Hi all,
Just wanted to say thanks for all of the help with this problem. I got some
excellent suggestions and it just proves how useful this forum continues to
be for all of us.
I ran into Steve Hagar at Copperstate and he was heading to Tucson
afterwards so was able to stop by on Sunday and help figure it out. After
confirming that the wings would line up outside the fuselage, we tried them
on the plane again. No go, at first. But after some serious shimming up at
the bottom of each wing at the entries, we were finally able to get the pins
to go full in.
It turns out that it's just a process of careful positioning of shims and
guides to make the spars go back to EXACTLY the same place each time. I
still have a lot of work to get everything set just so, but glad to know
they'll go together without having to reset bushings, etc.
Again thanks for all the help and happy building.
Dan
Kit A144 - Tucson, AZ
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of N914RB
Subject: Europa-List: Trouble fitting wings to fuselage
Hi everybody,
I found a thread in the archives about trouble fitting the wings into the
fuselage but didn't come up with anything that addressed my situation.
The cockpit module is installed and I have the top temporarily on and snug.
Following the instructions to set the wing incidence, I've attempted to
insert the wings and insert the pins to hold everything in place while trial
positioning and fitting the wing root pins.
Outside the fuselage, the wing bushings line up fine, and using the two
large pins supplied, can get them to go through both bushings on each side,
although they are VERY tight.
When installing the wings on the plane, however, it takes quite a bit of
jiggling to get the port pin to go in the hole, then upon inserting the
starboard wing and shoving it in as far as possible, the holes just won't
line up. It'll go through the hole on the port spar, but not the one on the
starboard spar. It's about 1/8" shy of going in enough to line up.
I've reduced material at the end of both spars, removed a bit off the top
and bottom of certain areas of the spar that seemed to be making bad contact
with the fuselage opening, and sanded the openings themselves. My building
buddy, another Europa builder, and I are scratching our heads on this one.
If they go together outside the fuse, they should go together inside it.
Right?
It can't be where the holes are located inside the cockpit module as those
lines up fine with the first spar bushing. We just can't get the starboard
wing to go in enough for the bushings on that spar to line up. Even if we do
get them lined up, it's a bear to get those pins in and out.
Any help is much appreciated.
Dan Bish
Kit A144
Tucson, AZ, USA
Mono, short wing.
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