RV3B Wings

[Jonthor]

Good morning every one,

I am looking for some advice/ help on my project.

I am building an RV3, I finished the empennage and I am starting the fuselage construction. I intended to buy QB wings but now Vans has discontinued that option.

Does anyone have QB wings for sale?

I it comes to that and I will have to buy a standard wing kit can I continue building the fuselage while I wait for the wing kit to arrive, or do I have to built the wings first so they will fit to the center section that I got with my fuselage kit.

Kind regards

Jon Thor Thorvaldsson

[David Paule]

The center section, built to the plans, should fit the wings. I'd go ahead and build it. Pay attention to lining up the holes on both the front and the back.

The distance from the front spar to the rear spar and the angles of them, on mine, came out pretty close to the wing's. But I still made a jig to ensure that I got it right. Is it right? I don't know since I haven't assembled the wings to the fuselage yet. But I sure didn't need to tweak much if anything to match the jig.

On the other hand, if you made the fuselage and then tried to make the wings to fit, there could be a lot of shimming or tweaking to get the rear spar to fit when the front spar is in its slot.

Dave

[Jonthor]

Hi Dave

Thanks for your help, I appreciate it.

The thing is I am starting my project again after some time. First I purchased the empennage and finished that, then when I spoke to Van?s on the next step they told me I could do the wing or fuselage next if I would go with the QB wings. I decided to buy the fuselage and build that while waiting for the QB wings which I intended to buy and fit to my fuselage. In the meantime Van?s discontinued the QB option.
I just started the firewall and made the fuselage jig. So before I continue rigging up the fuselage frame, C- section etc I want to be sure wether I need to have the wings made, ready, and in my garage so that all measurements will be correct or wether I can proceed and built the fuselage according to plans and measurements.
What woud be your advice?

Kind regards

Jon Thor

[Mike S]

Jon, welcome aboard the good ship VAF

[David Paule]

Why not ask Van's if they'd make you one set of QB wings, under the circumstances? After all, you are a pre-existing customer for the RV-3.

Dave

[Jonthor]

Hi Dave

Thanks for your advice, I think I just might ask for that special even if it costs me something extra. I think it would be worth it.

[FinnFlyer]

Originally Posted by David Paule

The center section, built to the plans, should fit the wings. ...

Dave

Really? It used to be a big deal to have those F-303 bulkheads match drilled to the wing spars.

Is that not the case anymore?

If so, he needs to make sure he's got CNC drilled (punched) bulkheads.

Finn

[Ironflight]

All I can say is that when we built our fuselage, I was really glad to have the QB wings sitting there so I could measure the front-to-rear spar distance and build a jig that simulated the wings while doing the center of the fuselage. Even then, I lost sleep over the wings fitting until we actually installed them!

You’ll definitely need the center section parts for the wing spar when building fuselage - and I honestly don’t know if those are now interchangeable or not. They didn’t used to be, but with the more modern RV kits they are - and the -B wing looks an awful lot like the modern RV kits, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they are....but only Van’s is going to know. I’d get a confirmation from the Engineering department, and be ready to proceed slowly to get it.

Paul

[Jonthor]

Hi everyone and thanks a lot for your swift replies,

I got the C-section predrilled/ fabricated with my fuselage kit as it was intended for the QB wings. I have been talking to Van?s aircraft and according to them the prefabricated/predrilled C sections are matched to the main wing spars they manufacture now for the RV3 B wings whether they are QB?s or Standard. All wing spars now come with predrilled holes for the C section attachment. So they have told me to go ahead and construct the fuselage. Fitting the wing spar?s into the c section should not be any problem if built and jigged according to plans.

If anyone has any reserve thoughts or advice I would highly appreciate if you would share those with me.

Many thanks again!

Jon Thor

[sf3543]

When building my RV3B, I found some of the dimensions on the plans to be different from page to page. Can't say if the dimensions for the front spar to rear carry through have this issue. I had QB wings and made a story stick to make sure the distances were correct on the fuselage.
You might just order a wing root rib and use that as your measurement guide. Make sure you allow for any doublers that may exist between the rib and spars if you do this.
Look at the plans to verify this would work for you.
At least this way you would have a physical part to measure.
Might give you some peace of mind.