A solution to the problem one person tying down the rotor blades of a helicopter when the rotor blades are too high to be reached by a person standing on the ground involves a rotor blade tie down having a flat structure of two adjacent layers attached along three sides and open on one side to facilitate the placement of an end of the rotor blade in an interior of the device. An exterior surface of each of the layers of the flat structure has a member fixed thereto adjacent the open side of the tie down for receiving a rotor blade tie down installation tool. A tether has one end fixed to the tie down and a free end for attachment to a structural member of the helicopter. A helicopter rotor blade tie down installation tool is a pole having a pair of spaced apart substantially parallel arms fixed to the pole that extend away from the pole and are oriented substantially perpendicular to the pole to be received in the members on the exterior of the rotor blade tie down device.