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Another newbie question

docjefft

docjefft

Member
I posted this is my last thread about dimensions, but no one replied, so sorry for repeating it, but hope someone can enlighten me! When it comes time for rigging all of the control surfaces, I assume you have to have both wings and the entire empennage attached. If so, you wouldn't you need a fairly large home shop space to accommodate the entire assembly? How do you work with the assembled plane in a smaller shop? Are these tasks done outdoors, or is the rigging, etc. now done until the project is moved to a hangar? I know a lot of folks have built these in relatively small spaces, so how have you accomplished the rigging and any other tasks that require the plane to be almost fully assembled? Just want to be sure I plan the shop space correctly.
 
If you made the control push/pull tubes to the length in the plans, you are good for now.

Once you get to a hangar for final assembly, you can finish. As you state, the tail and wings must be on. First get the flaps just right (full up, same on left and right), then the ailerons. Measure using straight edges to verify the ailerons in neutral. The very last thing to do is installing the wingtips. Defer this until you are confident the flaps and ailerons on exactly correct. The wingtip trailing edge can move up and down so you want it aligned with the trailing edge of the ailerons before drilling the holes.

Side note - make sure the elevators are clamped in neutral (and your stick is positioned correctly) before setting the ailerons. The stick will pull the ailerons if the elevators are not in neutral.

Carl
 
Rigging is almost always done at the airport. I see no up side to trying to this at home. Most builders I know complete as much as they can at home and then move to the airport for final assembly. Consequently you can get by with a 1-car garage if you have somewhere else to store completed assemblies. A 2-car is better. I had a 2-car garage and everything was on wheels -- that way when I was done for the day I would move everything to one side so I could still pull my wife's car in for the night. When I was getting close to the point where I needed to mount the wings I moved permanently to my hangar.
 
I built a pole building that would be wide enough to build the entire aircraft with the wings on so I did all my rigging in the pole building. Then I pulled it out to the airport with the wings on.
$140.00 for a wide load permit and escort by the local police department.
 
You can build this entire plane in a one car garage if you wanted to. If you do build in a two car garage, you will be able to attach one wing at a time. Which allows you to drill the rear spar attachment bolt and it also allows you to finish trim the wing root fairing and Flap as needed. This can be accomplished in your hangar if you don't have the space.

Final control surface adjustment and rigging will not be needed until you get to your hangar for final assembly.

While a two car garage is more ideal, with good organization skills and layout, you can build the plane in a one car garage.
 
If it's a 10

If you are talking about a 10, the cabin and wings are a little bigger than the two seat RV's. But as said above you can build to plans in a two car garage. and be ready to move to a hangar for final assembly. Don't sweat the adjustments tell you get to the point of putting the tail and wings on for the last time. You may find that you will be readjusting them anyway after you start flying. It is very common to fine tune the rigging once you have started fight testing in phase one. Hope this helps, Yours, R.E.A. III #80888
 
Space to build

Thanks for all the great info! I'll be starting the shop build right after Christmas, and then on to the RV!
 
Rigging

There are tooling holes in the outboard wing rib that define the neutral position of the aileron. It seemed to me reading the instructions that the aileron should be set first, then the flap and the wingtip. This worked out well for me. We did drilling of the rear spar with the airplane out of the garage, wings on, in the driveway and this worked out well. The wings were then taken off and we returned to the garage until ready to go to the airport. Good luck with your project!
 
Shop build

If you are building a shop, come up with a size that you think you need then make it 20% larger. You will never complain about having a bigger shop!

Oh, th 20% larger one will be too small, as well!:D
 
Incorrect

Bill Dicus said:
There are tooling holes in the outboard wing rib that define the neutral position of the aileron. It seemed to me reading the instructions that the aileron should be set first, then the flap and the wingtip. This worked out well for me. We did drilling of the rear spar with the airplane out of the garage, wings on, in the driveway and this worked out well. The wings were then taken off and we returned to the garage until ready to go to the airport. Good luck with your project!
Click to expand...

The 10 is rigged differently than the other models. The flaps are rigged full up. Then the aelorons rigged to the flaps and finally the wing tips to the aileron. This can be done with the wings in a cradle.

Gary Specketer
 
+1

Gary 40274 said:
The 10 is rigged differently than the other models. The flaps are rigged full up. Then the aelorons rigged to the flaps and finally the wing tips to the aileron. This can be done with the wings in a cradle.

Gary Specketer
Click to expand...

The instructions are clear, that the rigging is done with the wings in the cradle for flaps, ailerons and tips. The rigging of the elevators is also done in the shop, right about the time the empennage is completed. I have not hooked up my control sticks or other control sections as they run through the fuselage, so perhaps those surfaces will need fine tune rigging, once in the hangar. I'm not there yet.
 
And...

Realize that you can rig the flaps, ailerons, and tip in the cradle but when you actually attach the wings, the flaps probably will not fit. The inboard edge of each flap will likely need to be trimmed to clear the fuselage...
 
2.5 car garage

I was able to get the wings on in a 2 1/2 car garage to final drill them.
Rigging for empennage, flaps, ailerons is done a bit at a sub-component level. I plan to do final 'rigging' at final assembly time at airport hangar. I'm building entire RV7A in garage and will take three parts to airport: 2 wings and a fuselage. Fuselage will be complete with engine, tail and all systems.
 
docjefft said:
I posted this is my last thread about dimensions, but no one replied, so sorry for repeating it, but hope someone can enlighten me! When it comes time for rigging all of the control surfaces, I assume you have to have both wings and the entire empennage attached. If so, you wouldn't you need a fairly large home shop space to accommodate the entire assembly? How do you work with the assembled plane in a smaller shop? Are these tasks done outdoors, or is the rigging, etc. now done until the project is moved to a hangar? I know a lot of folks have built these in relatively small spaces, so how have you accomplished the rigging and any other tasks that require the plane to be almost fully assembled? Just want to be sure I plan the shop space correctly.
Click to expand...

Rigging can wait for hanger. I wanted to get my flaps fitted before paint, so bought some beer and invited some other builders over. We moved the plane out to the front yard, fitted, drilled and installed the wings, flaps ailerons, and tail. And got all the controls rigged. Then took it all apart and put it back in the garage. By the time I went to the hanger needed 1 week before inspection, then another before flying. All of it can wait until the hanger also, I just wanted as much to be done before having a 30 min commute to work on it.
 
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