Wing Jig - 3/7/2011 - 6h45

Finally finished the inventory of wing and fuselage kit. This took in total about 21 hours. Inventory for the main parts is pretty fast and easy. The time consuming part is the counting of the hardware (little screw, bolts, nutplates, rivets...)

I'm very impressed of the acuratness of the content of the kits. There are hundres of parts and everything was in the box. The fuselage kit was completely ok. The wing kit had one bag with washers where they messed up some quantities so I will contact Van's to let them know they should add some washers to me next order. But overall. Pretty impressive service !

My DGLV inspector has requested me to complete the wing jig also in front of the inspection of my empenage so he can check for straightness and robustness.
The only plane he ever failed was because of a tilted wing that was caused by a wrongly aligned jig. So he is really punctual about wing jigs.

Building the wing jig is not a fun part. You spend a lot of time doing it and have the feeling that you are stalled in the building process. Nevertheless, it's probably one of the most important fixtures you'll ever make in your lifetime.
Because of the measuring and constant checking for straightness, you will go very slow. I planned on doing this in a day but finally, here is the result of 7hours of work spread over 2 days.
Why2 you may ask ? well, I got frustrated after the first one and decided it was better to call it a day :)

The wing jig consists of 2 support beams in wood of 6cm by 17c. The two main posts are made by 2 beams of 5cm by 12cm screwed together with bolts. It is better to have 2 then 1 big one.
Key here is to make sure your get straight beams of wood.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the result. They are level in both directions. I'll check again when I receive my digital level after the summer holidays.

Next job is to do the same thing on the other end of the garage at 114inch or 2m90cm distance. 


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