Wing fitting question....one at a time

cropdusterdave · #1 09-25-2010, 03:43 PM

Well, the time has come to fit the wings. Since I'm working pretty much by myself in my smallish garage, I'm pretty much going to have to do the wings one at a time. I'd love to do them both at once....but at the rate of speed at which I work...I couldn't leave it out for that long.

So my question. Is there any good way to check for sweep? Doesn't really seem possible to do it. I know that the spar is very close tolerance and there shouldn't be much of an issue...but I'm not sure what people have found with this.

Any tips for me? Van's says that it's no problem at all to do it one at a time. The left wing is on and I'd like to start making progress...

RV7ator · #2 09-25-2010, 04:07 PM

Wait until you can work the set-up for, oh, ten hours. It shouldn't take that long, but it's aviation, you know.

The notion of setting both wings equal one at a time is absurd, no matter what the manual says. There is a tremendous amount of wiggle possible, both sweep and AOA. Yeah, you could pick a center spot (are you sure it's really center?!) and measure to a common point on each wing tip at different time/locations for sweep. Then, trust your trusty level to ready precisely enough to assure the same AOA relative to the fuse, but it's really how each wing is relative to each other, not the fuse, that's important.

You really don't need to plug in the wings as an intermediate step until you get the whole shooting match to the airport and a hangar, at which time you cut the fuse and install the flap pushrods, position the gear, wheel, and gap fairings without having to make multiple set-ups. If everything is wired up and ready to fly except installing and setting the wings, you're maybe 100 hours from flying.

John Siebold

roee · #3 09-25-2010, 06:05 PM

With a little bit of planning and preparation you can do it with both wings together, in one day. Here's how I did mine:

http://www.kalinskyconsulting.com/rvproj/wingattach.htm

I would recommend against doing it one wing at a time for reasons already mentioned.

kevinh · #4 09-25-2010, 06:51 PM

If you are going to do the 'wing out the garage door' one day thing - make sure to unplug the garage door opener. You wouldn't want a spouse on autopilot to come home and trigger the garage door out of habit.

That said, I agree that you can wait do do this at the airport. I just kept all my wires spooled up on the side of the fuse until ready for final assembly. Doing it at the airport actually _saved_ time I think.

roee · #5 09-25-2010, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevinh

If you are going to do the 'wing out the garage door' one day thing - make sure to unplug the garage door opener.

Yes, very important! Sorry if I forgot to mention this in my write-up.

cropdusterdave · #6 09-25-2010, 09:51 PM

Thanks for the input. Looks like doing both wings at the same time is the way to go. I think I can rearrange some stuff in my garage and fit it inside with a few inches to spare then roll it out to the driveway. I thought about saving this for the airport...but I really wanted to have my fuel lines bent up and ready to go for when I get there.

Thanks!

flion · #7 09-26-2010, 07:38 AM

Well, you could do the wing install and leave setting the incidence and sweep until later; just do the lines right now. When I did my -6A wing install, I pulled the canoe, fixture and all, out of the garage for two days to set the gear legs; I installed the wings so I could drill the gear mounts, then set the gear leg incidences and clamped everything while I spent the rest of the day and part of the next drilling the weldments in place. I had beautiful weather the first day and finished the second just as a thunderstorm arrived and began dropping hail.

Later, when the project had moved to the hanger, I reinstalled the wings, set the incidence and sweep and drilled the rear spar followed by the tank attach. I then did my fuel lines, root fairings, etc. But I can tell you that I could have done the fuel lines anytime after that initial joining; setting the incidence and sweep won't move things enough to cause any problems. I wouldn't do the fairings until the rear spar is drilled but all wiring and plumbing should be unaffected by the small changes in wing position.