Remove Tie Down Eyelets for flight?

[Bob_Belville]

I accidentally left mine in when I got the plane painted.  Looks like they are never coming out now!  I tie-down the aircraft all the time, so I just leave them in anyhow - didn't even realize that somewhere it says to take them out....

 

Is this in the POH?  Of simply on a website?

If they are the standard equipment eye bolts they will have to come out to jack the plane.

[Jerry 5TJ]

In the "C" one of my tie-down holes under the wing has stripped threads.  

Should I put in a helicoil?  

[N601RX]

In the "C" one of my tie-down holes under the wing has stripped threads.  

Should I put in a helicoil?  

I had the same problem and fixed it with the lasar tiedown/jackpoint and put a nut on the topside. I had to use a slightly longer capscrew so it stuck through enough to put the nut on it.

[DrBill]

I believe mine are the LASAR ones and it is closer to 6mm than 10.

 

I would not use a helicoil in an aircraft.  Drill, re-tap with larger thread and use a new SS bolt.

BILL

[Bob_Belville]

I have the LASAR combo tiedown/jackpoint. I noticed one was a little loose last week and mentioned it to my A&P during the annual. He wound up trying both metric and SAE Allen wrenches, I was very skeptical there was anything metric on an old Mooney and I think we determined in the end it was 13/32" and the bolt was a little dirty. But it might have been 3/8". I was not under the plane. 

[m20cDoug]

The threads were worn out (stripped)on my tie downs and they were held in with a nut and washer. Right now the plane has been on jacks for a few years and the jackpoints are model airplane propnuts turned from aluminum with 1/4-20 bolts, I have the LASAR

combo tiedown jackpoints for when I get it ready to fly but the propnuts look good in anodized blue. Pulling panels to put in tiedowns is a non starter.

[Hank]

My tiedown rings were looking pretty bad [even though I only used them a few times each year], so I had them powder coated over the winter. They looked so good that I took my old, nasty towbar down and had it powder coated too. Since then, for the first time ever, the towbar has slipped out when pulling the plane. Guess there is something to be said for worn paint and light rust . . .

[m20cDoug]

Interesting that we can't trust a tow bar to tow and should remove the tie down rings making it impossible to tie down easily.

[Bob_Belville]

My tiedown rings were looking pretty bad [even though I only used them a few times each year], so I had them powder coated over the winter. They looked so good that I took my old, nasty towbar down and had it powder coated too. Since then, for the first time ever, the towbar has slipped out when pulling the plane. Guess there is something to be said for worn paint and light rust . . .

Yeah, I landed on my keister once pulling the plane out of the hanger. I wrapped the pin part with some gorilla tape for a while but decided that was not a very elegant solution. I then put the handle in a vice a gave the pin a whack or two to assure that the angle was acute (< 90 deg). Much more elegant.

[DonMuncy]

Or if you are like me with time on your hands, you can build a "latching" tow bar that won't slip out.

See my gallery photos.

[bonal]

Every place we go we tie down so I leave them in preflight check to make sure they are snug. Always are.