Fuselage VS. Wings

Ok....

I know the typical order of the kits, are emp, wings, fuse, and finish.... Is there any reason that the fuse cannot be ordered, and built before the wings? I would rather build the fuse first, if it can be done... opinions?

Gregg J. Brightwell
Independence, KS

Earlier kits (4's and 6's) were not prepunched. The instructions have you build both wings first, and then the fuselage. Once you lay in the longerons and bulkheads, the critical measurements (well, they all are) will be the thickness of the main wing spar and the exact distance between the main spar and the rear spar for each wing. This distance measurement will be used to establish the positions for those two bulkheads. Get it wrong and the wings may not slide into the aircraft.

If you build the fuselage first, you will not have the wings to establish this measurement when you need it...which is fairly soon in the fuselage construction sequence.

You need the wings....

The wing kit contains the main fuselage bulkhead that mates the fuselage to the main wing spars. This bulkhead is matched drilled to the wing spars. You essentially build the fuse around that assembly. The instructions/process are all designed around this.

What you might be able to do is order both kits and then build the fuse first. Personally, I wouldn't do it unless there was some extremely compelling reason.

Good luck.

John

Gregg,
The main longerons were shipped with my wing spars before I ordered my fuselague kit. You will have to make sure you get those shippped with your fuselague kit. Vans did it this way to keep the shipping cost down.

Do your wings first, you won't reget it!

I ordered it in sequence... tail, wings, fuse and finish. If I were to do it all over again, I'd ordered them all at the same time. Due to the fact I couldn't afford to do that, I should've/would've saved up to do it that way. Nothing more frustrating than trying to complete a project and wish you had part of the next sub-kit to help you along.