Today my friends Jeremiah, Trey, and Sam helped me mount the wings onto the fuselage. Everything went well, and it’s now looking like a real airplane!
I arrived at the hangar early, and spent time preparing for the event. Jeremiah drove down from LA, and within 5 minutes of his arrival, Trey and Sam landed after flying in from Carlsbad. We got started right away, and things went according to plan.
To prepare for the operation, I had laid out all the necessary hardware, plus the lubricants needed, and the tools I planned to use. I chocked the wheels and raised the tail into a level attitude, and set up some sawhorses to support the wing.
We started by lifting the left wing onto the saw horses and fine tuning the height by removing layers of padding. I then applied Boelube and we gently moved the left wing into position. The drift pins went in with some gentle tapping, as did the larger bolts. Then the remaining bolts were driven through, and the job was complete. It was a fun moment of truth to remove the sawhorses and marvel at how simple the attachment was, and how much load the bolts will carry.
We then moved onto the right wing and repeated the process. Generally it was easier the second time, because we had the process down, and knew where to position everything. It took slightly longer to align the right wing, but there were no issues installing everything.
The only potential issue I observed were there tank attach brackets. The aft corner of the bracket is contacting the fuselage side skin. Items the same on both sides, and it could be “as designed”, but I sent an email to Vans to check.
I haven’t final torqued the bolts yet, but this can wait for a day or two, as the bolts are loaded in shear vs tension.
