Taking wing bolts out

[Webb]

After reading the post about emegency landing I started wondering......

How do you get wing bolts out that were a monster to get in? Especially those 2 big ones on the bottom.

[b17fe]

Webb,
I helped a buddy pull the wings off his Rocket after a mishap.
We brought a small portable compressor and a rivet gun (air hammer)
and used that to drive them out.
It was a hot Texas day ... we were glad to just get them out and load
the aircraft on a flat bed wrecker.
We also used an air ratchet for some other items.

[sjhurlbut]

The rocket is easy compared to a RV7A!!

The wing bolts go through the landing gear weldment and access to the nut and bolt to hammer it out is virtually impossible. I've helped another person do it once and we removed all the bolts except the bottom most difficult one. We ended up removing the main landing gear, gear weldment along with the bolt then replacing the gear weldment. Was not fun. But of course if its after an off-field landing, it could be worse.

Steve
7A

[Shockwave]

I've had the honor of doing this on a 9A.

I think we tapped (ie, hammer and steel rod) the bolt back enough to get a pry bar under the head while unscrewing the bolt.

Oh, bring a few towels, blankets, maybe a cushion, and a box of bandaids. Your airplane will bite you for doing this.