L-2 wing rebuild

[everell]

i am following your wing rebuild thread because I have started a rebuild of a L2B Taylorcraft. First question....is there a STM that covers using aluminum leading edge material rather than that thin wood? What thickness aluminum did you use? Can the aluminum leading edge be used if wood wing ribs are used? Did you use aluminum covering from top of wing spar, around the front of the ribs to the bottom of the wing spar...OR...did you only partially cover the front of the wing ribs? Some pictures would be helpful. Is same STM used to cover aluminum trailing edge rather than wood?

[n6346m]

New rear spar made and ribs and hardware all installed. A lot quicker than the left wing since we had all the parts already modified and painted. Only need to install the leading and trailing edges and both wings will be ready for fabric.

[n6346m]

After years of having spilled gas soaking the rear spar, it was decided that we would not re-use it. Thankfully, we still have enough wood left over from making the new front spar.

[Hank Jarrett]

Not everyone has left. This site is still FAR superior to FB and I still check it several times a day. We need to keep this Forum alive and active. I check pretty much everything I read on FB. Way too many people who talk a lot but don't really know what they are talking about, plus FB is WAY too unstable! I read till it crashes, then move on to other things. They must hire their IT people from some elementary school.

The GOOD guys are still here. We just need to get active again......myself included!

Hank

[n6346m]

It's been a while since i updated my progress on my L-2 on this forum, that is if anyone even reads these forums anymore since facebook has pretty well ruined most of the the good forums on the internet. The Stinson and Corvair forums among them.
In my last report I mentioned that the FAA has signed off on the 337 for the replacement of the wood parts (except for the spars) with aluminum. I have now a completed left wing except for the fabric and I have started on the right wing. The right wing front spar is in excellent condition and will be reused with no more than cleaning up and varnishing. The rear spar is still questionable and if replacement is required we still have a nice piece of spruce left over from making the front spar for the left wing.
One of the concerns from the beginning was what the weight difference would be between the all wood wing vs the aluminum/wood wing. When we swapped the wings to/from storage and work station we had the opportunity to weigh the two bare wings. Using calibrated aircraft scales the bare aluminum wing came in at 70 lbs while the bare wood wing came in at 74 lbs. I was pleasantly surprised because I thought it would be the other way around. I'll take the extra 8 lbs useful load anytime,

Bob Picard
Anchor Point, Alaska

[Bob turner]

Not really a Tcart guy - my experience is mostly Cubs - but just finished covering an L2. Yes, that front spar is difficult to inspect. I cut access holes in each bay for pre-cover inspection, varnish, and later condition inspections.

If these wings had looked like yours, this one would have been a “strike” aircraft.

[n6346m]

I finally got the fully signed off 337 field approval for material substitution from the feds yesterday.
Bob Picard

[n6346m]

Good job. Good for you for getting those at a good price. I got my spruce from a company in Western Washington that is know for supplying wooden spars and masts for sailboats as well.

[taylorukuk]

Bob

Thanks for the info.
In the UK there simply isnt anyone selling aircraft quality spruce.

In the end following a tipoff from another restorer I contacted a Company in the UK that manufactured yacht spars. They had lots of spruce in stock but of questionable quality however they had a big batch of spruce arriving from Canada first week of June.

They selected the best planks for me - Total cost for 4 spars machined to size $1033 delivered.

[n6346m]

I am currently rebuilding a BC12 wing and have the Taylorcraft drawing of the L2 spar. Is the L2 spar exactly the same as the BC12 spar except for the spar thickness?

The only differences that I could notice by looking at them side-by-side is the thickness of the wood and the number and location of the wing attachment bolt holes, as shown in previously posted photos.
In addition, the L-2 has an additional hole for the jury strut attachment. The lift strut attachment point and hole pattern look identical in both spars but I would use the actual hardware to locate the holes as I would with the wing to fuselage attachment hardware. Otherwise, the spars seem identical in overall length, height, and location of compression struts and ribs etc. I have a full length video video scanning the full length of all three (the new L-2 spar, the old L-2 spar, and the BC-12 spar) side-by-side, but I couldn't post it because of the size.

By the way, I'm curious as to where you finally found your spar spruce.

Bob Picard

[Ragwing nut]

I am currently rebuilding a BC12 wing and have the Taylorcraft drawing of the L2 spar. Is the L2 spar exactly the same as the BC12 spar except for the spar thickness?

nope, completely different dimensions

[taylorukuk]

I am currently rebuilding a BC12 wing and have the Taylorcraft drawing of the L2 spar. Is the L2 spar exactly the same as the BC12 spar except for the spar thickness?

[n6346m]

OOPS! It looks like I got a little ahead of myself on my last post and forgot the blog about the spars. Attached are pictures of the beautiful new piece of Sitka spruce that is to become the new front spar for the left wing. As mentioned earlier, the butt end was scarfed and 1/16 plywood glued to the butt end and at the place where the strut attach points are located. Next, we used the old spar as a template to transfer all the hole and bushing locations and then we installed new phenolic bushings. The bushings were installed undrilled and the steel wing spar-to-fuselage attaching hardware was used as a drill guide to insure a perfect fit. The attached photos show some of the differences and similarities between the BC 12 spar and the DCO-65 spar. You can notice the difference in spar thickness and the similarity of the location of the compression struts and all the ribs, same number of struts and same number of ribs in exactly the same location with one exception. The leading edge of the DCO spar only contained about half of the nose ribs under the plywood skin. The nose rib found between the regular long ribs on the BC airplanes is not used in the wooden wing. Other than that, only the location and method of attaching the jury struts and the wing-to-fuselage hardware is different.

Bob
newing4.jpgnewig6.jpgnewing5.jpg

[n6346m]

Finally starting to look like a wing. Came back home yesterday after working on the wings and will be shipping the ailerons down to Seattle and make sure everything fits properly. FAA came down Friday and looked at our progress and liked what he saw. Putting the floats on my Stinson and will be going back down to SEA when the ailerons arrive there.

Bob

newing1.jpgnewing3.jpg

[n6346m]

Back home for a week or so before going back to work on the L-2 wings. On this trip I got all of the ribs completely done gave them an etch and alodine bath and they are ready to install. Did the work on the spar by scarfing the butt end and gluing the 1/16 plywood on the butt end and the area around the strut attach point. Unfortunately we didn't get as much done as we liked as we had to wait for three days for stuff to arrive that we thought we forgot to order. After the plywood we ordered arrived from Aircraft Spruce we found the piece that we had ordered and received last year right in front of our noses. Next up is transferring all the holes and bushings from the old spar to the new and varnishing the finished product.

Bob