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Wing Rigging
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I took apart my
work bench to make a little more room in my garage. I also made a cradle
for my wings out of the lumber from my leading edge press brake.
It has been well worth the trouble. BTW I bought the type of wheels for
my cradle that have brakes. I did not want to chase my wings down my driveway.
6/26/00 |
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After the rain let
up my friend Jeff Colbert and I moved the fuselage out into the drive way.
I made sure that the fuselage was sitting solidly on the saw horses.
6/26/00 |
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Here we have inserted
the first wing. 6/26/00 |
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Here you can see
how we supported the wings. Once we had the spars bolted together we used
a small laser that attaches to my level to even out the wings. The level
was placed on the upper longerons of the fuselage sides. I could then go
out to the wing tip and measure down from the laser light to the wing tip.
Flip the level over and check the other side. 6/26/00 |
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The next step was
to measure up to the bottom of the wing trailing edge from the fuselage
bottom. I used a board to block the trailing edge to the right height on
both sides. This establishes the angle of incidence for the wing.
6/26/00 |
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Here you can see
where the rear spar enters the fuselage side. 6/26/00 |
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Here you can see
the gap that will be covered over by the root doubler. 6/26/00 |
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I used a drill bit
to pin the rear spars to the carry-through. 6/26/00 |
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Here is a better
view of the rear spar carry-through. You can see that I have not riveted
on the bottom of the rear fuselage. It was handy to be able to poke my
head up through there. 6/26/00 |
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Here I have started
drilling the attach angle that supports the read spar carry through. But
before I started drilling I double checked all the measurements to be sure
the wing had not moved out of place. 6/26/00 |
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The last step on
the carry-through is to drill the bolt hole in the carry-through into the
attach support. Because of the angle of the rear fuselage I had trouble
getting a drill in there so I drilled it after I took it out for deburring.
6/26/00 |
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Here you can see
the main spars overlapping. You can also see one of the three bolts that
are holding the spars aligned. 6/26/00 |
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Here is another
view of the overlap. The rear part of the spar box is removed in preparation
for drilling the spar pin holes. 6/26/00 |
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Here is a look at
the right side of the spar overlap. You can also see the rivet holes in
the fuselage sides for the angles that have to be temporarily left off
to make room for the drill. 6/26/00 |
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Yet another view
of the spar overlap. Before I started drilling the rear spar carry- through,
I made sure that the pin holes were equal distance from the fuselage sides.
6/26/00 |
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Now the fun begins.
I am using an 11" drill bit to drill through the existing spar holes
into the forward part of the wing box. 6/26/00 |
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Here I have drilled
through the forward part of the spar box and inserted another bit to hold
things in place while I drill the other side. You can see that the hole
came a little closer to fuselage side than I would have liked. This is
due to the taper of the fuselage sides. 6/26/00 |
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With both sides
drilled from back to front, I reinstalled the back of the spar box and
prepared to drill from the front to the back. The taper of the fuselage
make it difficult to fit a drill in though. I cut my 11" drill down to
7". I inserted the drill into the hole and them chucked my air drill onto
the bit. The butt of the air drill just fit in the flap torque tube hole.
6/26/00 |
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Now that I had a
hole all the way through the spar box, I could drill it out to full size.
To do this I used a piloted drill bit
given to me by Pat Main (Pat stop by on your next trip through Cedar Rapids,
I have a giant Iowa pork tenderloin with your name on it). 6/26/00 |
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I drilled from back
to front with the piloted drill and my electric drill (the air drill did
not have enough torque) and it came out dead center. What a relief. 6/26/00 |
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Here is a close
up of the main bolt going through the forward part of the spar box. You
can see that my hole is close to the side. I had to remove the rivet in
the side wall next to the bolt and install a countersunk rivet to give
the bolt head a little more space. 6/30/00 |
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Here is the bolt
again but this time at the aft part of the spar box. No clearance problems
here. This picture and the pictures below were taken after I had finished
rigging the wing and did the final riveting to the spar box parts. The
aft part of the spar box and many of the parts around it are not riveted
until after the wings are rigged.. 6/30/00 |
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Here is a wider
view of the aft spar box all riveted up. You have to pay careful
attention to the plans and follow their procedures on when to install the
rivets. If not then you will end up drilling out rivets. 6/30/00 |
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This is an external
view of the main bolt with the wing removed. 6/30/00 |
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Here is another
view of the main bolt, this time looking aft. 6/30/00 |
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Here is the rear
spar carry through after I drilled the bolt hole in the side attach support
and finished the riveting on these parts. 6/30/00 |
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Here is the view
with both wings on. 8/1/00 |
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Now that the wings
were on and fitted I started to fit the wing walk and root doublers. You
may remember that I made my wing walk and doublers as two separate parts.
Here you can see how I have the wing walk slid under the leading edge skin.
8/1/00 |
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Here is a close
up of the root doubler. To trim I just measured from the fuselage side
to the rivet hole, transferred that measurement to the doubler, connected
the dots and cut. 8/1/00 |
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Here is the right
root doubler. This one runs from the trailing edge around to the trailing
edge. 8/1/00 |
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I had left the root
of the flaps a little long. This was a good time to trim them to fit. let
me tell you That I got the strangest looks from my neighbors as they drove
by. 8/1/00 |
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The gap needs to
be 3/16". I will add the root filet later. 8/1/00 |
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