Supporting a 6A to mount the wings

My Fellow 6A builders......


I am ready to plug my wings in for incidence and root fairing drilling etc and am trying to decide the best way to support the airplane while getting the gear off the ground. I want it to be stable enought to allow me to get inside and install the bolts, but without damaging any aluminum. I have my engine mounted so I need to take into consideration that added weight as well.

So far, I have come up with the idea to hoist the forward end of the fuselage via the engine mount with an engine hoist, and then support an area aft of the main spar with some sort of support, such as a very strong, stable and padded sawhorse. I will stabilize the front of the airplane with another sawhorse placed under firewall to keep the fuselage from swaying on the engine hoist.

Any suggestions as to where I should place that aft sawhorse? At the aft baggage area bulkhead? Is that a strong enough area? Would it work if I place it under the F604 bulkhead where the spar attaches?


Thanks for the advice. Having N782P in the hangar has my juices flowing to say the least!


Regards,

Jeff,

What you describe is similiar to how I did it. The fuselage was raised via the engine hoist and I had three sawhorses supporting the structure including the firewall, and other bulkhead locations. Because it was difficult to know when I needed to insert or remove the wings at any given time, I did almost all the wing insertion and removal cycles by myself. Those wings were in and out at least six times! Each wing was supported by two sawhorses and positioned to align with the wing spar stub with the 604 and it was fairly easy to simply "walk" the wings home while carefully repositioning the wing sawhorses as required.


When you do get flying and visit your brother, be sure to stop in at M71!
Rick

painless said:

My Fellow 6A builders......


So far, I have come up with the idea to hoist the forward end of the fuselage via the engine mount with an engine hoist, and then support an area aft of the main spar with some sort of support, such as a very strong, stable and padded sawhorse. I will stabilize the front of the airplane with another sawhorse placed under firewall to keep the fuselage from swaying on the engine hoist.

Any suggestions as to where I should place that aft sawhorse? At the aft baggage area bulkhead? Is that a strong enough area? Would it work if I place it under the F604 bulkhead where the spar attaches?



Regards,

Click to expand...

I used two cement blocks and placed two 2x6 planks (hint: I used my wood brake I made for the elevator bends) across them to support the fuselage under the main spar area (center section) and a saw horse was set at the rear by the second last bulkhead near the tail. Both were padded with rugs. Shimming the planks allowed leveling the fuselage from side to side and shimming the tail allowed fore and aft leveling. Keeping it low, I was able to reach in and set my temporary bolts. This is a 7A. I know your 6 is different, but this may work. Get at least one helper when you do this.

Hope this helps,

Roberta

OOPPS!! I missed the part about you already being on your wheels and engine on (I should have read more). Maybe this will help someone not as far along. Rick's Idea looks like your best bet.

Thanks Rick. The pictures really help. Did you lift the forward end of the fuse off the ground at all? I see that the nosegear is on the ground. Is the forward sawhorse under the firewall supporting any weight or is it just there to stabilize things?

Also, I see that you have sawhorses under the rear baggage compartment bulkhead. I can't tell in the picture but do you also have one at the aft end of the fuse?

Thanks for the help Rick. I just hope that once I get these wings on I won't just stand around looking at the RV instead of working on it!

Will definitely stop in when I fly down there. I have threatend my brother with visits so you shouldn't be any different!


Regards,

Jeff,

I puzzled for some time over how to lift the airframe up to get sawhorses under it when my (less than mechanically interested) wife simply commented offhand; "Why don't you just lift it up by the engine with that fancy hoist you bought"? DUH!!! Worked just too easy. The nose gear does contact the ground but the weight of the fuselage is almost totally supported by the sawhorses, the one placed under the firewall carries (by far) the heaviest load. At that point, it is quite easy to lift the aft fuselage by hand to shove a sawhorse under a suitable bulkhead.




This picture shows where I positioned the aftmost horse padded with foam blocks to level. As you can see, the mains are off the ground, the aft sawhorse is located just forward of the (Orndorf removable) tie down ring. Sufficiently leveled, the a/c was almost ready for the AOI drillout procedures. Isn't it nice to be able to illustrate a point with the power of a picture?

Rick

Jeff,

I just put my wings on for the last time. I used the finish kit box under the aft fuselage with some padding and an engine hoist up front. You only need to lift enough to take the weight off the main gear. Then we put a small sawhorse under each wing to steady it after the wings were inserted.

Well this is a critical time for you

I built 2 heavy duty horses out of 2X6, with 4 each 3/4" plywood webs assembled with screws and wrapped around & nailed on pieces of cheap carpet padding for the Fuselage. All bought from Home Depot.

I built 4 similar wing horses out of 2X4, etc.

I bought a good strong piece of 4'X8'x3/4" plywood sheet.

I bought 4 sissor stye jacks from an auto parts store.

Put the plywood on the floor under the fuselage, put the fuselage horses on the plywood.

Put the jacks under the corners (inboard from the edges of course)

Put the wings on the wing horses.

Jacked up the fuselage support to lift it into position and attitude (BLOCK UP/SUPPORT THE PLYWOOD WITH 2X4s ETC. AFTER EACH ADJUSTMENT - DON"T DEPEND ON THE JACKS AS THE ONLY SUPPORT - they can easilly fall over).

Removed the gear bolts and spar plugs.

Used the jacks to level the canopy deck (precision - fwd & aft and side to side - REBLOCK/SUPPORT THE PLYWOOD AS NECESSARY)

Installed the wings with the flaps off, install sufficient main spar bolts and individually set the wing incidence angle (fwd & aft) precisely before clamping and drilling the aft attach bolt hole. My right wing was correct with no twist needed but the trailing edge of the left wing needed to be lifted.

Later the flap gap seal closure extensions required a step to conform to the fuselage side and bottom but all flying surfaces must be perfectly aligned with respect to the plane established by the canopy sill (deck).

Bob Axsom

on the gear or not?

I am preparing for the drilling of the wings. I notice that some of you have waited until the airplane is on the gear, and some have drilled the attach points while the fuselage is in the jig. My fuselage is in the jig now, and I was thinking about mating the wings now because it seemed easier to get everything lined up.

So, is it best to mate the wings while the fuselage is still in the jig, or to wait until it is on the gear?

Thanks,

Tony

I can't forsee a problem but ...

This is so critical that I would wait until the plane is ready to be locked in to its final configuration with the gear in place. I can't see any hard reason that you can't use the other timing but this way you don't have to worry about the possibility of an unforseen conflict.

Bob Axsom