SonexBuilders.net

Getting ready to rig the wings on my Waiex-B Trike (finally, after weeks of delay due to weather, storm cleanup). As far as ensuring that the wing tips are equal height from fuselage bottom my plan is to level fuselage, install wings, and use a digital level/angle finder at wing ends to set/verify angle is the same on both wings. Anyone done this that determined it inadequate?
Figured it would be more accurate than measuring distance from floor to wing tip bottom, as one must ensure floor span is level and/or use lasers…
Steve

Clear tubing filled with water across the wing span works well, also, if you can colour the water with something it would be easier to see the level. Follow the plans closely too.

Murray Parr wrote:Clear tubing filled with water across the wing span works well, also, if you can colour the water with something it would be easier to see the level. Follow the plans closely too.

This is what I did. I used car windshield washer fluid.

Murray Parr wrote:Clear tubing filled with water across the wing span works well, also, if you can colour the water with something it would be easier to see the level. Follow the plans closely too.

This works extremely well provided the fuselage is also perfectly square to the world. It really only guarantees the wing tips are equidistant from the center of the earth.
If the fuselage is tilted 1/8in, while the tips are level with each other, that translates to nearly an inch out of wack. Not that you could ever tell you were sitting crooked in that configuration. The biggest caveat to not having the wings perfectly leveled is some smart-ass at a fly-in getting down on one knee and eyeballing for some side-to-side discrepancy using the tailfeathers as a guide. You might go with that.

My preferred method was to lay a laser level across the longerons pointing at one of the tips and measuring the distance from the little red dot to the wing skin. Repeat for the other side and compare notes. Adjust the wings till the distance is the same. Leveling the fuselage is not necessary with this method. It would work just as well in space. Hopefully the tail is on straight.

Flying with one wing low due to poor technique and not bad rigging here @Area 51%

I'm at a similar step myself. I've measured the distances that they've pointed out in the plans. To get that 5/32 additional distance from the wing tip to the rear on the left side, I feel like I've had to cant the wings quite a bit. All the other measurements called out on that page are spot on. It makes me think that perhaps the fuselage isn't quite square, although I have to say everything looked right and aligned well...

What measurements have people made to ensure that the fuselage is square?

Anybody near KSQL want to stop by and take a look?

Hello, The measurement (5/32) is the same for the A model (which is what I have). I found that it's more important for the rear spar carry through to be perfectly centered than it is for the spacing between the wing skins and fuselage to be equal. I in initially made sure that the wing skin to the fuselage spacing was equal on both sides, per the Sonex prints, I then had difficulty achieving the 5/32 measurement as you described. By having equal wing space to the fuselage, the rear spar carry through wasn't centered (equally spaced). When I centered the rear spar carry through, however, the 5/32 measurement was easily achieved.