Hanging the Wings
Hanging
the wings is not as complicated as it first appears. My biggest worry was
that I had to do it outside as it was impossible to do in the Hangar which is
slightly less than 12 feet wide. It was hard for me to imagine how the
wings are hung as well as how much time it would take. The main problem
was that the wings had to be mounted, then folded so that the
fuselage could be put back into the Hangar, all in one day.
The weather
also plays a big part in your planning. Although I tried to pick a good
weather day, the scheduling of Dave Hulse's strut jig, several helpers, and a good
weather Saturday or Sunday really limits your choices. It did rain a
little and threatened to storm later on that Saturday. The rain was no
problem but with no tie downs it was a little worrisome as you cannot put things
away until you finish and get the wings folded.
Knowing this I
did my best to have as much done in advance that I could. I used Dave's
jig to drill the inboard Wing Strut Attachment holes and mount the attachment to
the strut so that the struts were ready to hang the wings. Order the
Glastar Wing Brace Kit early, as it may not be in stock when you need it.
Remember, if you are hanging the wing outside you have to fold the wings to put
it away. Luckily I was able to borrow the braces from Mark Neubaur while I
waited for New Glastar to re-stock and ship.
I choose to
install the landing gear and hang the wings while on the gear. This really
made the whole process much better for me. I was able to pull the fuselage
outside and level it front to back and side to side, days in advance.
therefore, on hanging day, I was able to level the fuselage in 10 minutes.
Also, weight was to the fuselage to make it more stable.
I spend all
morning trying to decide if the weather would be okay, I decided to go for it at
about 10:00 am and called Howard Plevyak, Mark Neubaur, and my son Eric as they
offered their help whenever I was ready. I pulled the fuselage outside and
leveled it and the guys arrived at about noon. We attached both wings and
supported them using Mark's wing stands on top of two tables. We then set
the angle of incident and adjusted the wings for twist.
We cut the
struts to length on my radial saw using one of those special blades that I
bought at Oshkosh. It's a composite blade that will cut aluminum without
melting it, does an excellent job. However, when we did Howard's wings the
following weekend, I took my Harbor Freight vertical/horizontal band saw up to
his hangar and it also did a great job.
Next we used
Dave Husle's Strut Jig to drill the outboard strut holes thru the strut and the
strut attach arm at the same time. What you do is slip on the strut, check
the angle of incident and the wing twist, then tighten the jig in place and
drill per the instructions. This process is nothing like the procedure in
the Glastar manual, it is much simpler. We started about noon and had both
wings hung by 4:00 pm, it seamed much longer as I was worried about a possible
storm. After Mark and Howard left, Eric helped me trim the fuselage shell
so that the wings could be folded. The fuselage was back in the Hangar by
about 6:00 pm, no storm.
Preparation for Mounting the
Wings
Click on each Picture to Enlarge
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A 2x4 across the doorway provided a support for the inboard end of the wing. With this setup I was able to move the wing in and out for shell fitting |
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A seat from an exerciser made a good adjustable stand. A hole was drilled in top of the wooden ladder to support the seat. |
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Later, a higher ladder replaced the adjustable wooden ladder/seat combination. |
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Working inside, I was able to trim the fuselage shell to allow the mating of the wing in advance of the final hanging of the wing. |
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I re-installed the engine stand mount and added exercise weights to give the fuselage more stability. Also, placed weight inside of the fuselage. |
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The fuselage was pulled outside and leveled front to back and side to side several times before the final wing mounting. Wheel positions were marked. |
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Fuselage is level and the Angle of Incident is set. Next step is to measure and cut the struts to fit. |
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Later, when we hung Howard Plevyak's wings we cut his struts with this HF bandsaw. I used a radial saw with a composite blade to trim my struts. |
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Here is the strut cut to final size ready for Dave Hulse's strut jig. Don't try to hang your wings without using Dave's Jig. |
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Here is Dave's Strut Jig installed and ready for drilling. I used a clamp in place of the 2 top bolts in the jig as I had a small strut end gap. |
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Here is Dave's Jig a week later when we hung Howard's wings. |
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The wings are mounted, the struts are drilled and bolted in place. |
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Wings mounted, getting ready to trim the top of the fuselage shell so that the wings can be folded. |
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The wings are folded and the fuselage is pushed back into the hangar. Time to hang and fold the wings was about 7 hours. |
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