14-19-3 tie down rings

[bbarrett]

My -3 has had tie down rings on the wings (picture below) since I bought it. I always assumed that this was some hack job along the way, until I recently saw another -3 with the same rings in the same place. Pulling the pitot tube inspection panel off, it looks like there's a bunch of support blocking behind the rings (and some springs on the rings themselves). Does anyone know this history of when Bellanca started installing the rings? I'm dubious of their value, but I'm also dubious of the 260 user manual's recommendation to tie up to the wheel axle. Thoughts?

 

[Rob58]

Brian... although my -3 is a bit older than yours, the tie down rings are there. My -2 does not have them. As we all know the Bellanca user manual is not the definitive guide to anything (unfortunately!). I don't have a good picture of the wing underside but you can see them in the pic below.