education/awareness of selection and correct use of good tiedown *and* control lock solutions on vulnerable airplanes like big-rudder RVs.
Dave
Last edited by DSetser; 08-06-2022 at 09:40 AM.
___________
Dave Setser
CFII/MEI, Consultant DER
EAA Technical Counselor/Flight Advisor
RV-7 N701ED Flying!
Nashua, NH (KASH) / Plymouth, NH (1P1)
The law of averages says the typical storm at Osh is out of the West. That's my experience over almost 30 years of attending the show. I think we should park aircraft to avoid the most likely threat, not the most recent threat. And that means facing West.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not adamant about it, but I do think it improves the odds.
Last edited by Kyle Boatright; 08-09-2022 at 07:04 PM.
I've gripped about the planes near registration all pointing to the east--The guys at registration have also complained--Does no good-- The people at parking ( FLO) just say that " its always been done that way--so we are not changing"
One comment on the use of the Air Gizmos gust locks. I find that they work well up to where there is enough wind to start the webbing sliding through their webbing "lock" mechanism. And it does not take as much wind as you would like. My "fix" is to take the webbing and knot it up against the lock flip handle so that it can not slip/loosen. If the web stays tight the thing seems to stay on and do its job. And you can double up on your rudder. Since you can put seat belts around your control stick to protect your elevator and ailerons, the rudder is the most vulnerable control surface. FWIW I fly a big rudder Sukhoi.
Best of luck,
Wes
Tradition, ". . . airplanes have always been parked facing show center, . . ."
I guess that makes some sense if you sit in your plane while the airshows are being performed, if you must follow tradition sit in a chair facing show center.
I would rather respect the direction of strong winds and face the spinner into the wind (storm winds generally from the West) to reduce the chance of damaging my airplane.
As was said by Jeff, you are free to position your plane whatever direction you feel is best in your assigned parking site.
I saw a picture somewhere of a rudder lock on some cargo planes that clamped the rudder to the VS wrapping around them about mid point. It is heavier and may not be the easiest to carry but I imagine a cargo company know what works.
https://pierregillard.zenfolio.com/c...4A6E#h2c434a6e
Last edited by rockwoodrv9a; 08-08-2022 at 12:40 PM.
Facing into the wind creates lift on the wings and tail because of the positive angle of incidence, and strains the tie-downs. Especially for taildraggers, but also nosedraggers. Facing away from wind presses the airplane down--isn't that what you want?
South of Boeing Plaza most, but certainly not all, of the planes are parked facing North or South, so they always deal with crosswind issues. HBC most are East/West facing. The variety of parked aircraft positions facing all the compass points has existed at Wittman for decades now. I wonder if anyone has done a study of damage to see if there is a correlation with direction parked?
"Don't believe everything you see or read on the internet" - Abraham Lincoln
The level of damage we are talking about in this thread is that of banging control surfaces around which is most definitely minimized by having the airplane pointed into the wind. When we get to failed tiedowns, there is not likely that much you can do to prevent damage, and it is also more of a one off event that will have who knows what direction of wind.