gust locks at tie down

Am copying Tony T's for the rudder posted about a yr ago. A question of tail dropping to ground was mentioned in that post. I am planning to carry a pair of pegs connected by a line which I am going to slip thru the loop on nose gear leg and nail it down when tving down to secure the tail from dropping. I think it will work. Appreciate if anyone out there has been successful using this or another method.
Thanks.
Dick Seiders

Ok, let me put it this way. Has any 12 owner/driver suffered any tail damage due to a gust or other W&B issue,and if so, what did you do about it, and lastly did it work? Thanks.
Dick Seiders

Dick,

I remember the post, but, can't find it. As I recall, it was suggested to tie down the nose, especially if you use the seatbelt to secure the stabilator and flaperons. The Van's towbar or the PVC rudder lock should work well for the rudder.

Tail damage

I had tail damage from the type of wind you questioned. On my way to Oshkosh, while tied down in South Dakota, an storm that was not in the forecast came up. Up to 70kts of wind and about 10" rain came up suddenly. I heard the storm warning in the motel. I drove to the airport and initially could not see the airplane because of the rain and wind. The storm died down a little to the point that I could see it there and that it was tail down as the wind was a quartering tail wind. After about 15 more minutes the rain stopped. The -12 was once again on its wheels.

The rudder was bent. The trailing edge of the antiservo trim and the trailing edge of the stabilator were damaged. The rivets on the servo tab and trailing edge of the stabilator had pulled out. A local A&P came out the next am because he had heard of the damage. We were able to do some field repairs that allowed me to get home eventually. Final fix involved new rudder, AST and trailing edge of stabilator.

The airplane was tied down securely, the stick was held by the seat belt. Did not have rudder gust locks. Several mouths later the discussions came up here and I do have gust locks. I don't think the type of tail stand we are talking about would do much good. With 75 kts of wind not much is going to hang strait down.

It is a very real danger to the airplane. I hope somebody does come up with a solution.

Richard

Found the thread,

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=71209&highlight=nose+winds

I made a piece of PVC pipe to hold "up" the tail that I intend to use in conjunction with the tail tiedown rope. Similar to the one mentioned in thread 71209.
Now, the stick held full aft with the seat belt puts a large amount of stabilator deflection in the way of either a headwind OR tailwind. Don't like that. So I am making a 2x4 block about 3.5 inches long with padding on it. I will place that in as a spacer between the seat bulkhead and the stick before securing the stick with the seatbelt. Then the tail is nice and level when secured. Ideas/opinions?