Fuselage before Wings?

[jonbo]

Hi! Are there any issues with starting a fuselage kit before the wing kit. I will still complete the empennage first.

[wilddog]

The only potential problem I can think of is the spar carry through. I miked my spars and made spacers on the lath to use to set the inside width of the carry through. I used spar plus .004” and it worked very well for a snug fit.

[Larry DeCamp]

I have no experience with pre-punched assembly. But I do know very small changes at the fuse spar bulkhead can yield significant variance in wing tip forward/ rearward sweep and tip to tail triangulation. The rear carry through location also affects bolt edge clearance tolerance and wing incidence achievable.

You might want to mock-up two wings with spars and some “rib like”spacers to assure these criteria before riveting the spar bulkhead and carry through pieces.

[mike newall]

I do coaching and advice for new builders over here.

My suggestions these days are as follows.

Order the empennage which arrives quickly.

Order flat pack wings and at the same time, or as soon as possible, order the QB fuselage.

Plenty of work to do in the long lead time of the QB fuselage. The advantage is - just as you are suffering the inevitable 'build fatigue', along comes this wonderful thing you can sit in and make aeroplane noises

[pacmanmp@gmail.com]

I did this for my project and have not run into any issues yet. I pick up a vans QB fuselage that someone canceled and they had ready for shipping right away a few years ago. The biggest issue is making sure you have storage space.

[jonbo]

Thanks for all the tips! Great advice. I ordered the empennage about 4 months ago when it was still a 4 month wait (now vans says 8) so I'm still going to do that first. I'm really excited to get started.

[wirejock]

No constraints other than assembling the center section. Make some spacers or buy Buller dies. Mine were .004 wider than the wing spars. Wings fit perfect.
The only small concern is skills. The manual gets pretty sparse after wings. It's assumed you know obvious steps. Read way ahead.

[jonbo]

Originally Posted by wirejock

No constraints other than assembling the center section. Make some spacers or buy Buller dies. Mine were .004 wider than the wing spars. Wings fit perfect.
The only small concern is skills. The manual gets pretty sparse after wings. It's assumed you know obvious steps. Read way ahead.

That's a really good note about the manual. Would you feel confident going from Empennage to Fuselage with what you'd learned from the Empennage manual and completing that part of the kit? Assuming reading ahead and being extra extra careful?

[N546RV]

Originally Posted by wirejock

The manual gets pretty sparse after wings. It's assumed you know obvious steps. Read way ahead.

This actually isn't the case with the -8 manual. The wing sections are pretty sparse, but the fuselage has the same sort of detailed checklist layout seen with the empennage.

Now once you get to the finish kit, that's when things start to get fun again.

[jonbo]

I saw elsewhere on the forum that the longerons for the fuselage ship with the wings

https://vansairforce.net/community/s...d.php?t=203950

Does this mean I can't get started on the fuselage before I get the wing kit? Or should I contact Vans and ask them to send me the longerons with the fuselage kit?

Thanks!