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I recently bought a Sonex that is airworthy and took the wings off to trailer it back home, and now no matter how much I try, I can’t get the wings back in place. They stop sliding together about an inch and a half too soon. Any suggestions or advice on what I should do?

Do you have the wing installation instruction sheet? It can be downloaded from here.
https://www.sonexaircraft.com/instruction-sheets/

Direct link to the PDF:
https://www.sonexaircraft.com/documents ... nstall.pdf

Actually the wings should fit snugly together so that is a good sign. The fact that they were in there before proves that they will go.

Are you trying to do this by yourself? I tried that but found that to be an exercise in futility. It's at least a two man task and three will make it work easier. Depending on how tight the wing bolts were drilled, aligning the bolt holes and getting the wing bolts in can also be quite a challenge.

Patience is indeed your friend ...

Dale
3.0 Corvair/Tailwheel

Yes, I have read the sheet and did the install exactly as outlined and I still can’t get it all the way in

I have tried on a few occasions with multiple people including an a&p and we couldn’t get the wings all the way on

Look very closely at the ends of the spars for any witness marks that might indicate contact with the other spar.
Or, there may be a proud rivet hiding in the spar tunnel.

RIffing on what the previous posters have said, cover BOTH spar ends with your favorite layout fluid, and try it again, if it doesn't go, pull it apart to see where it's binding. File, deburr, repeat.

I also found on my wings that gently ROTATING the wings relatively to the fuselage was key. Rotate, shake, push. When you get it, the relief is palpable, like popping a zit. My wife and I had to jack the trailing edge of the Starboard wing to get the main spar snug against the front of the forward spar box before the Port wing could clunk in.

I also used PINS vice bolt for the shear connections. I made my own from clevis pins from the Aviation department of McMaster Carr, put a LONG taper on the excess length, and drilled the shanks to achieve a close fit of a removable, reusable retaining pin snug up against the spar boxes. The factory demonstrators use pins vice bolts. The thread of the bolts can "broach" a tight, slightly mis-aligned hole till it's no longer tight. Said tapered pins were liberally lubed with engine assembly lube, and gently driven in.

I hope to never have to take my wings off again.

A glider pilot, if you can find one, is probably more help than an A&P.

The right wing should be all the way in so you can pin it to the fuselage, as indicated in step 5 of the instructions. So then it should just be a matter of getting the left wing all the way in. One of the tricks is that the right wing may not be jammed all the way against the aft side of the spar tunnel. This will cause it to bind, as there is little to no clearance for a tight wing installation. So how do you deal with this? Like any glider pilot would tell you, wiggle the left wing up & down, fore and aft as you try and push it in. If it is being difficult you can do the same thing on the right wing at the same time. Push and wiggle. That is the magic.

Thank you all! I was able to get it installed with a little bit of deburring and a few more people

Bluth125 wrote:Thank you all! I was able to get it installed with a little bit of deburring and a few more people

Awesome! Looking forward to the flight reports.