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Stevens Web Site
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Date: 9-1-2008
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Number of Hours: 4.70
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Positioned wings and drilled the aft spar
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I finally got back on the project today, Labor Day, 2008. I knew I would need help with the next task, positioning the wings to get the correct sweep (none) and the correct angle of incidence (zero). Frank Settle called around and got John Morgan and Larry Dickinson to come over and I called Peter DiTomaso. It turns out that we needed all hands to get the job done. First, we leveled the fuselage both longitudinally and side to side by puting a 1/4" aluminum bar under the right gear leg and positioning the tail with my adjustable saw horse. Then, we measured from the wing tips to the center of the aft most bulkhead on the fuselage and we determined that the left wing tip was a little forward of the right wing tip. We also snapped a chalk line under the wing and dropped 4 plumb bobs over the line, two on the inboard portion of the wings and two on the tips. If all 4 plumb bobs lined up on the chalk line and the distance from each wing tip to the aft fuselage was equal, then we would have the correct alignment and sweep of the wings. It took over three hours to get to that point. Moving one wing forward or aft would throw all of the measurements and alignments off until we finally got the right combination. It took everyone to make it happen. One person held down the tail, one person would move the wing tip forward or aft, one person would keep an eye on the alignment of the plumb bobs with the chakl line and the last person would clamp the aft spar attach points once everything was aligned. When we finally got the sweep and alignment right, Peter DiTomaso marked the alignment on the aft spar tabs and we then tackled the angle of attack issue. By using a large carpenter's level and placing it at a precise point on the spars with a spacer over the rear spar, we could place the digital level on top of the carpenter's level to get an angle of attack reading. Then, we loosened the clamp for each wing and set the angle of attack by pushing down or pulling up on the aft spar till the reading was zero. Then,
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Me, Peter DiTomaso, Frank Settle, Larry Dickinson and John Morgan
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All that work to install one silly little bolt
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Toasting to straight wings and good friends
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