Tied down on the coast and having ridden out one superstorm and one small hurricane at KUUU - Newport while tied down outside......
I'm going to beg to differ with Hung and Ron's recommended equipment. IMHO the open ended hooks are a weak point in tying down. If the plane DOES get slightly slack in he ropes there is a chance the hooks can disengage (usually from the ground) as the ropes vibrate in high wind.
Either tie a knot or use closed style carabineer type hooks that if they go slack - cannot disengage.
Nylon cargo straps that have had any time in the sun - no-no when the going gets tough. The stitching is often UV rotted and fails.
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Make sure you control lock the elevators in the dive position. (People who don't have a control lock sometimes use the seat belt which puts the elevators in a climb position.) The dive position makes sure the plane tries to keep her nose down in a headwind and in a tail wind it depresses the tail and stops the wind getting under it and flipping the plane over on its nose. I've seen this happen in near hurricane strength wind. In a tail wind - the elevators went to climb, the load on the tail tie down got too great and the rope failed - the plane was on her nose wheel before a few of us caught it and pulled the tail back down.
For really strong winds you can also tie the nose down - a loop around the crankshaft behind the propeller may not be good for the shaft seal in the long term - but for riding out a hurricane - is the lesser of two evils. To get 4 spots on the ground to tie to - you need to get greedy and straddle the plane across two tie down spots. Or get creative with a taut chain across the wing tie downs and middle the plane over them.
In near hurricane winds - rudder and aileron gust locks are a must to reduce chattering and wear. I've seen bellcrank pivot bolts fail because of chattering.
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Getting the plane turned into wind if at all possible will reduce wracking on the empennage that can twist it if the plane is secure in its ropes. As the wind veers as the front passes - it can take all hands to manhandle the plane into the new wind direction - if you want to try it!
Next time we are rigged for hurricanes at Newport I'll take some pictures!
