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Initial wing install

Phantom30

Phantom30

Well Known Member
Another question guys....

I did my first wing fit up for finial drilling of flaperon controll hardware. Getting the wing pins in place sure didn't look like the demo on Van's site.

Had to gently massage the pins in with a 3 pound hammer, and when in place, I could bearly turn them into locked position (yes, I lubed them before insertion).

Does it get better? Or is something amiss?
 
Pounding with a hammer seems a bit much. I used the small "exhaust pipe expansion" tool sold by Harbor Freight (and others I suspect) to easily align the spar pin holes before inserting the pins -- it worked great!. Things may initially be a bit tight when you first trial fit the spar / pins. Check for rubbing / too tight clearances / interference as you go along.
 
I had a similar experience, but later found that the spar was binding on its top surface and the inner cutout for it. Remove a small amount and no further problem.
 
First Wing Fitting

Hey Ric,
I also had to employ some serious "convincing" to get the dang things in the first time. Along with the kinds of binding already mentioned, I had interference between the wing and fuse skins. Went thru a couple of iterations of trimming the ends of the wing skins to achieve the gaps described in the plans. A couple of on/off cycles also seemed to loosen the pins some.
Early Kit # 121 slooooow build....
Clear skies,
Dave
 
I actually made me a wing "convincer" out of a hunk of aluminum. I want to tell you, this tool makes a wing settle down immediately:
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Great Tool...use with caution

I remember seeing your tool earlier and liked it, Don.

My only caution for a new build would be to make sure that there is no interference to correct before "jacking" it together by force.

Take a close look around the slots that the stub spars go through (I had some rivets catching there, I widened the slots) and and also the wing skin edges jamming against the fuse skins (earlier post).

Some of these issues may have been corrected in later kits.

2-cents,

Dave
 
Also take a look at the plastic guides for the wing spar. These sometimes need to be made just a slight bit smaller to allow the wing to insert correctly.
 
I was totally baffled over just why the wings did not want to slide all the way home easily, and why it was hanging up. Only later, did I find that the top of the spar was interfering with the INSIDE opening, not readily visible when installing the wing. At least in my series of kits, this seemed to be fairly common.
 
DonFromTX said:
Only later, did I find that the top of the spar was interfering with the INSIDE opening, not readily visible when installing the wing. At least in my series of kits, this seemed to be fairly common.
Click to expand...

I had the same "problem" but that was way back in 2010.

IMG_1493.JPG
 
A light coat of grease helps. Mine were very tough at first. After trimming the wing skin edges they got easier. At first annual they were much easier to remove and install.
 
The spar stub fit is important and I believe the current plans caution the builder about taking too much off the stub.

I am evaluating some wing wobble with my left wing and will need to order a new longer stub. I will do the measurements tonight in order to select the correct length. Vans sent me the instruction sheet. More fun!
 
Last edited:
Pat,

I over trimmed my stub spars and had about 1/32" movement on the leading edge. I added .025" "L" shaped shims on each forward spar stub that fixed the problem.
 
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