Wing and empennage attach

[rookie1255]

I skipped these 2 sections of the plans completely along with the fairings section. I'm guessing it would be faster overall to move the plane out to the driveway and finish those parts and then disassemble and then reassemble at the airport.

My questions:
How long does it take to take the wings off and put them back on and disassemble/reassemble the tail?

Would it be better to just do these steps at the airport and then only end up assembling everything once?

 

[Captain_John]

I installed my emp and wings at the house, but finalized all the control surfaces at the airport.

It doesn't take long to fit the components up. I left everything fit up for about a week in the garage so that I was certain about wing sweep and alignment. The other reason was, it was very satisfying to look at!

Once at the airport, it took me from May until October to get into the air.

I did have probably about 4 full days per week to work on the project in order to reach that goal.

As they say, YMMV.

CJ

 

[NovaBandit]

I pinned my wings in place, trimmed the flaps, trimmed the gap fairings, built the tank vents, and all the other misc stuff in a weekend. Wings were back off and plane pushed back into the garage by Sunday night. The final installation of the wings should go pretty quickly now.

 

[Carl Froehlich]

Putting the wings on and off for aileron, flap and wingtip fit up is relatively easy - especially if you use hardware bolts for the wings for this temporary fit. This whole process (install the wings, fit up, pull the wings) should not take more than a day o two if you have help.

Strongly recommend delaying wingtip fit up until after the flaps and ailerons are rigged and seconded checked by another RV-10 builder. The wingtip can flex up/down an inch or so before drilling and installing the wingtip rib. The last thing you want is the wingtip acting like an aileron.

Remember also to lock in the elevator at neutral as the control stick throw for the elevator changes the aileron rig. Not much but enough to screw up rigging.

Carl

 

[9GT]

I built a rolling cart out of a furniture dolly from Harbor freight. I used 2" X 6" and built a platform on top that raised up about 1" shy of the fuselage spar and padded the top of the 2 X 6 with good carped pad. With the wing balanced on the dolly, It made it very easy to roll the wing into place. One person at the attach side to slide in the bolts and one person on the wing tip side to manipulate the wing up or down, fore or aft, to align the bolt holes. The first thing my buddy and I did when we got the plane to the airport was to install the wings. It took less than an hour. The flaps, ailerons install and control hook ups, I was then able to do by myself.
http://www.harborfreight.com/materi...in-1000-lb-capacity-hardwood-dolly-61897.html

 

[Jesse]

You can install the wingtips without the wing on the plane. The flap leading edge sits on the rear spar when all the way up. With the wings in cradles, install he flaps and put them all the way up, then rig the aileron to the flap, then fit the wingtip to the aileron. Easier to do with the wing on the plane, but doable off.

 

[Jesse]

I skipped these 2 sections of the plans completely along with the fairings section. I'm guessing it would be faster overall to move the plane out to the driveway and finish those parts and then disassemble and then reassemble at the airport.

My questions:
How long does it take to take the wings off and put them back on and disassemble/reassemble the tail?

Would it be better to just do these steps at the airport and then only end up assembling everything once?

It all depends on how far you are from the airport. You can do one wing at a time and get them all the way done (wing root fairing fit and driller, flap trimmed, aileron rigged and wingtip fit and drilled) at home in the driveway. If you can do all of that in one day or one weekend, then you can remove that wing and push it back inside until the next time. Then do the other wing. Then do the emp attach (mainly just the horizontal stabilizer and elevator. There isn't really anything to rig or fit, IIRC, on the vertical or rudder.

If the airport is 5 minutes away, no big deal. If it is futher, it will be easier to get to it at home.

If I was to do only one at the airport, it would be the tail, because the first time you install it can be the last time. Not so with the wings.