Wing warp tolerance

[rjcthree]

I'm about to pull the right wing out of the rack, with LE and upper skins riveted. I had kept it moderately aligned, maybe 1/16" variance max across the panel until just now - when I released everything, and took a quick no-constraint (outboard on a dowel, inboard flat) measurement, and my 'flatness' tolerance (for lack of a better term) has grown to 3/16". I can push it back into line with one finger worth of light force.

I'm surprised by the lack of torsional stiffness at this point.

I'm figuring I'll need to re-secure it in the rack as flat as possible to work lower skins - locking everything in?

Anybody have any thoughts?

Rick 90432

 

[Bob Axsom]

Experienced Observer

I would try to keep it as straight/square/flat as I could as I built it up but when I went to Oregon for my transition training with Mike Seager I told him about my need to twist the left wing to achieve the correct incidence angle before drilling the aft spar mounting hole. He said that it is not a big problem, there are RVs out there flying with wings that are twisted so much they look like propellers but they fly just fine. Drag is the issue there.

Bob Axsom