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Fitting the wings...
The night before I was going to fit the wings, a friend and I did a
test fit of the left wing to see what things I might need to take care
of before the fitting... The only thing that came up was the gear
weldments [mine is a trike]. The bolts went through the center
section and spar just fine, but the holes in the steel weldment were
off a bit, so I borrowed some reamers to fix that problem by reaming
the holes with the wings off and then making sure all the bolts went
through fine...
The next day the weather was unreal... 60 knot winds with snow and
dirt flying everywhere and we spent the day chasing stuff around the
airport and BS'ing in the hangar... Then just as Lee Lesher [RV-8]
builder and I were about to leave we decided to try and fit one of the
wings... I applied some engine oil to the center section and the spar
and it slid in very nicely... It was a good close fit, so some
rocking up and down was required, but nothing drastic... Once the
wing was on, I simply used my eye to line up one of the large bolt
holes on top, oiled up a bolt and used a rubber mallet to tap it
in... Then I installed one in the bottom the same way. After those
were in, the rest went in with no further adjustment... The right
wing went on the same way. The left took 20 minutes, the right 10...
I used the bolts that came in the kit and had no problems with
installing them, and no damage to the bolts...
The next day myself and RV builder Bob Hall got to setting the
wings' sweep, angle of incidence, and squareness to the fuse and
tail... First we used a tape to measure the distance between a point
on the leading edge of the vertical stab and the point on the outer
top of the wing where the main skin and leading edge skin met to
ensure both wings the same distance. Then we dropped a plum bob from
the leading edge of each wing at the outermost ribs to the floor and
made a mark. We used the marks to snap a line, and then dropped the
plum bob from each wings leading edge at the inner most rib of the
tanks to check the sweep... Some adjustment was required until the
sweep was good and the wings were square with the fuse, we used small
clamps to hold the wing in the rear spar attach... Once we had the
sweep right, we made vertical marks on the rear spar and rear spar
attach for reference later...
Setting the angle of Incidence; It was somewhat difficult for me to
get the fuse exactly level, so I went do went down to the local
hardware store and bought two new carpenters levels... I had to spend
some time to find two that read exactly the same as I wanted them to
match [you would be surprised how bad they really are]... According
to the plans for setting the angle, you put one end of the level on
the front spar, and one on a spacer 2.79" high on the rear spar, and
the wing should be level [if the plane's main longerons are level]...
Since I couldn't get my plane exactly level, I just used both level
simultaneously. One on the wing and one on the main longeron, and
made adjustment until they read exactly the same...
Then with all the adjustment done, we made another complete go
around checking to ensure all the dimensions were correct, and then I
drilled the rear spars... I started with an 1/8" drill, then went
right to the 5/16" drill... This worked great and I ended up with
very nice round holes... Stuck a couple bolts in and checked
everything again and ended up with the following... Angle of
incidence was perfect according to my eye on the levels...
Measurements from the vertical stab to each wing was within a 32nd of
an inch, and about a 1/8" sweep back on each wings across each fuse to
wingtip span... All in all I am very happy with the results...
What would I do differently? - I waited until the last minute
to install the wings, so getting in the fuse to do various things was
a pin... Next time I will install and fit the wings as early
as possible...
Tip... Don't worry about the aileron control tubes... You don't
need them now, and you don't even need them for the final fitting...
As long as you don't have the wing tips on, you can slide the tubes
in anytime... Also, You can do all this with two people, but three
people would make things easier...
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