Cargo Tie-Down Rings

After reading Jim McGauhey's blog about his encounter with turbulence and canopy damage due to unsecured cargo, I have resolved to install tie-down rings in the baggage area of my STOL 750!  Although I don't have a canopy to potentially damage, I do have windows, a windscreen, and most importantly, my head!

However,  when I looked for reasonably-small tie-down rings ("reasonably small" in that I'm limited to only securing about 40 lbs. of cargo in my STOL 750), it seems the smaller the ring, the more difficult it is to find an "aviation quality" tie-down ring - and preferably, one that is recessed when not in use.

I did find these tie-down rings on Amazon which are interesting - when not in use, you can easily remove the ring entirely, leaving only the low-profile mount.

Any recommendations, sources, photos, etc. for a quality, lightweight tie-down ring?

John

N750A

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Permalink Reply by Bob Pustell on August 7, 2019 at 2:41pm

For an area where you can easily mount a nut plate, one can thread an AN Eye Bolt into the nut plate. If the hole in your eye bolt is not big enough for your tie down device or rope you can put a chain repair "quick link" onto the hole and use the larger quick link opening to attach your tie down device. Everything can be unscrewed from the nut plate when not in use if desired.

Eye Bolt            https://www.aircraftspruce.com/search/search.php?s=eye%20bolt

Quick link    https://www.westechrigging.com/quick-link-zp-018.html

While looking for links to show the parts I noticed that Aircraft Spruce now sells a Tie Down Eye Bolt. It looks a bit clunky to mount in some areas but might work in others. Interesting........  https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/pspages/tieDowneye.php?click...

Permalink Reply by Gary Welch on August 9, 2019 at 10:16am

I used four foot-man loops anchored to the baggage floor and a car trunk cargo net like this:

https://www.amazon.com/MICTUNING-Upgraded-Organizer-Elastic-Holder/...

Easy to install. Stays in the plane. Lays flat if I don't want to use it. Easy to simply lift up and stuff things underneath. The flexibility allow for any size or shape to be restrained. Also, cheap.

It clips on and off so if I wanted to take it out I can, but can't really see any scenario where I would need to take it out. There is always something to restrain - spare headsets, POH, wheel chocks, etc.

I learned my lesson about not flying with anything unrestrained a long time ago.

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