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The Wings Are On … For Good!

Ironflight

Ironflight

VAF Moderator / Line Boy
Mentor
With 54 of 58 bolts installed (the last four end up behind the side consoles, and after a full day crouching in the cockpit, I was happy to leave them for tomorrow….), the wings are on the Rocket for good - forever! Only old-timers (those who have built -3’s, -4’s, -6’s, or Rockets will really understand that if the wings ever have to come off, I’d be happy for the insurance company to own the airplane. What you have after installing all 16 close-tolerance AN6 bolts, four close-tolerance AN4’s, scads of regular AN3’s and a handful of random regular AN4’s - along with the massive steel splice plates - is a single piece spar from tip to tip, with the fuselage bolted on to it. We had a couple of neighbor pilots help Louise and I put the wings back on two days ago with pins (we’d taken them off to install the nutplates for the belly-skin overlap and finish installing the forward tank attach fittings), and I figured that once we had a few pins in, I could install the final bolts at my leisure. Like I said - it took all day!

No Dry Ice was needed - we had previously reamed the spars and splice plates in assembly, so the close tolerance bolts fit in with a coating of spray-on lubricant and light tapping with a small hammer. It was an amazingly good fit for a twenty-five year old kit actually! Pay no attention to all those unbundled wires - they were left that way to be bundled and secured once the wing installation was finished. And yes - some bolts face forward! That’s to allow easier removal and installation of the pilot’s floor for maintenance and inspection. “Bolt Heads Up and Forward” is a guideline, not a hard and fast rule if you have other considerations. Having the big bolt heads aft in this case gives better clearance for the floorboards.

After those four troublesome bolts and some wiring cleanup, its on to wheel/axle alignment (after a trip to Home Depot for 400 lbs of ballast….)!


IMG_8076.jpeg
 
Ironflight said:
With 54 of 58 bolts installed (the last four end up behind the side consoles, and after a full day crouching in the cockpit, I was happy to leave them for tomorrow….), the wings are on the Rocket for good - forever! Only old-timers (those who have built -3’s, -4’s, -6’s, or Rockets will really understand that if the wings ever have to come off, I’d be happy for the insurance company to own the airplane. What you have after installing all 16 close-tolerance AN6 bolts, four close-tolerance AN4’s, scads of regular AN3’s and a handful of random regular AN4’s - along with the massive steel splice plates - is a single piece spar from tip to tip, with the fuselage bolted on to it. We had a couple of neighbor pilots help Louise and I put the wings back on two days ago with pins (we’d taken them off to install the nutplates for the belly-skin overlap and finish installing the forward tank attach fittings), and I figured that once we had a few pins in, I could install the final bolts at my leisure. Like I said - it took all day!

No Dry Ice was needed - we had previously reamed the spars and splice plates in assembly, so the close tolerance bolts fit in with a coating of spray-on lubricant and light tapping with a small hammer. It was an amazingly good fit for a twenty-five year old kit actually! Pay no attention to all those unbundled wires - they were left that way to be bundled and secured once the wing installation was finished. And yes - some bolts face forward! That’s to allow easier removal and installation of the pilot’s floor for maintenance and inspection. “Bolt Heads Up and Forward” is a guideline, not a hard and fast rule if you have other considerations. Having the big bolt heads aft in this case gives better clearance for the floorboards.

After those four troublesome bolts and some wiring cleanup, its on to wheel/axle alignment (after a trip to Home Depot for 400 lbs of ballast….)!


View attachment 109149
Click to expand...
Congrats.... I remember buiulding the 7A and thinking this can't be enough bolts after helping a friend with his 6!!
 
My RV6 has 72 spar bolts and the installation is still etched in my memory! Dry ice, wing wiggles, light taps with a rivet gun, and an aching body!
 
Congratulations Paul. I hope to one day experience some of the satisfaction of building. Right now the wife has forbidden any kit plane purchases until I finish the 5 projects lined up for the RV8.

Discussions are still permitted thankfully.
 
Ironflight said:
With 54 of 58 bolts installed (the last four end up behind the side consoles, and after a full day crouching in the cockpit, I was happy to leave them for tomorrow….), the wings are on the Rocket for good - forever! Only old-timers (those who have built -3’s, -4’s, -6’s, or Rockets will really understand that if the wings ever have to come off, I’d be happy for the insurance company to own the airplane. What you have after installing all 16 close-tolerance AN6 bolts, four close-tolerance AN4’s, scads of regular AN3’s and a handful of random regular AN4’s - along with the massive steel splice plates - is a single piece spar from tip to tip, with the fuselage bolted on to it. We had a couple of neighbor pilots help Louise and I put the wings back on two days ago with pins (we’d taken them off to install the nutplates for the belly-skin overlap and finish installing the forward tank attach fittings), and I figured that once we had a few pins in, I could install the final bolts at my leisure. Like I said - it took all day!

No Dry Ice was needed - we had previously reamed the spars and splice plates in assembly, so the close tolerance bolts fit in with a coating of spray-on lubricant and light tapping with a small hammer. It was an amazingly good fit for a twenty-five year old kit actually! Pay no attention to all those unbundled wires - they were left that way to be bundled and secured once the wing installation was finished. And yes - some bolts face forward! That’s to allow easier removal and installation of the pilot’s floor for maintenance and inspection. “Bolt Heads Up and Forward” is a guideline, not a hard and fast rule if you have other considerations. Having the big bolt heads aft in this case gives better clearance for the floorboards.

After those four troublesome bolts and some wiring cleanup, its on to wheel/axle alignment (after a trip to Home Depot for 400 lbs of ballast….)!


View attachment 109149
Click to expand...
SWEET
 
Ironflight said:
With 54 of 58 bolts installed (the last four end up behind the side consoles, and after a full day crouching in the cockpit, I was happy to leave them for tomorrow….), the wings are on the Rocket for good - forever! Only old-timers (those who have built -3’s, -4’s, -6’s, or Rockets will really understand that if the wings ever have to come off, I’d be happy for the insurance company to own the airplane. What you have after installing all 16 close-tolerance AN6 bolts, four close-tolerance AN4’s, scads of regular AN3’s and a handful of random regular AN4’s - along with the massive steel splice plates - is a single piece spar from tip to tip, with the fuselage bolted on to it. We had a couple of neighbor pilots help Louise and I put the wings back on two days ago with pins (we’d taken them off to install the nutplates for the belly-skin overlap and finish installing the forward tank attach fittings), and I figured that once we had a few pins in, I could install the final bolts at my leisure. Like I said - it took all day!

No Dry Ice was needed - we had previously reamed the spars and splice plates in assembly, so the close tolerance bolts fit in with a coating of spray-on lubricant and light tapping with a small hammer. It was an amazingly good fit for a twenty-five year old kit actually! Pay no attention to all those unbundled wires - they were left that way to be bundled and secured once the wing installation was finished. And yes - some bolts face forward! That’s to allow easier removal and installation of the pilot’s floor for maintenance and inspection. “Bolt Heads Up and Forward” is a guideline, not a hard and fast rule if you have other considerations. Having the big bolt heads aft in this case gives better clearance for the floorboards.

After those four troublesome bolts and some wiring cleanup, its on to wheel/axle alignment (after a trip to Home Depot for 400 lbs of ballast….)!


View attachment 109149
Click to expand...
Ironflight,
Phew.
Brings back a tightness in my belly.
Post reaming me: "darn these should tap right in"
Actually: "how can a micron of lubricant be too thick"?
Daddyman58
 
Ironflight said:
With 54 of 58 bolts installed (the last four end up behind the side consoles, and after a full day crouching in the cockpit, I was happy to leave them for tomorrow….), the wings are on the Rocket for good - forever! Only old-timers (those who have built -3’s, -4’s, -6’s, or Rockets will really understand that if the wings ever have to come off, I’d be happy for the insurance company to own the airplane.
Click to expand...
Congrats on that!

I have painfull memories of doing that chore on the ramp in August for my 6A (FAA wouldn't allow phase I flights from my home airport). The A models are even worse with the leg bases there. Came to the same conclusion - I would scrap or sell it if the wings had to ever come off.
 
Ironflight said:
With 54 of 58 bolts installed (the last four end up behind the side consoles, and after a full day crouching in the cockpit, I was happy to leave them for tomorrow….), the wings are on the Rocket for good - forever! Only old-timers (those who have built -3’s, -4’s, -6’s, or Rockets will really understand that if the wings ever have to come off, I’d be happy for the insurance company to own the airplane. What you have after installing all 16 close-tolerance AN6 bolts, four close-tolerance AN4’s, scads of regular AN3’s and a handful of random regular AN4’s - along with the massive steel splice plates - is a single piece spar from tip to tip, with the fuselage bolted on to it. We had a couple of neighbor pilots help Louise and I put the wings back on two days ago with pins (we’d taken them off to install the nutplates for the belly-skin overlap and finish installing the forward tank attach fittings), and I figured that once we had a few pins in, I could install the final bolts at my leisure. Like I said - it took all day!

No Dry Ice was needed - we had previously reamed the spars and splice plates in assembly, so the close tolerance bolts fit in with a coating of spray-on lubricant and light tapping with a small hammer. It was an amazingly good fit for a twenty-five year old kit actually! Pay no attention to all those unbundled wires - they were left that way to be bundled and secured once the wing installation was finished. And yes - some bolts face forward! That’s to allow easier removal and installation of the pilot’s floor for maintenance and inspection. “Bolt Heads Up and Forward” is a guideline, not a hard and fast rule if you have other considerations. Having the big bolt heads aft in this case gives better clearance for the floorboards.

After those four troublesome bolts and some wiring cleanup, its on to wheel/axle alignment (after a trip to Home Depot for 400 lbs of ballast….)!


View attachment 109149
Click to expand...
Ironflight,
Are you now planning on 5-point harness attachments?
Just can't see them in your picture.
Daddyman58
 
Daddyman58 said:
Ironflight,
Are you now planning on 5-point harness attachments?
Just can't see them in your picture.
Daddyman58
Click to expand...
Yes - the crotch strap attach point is sandwiched between the forward control column attach bracket and the par - just gives you a horizontal slot that the strap threads through.
 
Congrats Paul. It’s a big job as we know but hey, what’s one day in a build.
I removed a short handful of bolts at 500 hours just to see if there was any evidence of wear or movement. They will never be removed again, at least by me, or on purpose.
 
Congratulations Paul
You probably have addressed this already but if not I noticed your front stick is the early two piece design many of those had an aluminum stick. No good. Vince has new S bend one piece 4130 sticks available.
 
Little Al said:
Congratulations Paul
You probably have addressed this already but if not I noticed your front stick is the early two piece design many of those had an aluminum stick. No good. Vince has new S bend one piece 4130 sticks available.
Click to expand...
Mine is fine 4130 steel Al….. as is the rear. We bent a number of them to get the geometry we wanted.
 
The previous builder of my Rocket was not quite as careful as I would have liked and as a result, I have replaced almost every one of those center section bolts. The multitude of #10s for example were all too long and since I happened to have a large supply of brand new replacements of exactly the right grip length I got rid of the too long, many washers and fiber nuts stack up and replaced with perfect length, a single “L” washer, and MS21041 lightweight nuts. For the several -4 bolts I found titanium Hi Locs, and I replaced all of the big center section bolts with the proper grip length, again removing the many washers and heavy fiber locknuts. I am still on the search for a stash of titanium HiLocs for those big suckers. To that point, as cheap as Ti fasteners are these days, I always thought that set of hardware (and the splice plates themselves) would be an easy opportunity for Team Rocket to save some weight by going with Ti. After all, it’s just a hardware substitution.
 
Toobuilder said:
The previous builder of my Rocket was not quite as careful as I would have liked and as a result, I have replaced almost every one of those center section bolts. The multitude of #10s for example were all too long and since I happened to have a large supply of brand new replacements of exactly the right grip length I got rid of the too long, many washers and fiber nuts stack up and replaced with perfect length, a single “L” washer, and MS21041 lightweight nuts. For the several -4 bolts I found titanium Hi Locs, and I replaced all of the big center section bolts with the proper grip length, again removing the many washers and heavy fiber locknuts. I am still on the search for a stash of titanium HiLocs for those big suckers. To that point, as cheap as Ti fasteners are these days, I always thought that set of hardware (and the splice plates themselves) would be an easy opportunity for Team Rocket to save some weight by going with Ti. After all, it’s just a hardware substitution.
Click to expand...
I'd love to do that, but there are only so many hours in the day. Now if someone did the legwork, verified the specs show sufficient strength, found a suitable vendor at a suitable price, etc..... heck yeah!
 
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Hi-loks, recommended sources

I need specific sizes/lengths. Does anyone have a recommended source? Let me know. Much thanks
vansairforce.net

Lots of pro and con thoughts in that thread from 8 years ago.

Mike, let us know when you get your HL12V### big ones installed and where you found them for an affordable price, weight savings, etc. They seem like a suitable alternative for some applications. You should open a specialty store!
 
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