RV-8 Wing tip alignment

TerryWighs · #1 12-10-2012, 05:29 PM

I am drilling out and working on mounting the fiberglass wing tips on my Rv-8. I have the newer version of tips. Regarding the alignment: If you pass a laser light or chalkline along the trailing edge of the aileron matched up with the inboard aft edge tip, does the outboard aft tip have a designed curve downward, or is it designed to be dead on straight??? Seems a bit strained to place it in a dead on straight alignment. Hope this makes some kind of sense without a picture. I am aware of the instruction to put aileron in neutral position. Both right and left tips have this downward tendency/deflection?

DaAV8R · #2 12-10-2012, 08:36 PM

The tip trailing edge is designed to align with the trailing edge of the aileron. One of my tips aligned without much trouble. The other just wouldn't cooperate.

As you know the tip has a recess where it mates with the top and bottom wing skins. I decided it was more important to get a good fit at the recess to wing skin as this area seem more difficult to rework (at least with my limited glass skills). I ordered some epoxy, slit the trailing edge of the tip and it lined right up. From the search function it seems many, many others have had to do the same.

TerryWighs · #3 12-11-2012, 01:20 AM

Thanks Robert...(DaAVR8)

cdmiller · #4 12-11-2012, 01:42 AM

My RV-8 has the "batwing"tips. Both have a slight downward slope at the tip relative to the line from the aileron trailing edge to the inboard trailing edge of the wingtips. I don't know if it was designed that way, but I just made sure that the tips are symmetrical and went with it. I did have to split the trailing edge of the left wingtip to get things to work and be symmetrical. My plane flies great and straight With no issues. Just make 'em fit and keep 'em symmetrical.

Dan Miller
RV-8 1225 hours of fun!

TerryWighs · #5 12-11-2012, 09:39 AM

Thanks Dan, I was hoping someone had tried this, because it will make this adventure much easier. It appears that both right and left have almost exactly the same in degree of "down sweep"?, for a lack of a better term.

RVG8tor · #6 12-11-2012, 10:12 AM

I did my wing tips a few months ago but I saw the same thing, a very slight downward trend to the wing tip. For me it was not enough to tare up the trailing edge but after I fly which should be in the next two days I might reconsider.

To get a good fit of the tip I had to work on sanding down the nose of the tip at the flange, this seems to help the tip nest up into the wing better. Then when it was time to drill for I pulled on the trailing edge to get the nose up there, lift the trailing edge to match the aileron neutral point, did all this with one hand and drilled with the other. Get a few holes drilled top and bottom and see how it looks. The trailing edge had to have about 1/4 sanded off to match the aileron.

I hope this helps!

Cheers
Hope to break the RV Cherry soon!