wing positioner

[jack]

Anyone have any plans or a good picture of a wing positioner. I'd like to try and put my wings on and off by myself if possible. Thanks, Jack

[VictorBravo]

Re: wing positioner

Anyone have any plans or a good picture of a wing positioner. I'd like to try and put my wings on and off by myself if possible. Thanks, Jack

It's probably right out there in your driveway. If you have a minivan or a truck or even an old-fashioned sedan, you have your wing positioner.

Simply put foam pads on top of the car, put the wing on top of the foam pads (with straps holding it onto the car... duh!) and drive the car out to about 6 or 8 feet from the fuselage.

Calmly, slowly, and CAREFULLY rotate the wing a little at a time until the wing root is now close to the fuselage. Work it slowly and reposition it on the pads as needed to keep it balanced. Once the wing is 90 degrees to the fuselage, tie good nylon cord through the wing root fittings on the wing, and the same fittings on the fuselage.

Now with the root end of the wing secured from falling onto the ground, walk back to the car and get the TWO 6 foot ladders. Put pillows and foam pads and whatever on the ladders. Put one ladder at the main spar location and another at the rear spar location... both out near the tip. Tie the wingtip to the ladders to prevent them from slipping off. The ladders should be tall enough to have lifted the weight of the wing off the car.

All this is possible and CAN be done, but good practice and offering the very best advice requires that I suggest you have a helper or three instead of this method. You can do everything safe, sane, and with some amount of protection using a wing positioner or a car, but when it comes time to put the struts on you will be taking a very big risk! The only way to put struts on alone is to put the root end first, then hold the outboard wing up with your shoulder while you raise the outboard end of the strut into position. It is very very easy at that point to bend the strut fitting at the root, or to kink/bend/damage the strut!!!

[Buell Powell]

Re: wing positioner

I made these a while back. I just used the top pivot from some wing stands I had and made some bases that would extend long enough to raise the wings to reach where they need to be and welded some tubing that 10' extensions would slide over to connect them to make them extend long enough. To lock the pieces that slide over I used 5/16 bolts and then bought some rollers from Tractor Supply--when you just use the ends for stands to work on wing then turn the tubing which has the rollers upside down. You do need 2 people to lift them onto the stands but you can lower and tilt them and place the arms behind the spars to keep them in place while you tilt it back which makes it pretty easy. All you have to do is roll it in position,raise it where it needs to be,tilt it to match the fittings and install the bolts. After you have the wing secured and the struts in place then slide the verticals down and lift them off to clear the struts so you can roll it out of the way. It turned out to be a lot better than several people trying to hold the wings in position. I haven't used it on a Taylorcraft yet but I have installed and taken wings off on a Fairchild 24 and Cub by myself and it should work. You can take the connect parts off and use it for wing stands for working on wings and it comes apart easy to store the pieces out of the way. The next thing I need to do --when I am ready to install some wings that have the fabric is make some bases with padding but that should be pretty easy. Sorry I have it apart for now and these are the only pictures I have but if anyone wants I take some better ones when I final assemble the Cub or Fairchild- with the bases for installing the wings with fabric.
Buell

[mohawktipi]

Re: wing positioner

This is what I used. Bought at a local tool store for $89.00. It has a screw adjusting height and also has a foot pedal for adjusting when you need to raise a little to make it fit. I attached a padded 2x4 to the top for wing support.

[pete]

Re: wing positioner

I used a drywall lift. I laid a piece of plywood across it and threw a couple straps around the wing. I worked better to position it a little on the outboard side so the wing root would hang lower. Its on wheels and you can crank it up or down. Worked pretty good.
Pete