HANGING FINISHED WINGS

[EDMO 1078]

Have you ever thought about how you would hang up your covered / painted wings? 

  Maybe you can plan ahead before covering.

     The fuselage end is easy - just tie a rope to the attach bolt in the spar - But how are you going to put a rope on the tip end without putting a strain on some structural parts?

     If you have removable tips, you can put a rope thru the end rib and attach it to something like I have put on my front spar, a 1" metal conduit strap which is riveted to the spar.  I wrapped some Gorilla tape around it to keep it from cutting the rope.  There are other things you can use as well as this one.

     A friend of mine, who built an Airdale, with Avid-type tips, permanently attached his rope to the spar, and stowed it inside a light weight PVC pipe which angled to the hole in his tip for the position lights - He could fish the rope out with a wire hook if he wanted to hang the wings while working on the fuselage.

     He hung his horizontal - Mine will hang vertical - but you could put another hanger on the rear spar to hang them horizontally.  A metal hook on the end of a rope might make attachment easier,

     Attaching a blurred photo.

EdMO

Edited 7 Aug 2015 by Ed In Missouri

[akflyer 1427]

I always hung them of the wall from the rib tails.  Just a few twists of mechanics wire / bailing wire through the hole in the tails then tied them up to the wall from hangers I had mounted on the wall.  The wings don't weight much and if done right its a straight pull on the rib tails and it wont hurt them.  If they pull out I damn sure don't want my flaperons bolted to them

 

[EDMO 1078]

I guess for flat hanging storage, you could use a combination of the two methods.

My wings are really heavy - Guessing 25 to 30 pounds each more than stock wings weigh.

But, I am not trying to build a "Light Kite"...I will have about 160 Sq.Ft. of wing area including flaps & ailerons.

I wonder what a stock Kitfox wing weighs with only one 12 gal tank or without tanks, with or without flaperons?

How much more than wheels and landing gear do floats weigh?  How much more GW do they allow for them?

EdMO

Edited 8 Aug 2015 by Ed In Missouri

[marksires 484]

When I trailered mine from CA to IL, I went to home depot and got the cheapest carpet runners they had, and some 1x2's  I use them to make slings to hold the wing I had to take off and the horizontal stab on then inside walls of the trailer.  Supported them well, and provided some protection and standoff from the wall.

 

Mark

[EDMO 1078]

Mark,

     We hauled my Ercoupe wings that way - but it was only 50 miles to the airport.

EdMO

[marksires 484]

Mark,

     We hauled my Ercoupe wings that way - but it was only 50 miles to the airport.

EdMO

Worked great for 2,000 miles also.

Mark

[dholly 718]

I have a nice set of stands made by Aerotrek for shipping my new wings across the pond that bolt the wings in a vertical position. Screwed them to the deck of a trailer and drove them 650mi. with no trouble. Would work great for Avid and Kitfox wings as well if someone wants to see pics for ideas. At home I used those big, vinyl covered lag screw hooks around the spars to hang unfinished wings flush to the ceiling before covered. I hung covered wings against the wall like Leni. I also drilled slightly oversize and then bolted 1/2" PVC pipe flange collars to the webbing of the last two end ribs, directly in-line with the position light holes in the wingtip. That way I could slip a 1/2" iron pipe into the 'bearing races' and put the covered wings on a rotisserie without undue stress to the fiberglass wingtip. I secure the pipe to the top of a workhorse with 1/2" electrical conduit strap clamps.