Building in shop without enough space to mate the wings

[BobN54]

I am assisting with a student team build. We have plenty of hands, and work in 3-4 hour sessions. Soon, we'll be into the sections where we need to have the wings on, and the space isn't big enough. How practical is it to mate/demate the wings each work session, so we can work outside? There might be enough space in the shop to allow one wing at a time to be attached; Could that be workable? The one other option we may have, and I'm serious, is a commercial tent to serve as a temporary hangar. I'd appreciate your thoughts and guidance. Moving to the airport or a larger space is just not an option.

 

[1bigdog]

I am assisting with a student team build. We have plenty of hands, and work in 3-4 hour sessions. Soon, we'll be into the sections where we need to have the wings on, and the space isn't big enough. How practical is it to mate/demate the wings each work session, so we can work outside? There might be enough space in the shop to allow one wing at a time to be attached; Could that be workable? The one other option we may have, and I'm serious, is a commercial tent to serve as a temporary hangar. I'd appreciate your thoughts and guidance. Moving to the airport or a larger space is just not an option.

It is workable. Don’t use the the close tolerance bolts from the kit. Get some hardware store bolts to pin the pins in place temporarily. I shaved off the threads on the cheap bolts so they didn’t scuff the holes going in and out.
Establish good levels on the grounds you are working on. I used strings and levels to set everything as close to oerfect as possible such that the fuselage was perfect (as in the longeron was a perfect reference - how it’s done in the 9a) and then give the wings a perfect reference. All the setup takes a lot of time but it’s worth it. If you take the time you end up with an aircraft that is hands off flying straight and true. I built in a garage. Pulled the aircraft out onto a sloped driveway and did the setup as mentioned above with help of 3 friends to set in the wings. Then everything came back apart. This was a year before I went to the hangar for the final build.

So yes, it can be done and very successfully.

Best of luck.

 

[jsalley]

I had the same problem - build space too narrow to install both wings. If the tailcone isn’t attached yet (shouldn’t be), you can turn the fuselage tub sideways and possibly install the wings in order facilitate drilling the flaperon torque tubes. After that, there’s no real need to reinstall them until you’re pretty near completion.

 

[wirejock]

Is the space that small?
I had both wings on my 7A in my garage. Diagonal. I leveled the fuse on top of the EAA benches so they were out of the way. Pushed everything else to the walls.

 

[jsalley]

Michael - the wings on the -12 and -12iS are a different animal - they are removable by pulling two large pins behind the seats (no bolts involved). They’re designed to be easily removed and reinstalled for storage/transport.

 

[Brantel]

PSA

This is the RV 12 forum.

 

[PhatRV]

I live in a small house that was built in the post-WW2 years. My garage cannot fit the plane with the wings, even when they are position in diagonal. I mounted the wings outside for one day to align the incidence angle and to drill the rear spar. After 24 hours, one wing was removed and the plane with 1 wing moved back inside the garage. There was very little room inside the garage. After the flap and aileron were fitted and aligned, the entire contraption was rolled outside the driveway, the wing was removed and the other wing was mounted on. The process was repeated.

This is the photo when the plane was outside the driveway with the wing incidence was checked and rear spars were pilot drilled. As you can see, the entire airplane could not fit inside the small garage. But with careful measurements, everything was came out okay. The airplane flies straight.

 

[DHeal]

Yes, this is an RV-12 forum so much of the above info is more useful to other models of RVs. On my RV-12 I found it convenient to to temporarily fit/install one wing at a time inside my garage/shop. When I needed to temporarily fit/install both wings, I took the fuselage outside on a nice day. After all, the RV-12 was designed to have removable wings -- no temporary store-bought bolts or tapered pins required.

 

[CTCole]

You're going to be installing & removing the wings several times (as noted, the 12 is made for this). They may need adjustments, to make the wing skins match the fuselage (etc.). I doubt anybody does it as fast as the Van's YouTube video shows Maybe try it a few times before you commit to renting a big tent.

 

[Rv-12David]

Same here. As long as you have a helper pull it out side and put the wings on when needed. It really is a 5 minute operation. For the rest of the time it’s so much easier to work on with the wings off.

 

[N733JJ]

I built my RV-8 in a 16'X20" tool shed that was also used as a tool shed. I often worked outside the shed when the weather was good. When it came time to put the wings on, I took a week vacation, pushed the plane outside and put the kids and neighbors to work. I covered it with a tarp at night, JJ's first time "camping".

Scott A. Jordan
80331/N733JJ
flying since 2001