I am building my own design in fiberglass from scratch. Its a low wing monoplane. The fuselage tub is kind of soft yet, being as no bulkheads or the firewall are installed yet. The roof is a separate part, and being as I built it to be rollover structure, it is rather stiff. So, I had figured that I had better fit and fixture the roof to the tub before I bond in the various bulkheads, which leads me to the problem.
The fuselage tub is sitting in a strongback, so it is fairly well supported. The lower wing skins are also lying in a rack. I have cut holes in the fuselage tub for passage of the main spar and it is laying in there. And I am trying to align all of the floppy parts (tub and skins) and the stiff parts (spars).
I am aligning the wing tips and checking the wing twist with a water level, as well as leveling the fuselage with the water level. I had also planned to check the spar square to the fuselage by measuring the distances from the tips to the centerline at the tail. This stuff makes a ton of sense to me and seemed just about bombproof.
First two questions: Does this sound like my alignment tools will work OK? Am I checking enough of my setup to get the airplane aligned?
I thought that I would align and bond the spars to the belly of the fuselage with them laying in the wing skins and skin cradles, and then fit and support the roof so that I can get the bulkheads bonded in place. That way the drag spar would be in place for attaching the seatback bulkhead too. When I actually got the spar sitting in the tub, the fuselage is so soft that things are moving around...
So my next question: Does this sound like it is really going together in the right order?
I am beginning to think that I should wait on installing the spars until after the roof is jigged and fitted, (with its weight supported from the ceiling) and with most of the bulkheads in.
Anyway, I am questioning myself, and would appreciate any words of advice that you folks might have...
Billski
The fuselage tub is sitting in a strongback, so it is fairly well supported. The lower wing skins are also lying in a rack. I have cut holes in the fuselage tub for passage of the main spar and it is laying in there. And I am trying to align all of the floppy parts (tub and skins) and the stiff parts (spars).
I am aligning the wing tips and checking the wing twist with a water level, as well as leveling the fuselage with the water level. I had also planned to check the spar square to the fuselage by measuring the distances from the tips to the centerline at the tail. This stuff makes a ton of sense to me and seemed just about bombproof.
First two questions: Does this sound like my alignment tools will work OK? Am I checking enough of my setup to get the airplane aligned?
I thought that I would align and bond the spars to the belly of the fuselage with them laying in the wing skins and skin cradles, and then fit and support the roof so that I can get the bulkheads bonded in place. That way the drag spar would be in place for attaching the seatback bulkhead too. When I actually got the spar sitting in the tub, the fuselage is so soft that things are moving around...
So my next question: Does this sound like it is really going together in the right order?
I am beginning to think that I should wait on installing the spars until after the roof is jigged and fitted, (with its weight supported from the ceiling) and with most of the bulkheads in.
Anyway, I am questioning myself, and would appreciate any words of advice that you folks might have...
Billski
