Wet Summer Wing-Fit
This is no longer contemporary (summer 2010) but I have only just organized my photos.
I live in a terrace of brick houses in an inner suburb of Dublin. My shop is very small so fitting the wings had to happen outside. Trouble is, the shop is tiny because the back garden (yard) is also tiny. Not to worry, the builder obviously had the dimensions of a Vans RV-9 in mind when he laid out these houses in 1902.
I 'extended' the doorway of the workshop to get the fuselage out and placed it across the garden with the tail extending slightly into our "boiler house" (a small outside storage shed where our furnace lives). The boiler house door had to come off and I had to go inside to get around the tail, which was the only way to get from one side to the other.
I erected a cheap 'party tent' over the fuselage, not realizing how vital it was to become. The weather immediately turned very wet and a lot of the work was done with one eye on internet weather radar maps that told me when rain was on its way, giving me 15 minutes or so to cover up the wings.
The wing fit itself went relatively smoothly other than taping the spacing block to the level the wrong way around . The resulting imaginary 1/2 'twist' in the wings ruled out any proper edge distance and I nearly went crazy while I figured it out In fact, left to their own devices, the wings fell naturally into almost perfect incidence.
With the aft spars drilled, I fitted the ailerons and controls, and had them respond to the stick for the first time. The flaps were fitted and hooked up to the flap motor, which I also ran up and down. Next to come was drilling the tank attach angles to the fuselage and fitting the wing root fairings.
Afterwards, the wings were removed and placed back in the attic of the shop. Because the horizontal stab is wider than the shop, I fitted the tail plane with the aft end of the fuse sticking out into the garden.
All told, the plane was outside and subject to weather for two weeks. Sure it got wet, but being summer, it also dried quickly and completely. I have been watching for corrosion ever since but I can't see any.
With maybe 20 neighbors' windows overlooking the garden, I was sure I would get lots of comments but it seems they had already written me off as the local eccentric and paid no attention. So much for my plans to sell tickets for the eventual move to the hangar! I did have lots of help from family, including my son Conor (pictured).
This is no longer contemporary (summer 2010) but I have only just organized my photos.
I live in a terrace of brick houses in an inner suburb of Dublin. My shop is very small so fitting the wings had to happen outside. Trouble is, the shop is tiny because the back garden (yard) is also tiny. Not to worry, the builder obviously had the dimensions of a Vans RV-9 in mind when he laid out these houses in 1902.
I 'extended' the doorway of the workshop to get the fuselage out and placed it across the garden with the tail extending slightly into our "boiler house" (a small outside storage shed where our furnace lives). The boiler house door had to come off and I had to go inside to get around the tail, which was the only way to get from one side to the other.
I erected a cheap 'party tent' over the fuselage, not realizing how vital it was to become. The weather immediately turned very wet and a lot of the work was done with one eye on internet weather radar maps that told me when rain was on its way, giving me 15 minutes or so to cover up the wings.
The wing fit itself went relatively smoothly other than taping the spacing block to the level the wrong way around . The resulting imaginary 1/2 'twist' in the wings ruled out any proper edge distance and I nearly went crazy while I figured it out In fact, left to their own devices, the wings fell naturally into almost perfect incidence.
With the aft spars drilled, I fitted the ailerons and controls, and had them respond to the stick for the first time. The flaps were fitted and hooked up to the flap motor, which I also ran up and down. Next to come was drilling the tank attach angles to the fuselage and fitting the wing root fairings.
Afterwards, the wings were removed and placed back in the attic of the shop. Because the horizontal stab is wider than the shop, I fitted the tail plane with the aft end of the fuse sticking out into the garden.
All told, the plane was outside and subject to weather for two weeks. Sure it got wet, but being summer, it also dried quickly and completely. I have been watching for corrosion ever since but I can't see any.
With maybe 20 neighbors' windows overlooking the garden, I was sure I would get lots of comments but it seems they had already written me off as the local eccentric and paid no attention. So much for my plans to sell tickets for the eventual move to the hangar! I did have lots of help from family, including my son Conor (pictured).