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RV 14 Wing cradle

77bonanza

Active Member
I have ordered the QB Wing & Fuselage kit which should be delivered shortly. Does anyone have any plans they can share re building wing cradles to store the wings?
 
I'm borrowing from Tim Olson's design for mine, with some modification:

http://www.myrv14.com/buildlog/20130210/index.html

Around half way down the page, are pictures of the design for building his slow-built wings. Dimensions of the primary 2x4s are in a nearby pic. Further down the page is the modified design used when his wings reached the stage our QB wings are in. I think that I slightly shortened the long 2x4 rails so as to be sure that I could work on the landing/taxi lights without any of the rack being in the way.

My wing rack is not quite finished and is untested. It's currently at our company hangar (45 miles away) where the kit is temporarily stored awaiting the transformation of my basement into a shop. Thus no work done on it this weekend and I'm flying all day tomorrow. Hope to finish it up Tuesday and test fit the wings to the rack. One final detail that I haven't fully worked out yet is just how I plan to secure the spar end to the rack. Planning on using the plastic tubes that protected the bolt holes in the QB fuselage spar carry-through in it's crate...if I can find them. Smaller bolts through those plastic tubes would be adequate, I think.
 
An RV-10 builder posted this awhile ago. Works perfectly, trim a couple of feet off total length.


Screenshot_2016-06-06-09-07-49_zps8c2iwqta.png
 
That's what I did too. Took me longer to think about than to do. HD has scrap carpet for free by the way but if they don't there is some $2 a yard stuff you can get when you get the lumber.
 
Yeah none of the cradle dimensions require high precision, and building it is pretty simple. I would build it short enough that the landing light lenses aren't supporting the weight of the wing. You probably won't want to work on the landing light while in the cradle...that would be very inconvenient, but the outboard edge of the wing probably shouldn't be used to support the wing face down in the carpet as there is that narrow edge of aluminum there that you wouldn't want to bend.

I did not sold-bolt my spar end to the cradle. What I did was just slid a couple bolts thru the existing spar holes that went thru the wood. Bolts with the threads removed would be ideal so you don't scrape those holes up. Then I capped the spars with a 2x4 and used clamps to sandwhich the spar between the wood. I countersunk the 2x4 for the bolt heads too. That way I didn't need tools to remove the wing, and I wasn't using hardware to secure it, just quick clamps. Just use care when moving them and DO pin the wings in place somehow. It is possible to have the wings slide out of the cradle if you're not careful and they aren't pinned.

The RV-10 guys have been using such cradles for probably 12-14 years now, so you may even find an RV-10 guy near you who has one they can give you, and you could shorten.
 
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