dingo9882

Recently I have been building a Hog Bipe and I thought I was doing everything correctly. But, when I tried putting on the eye struts to line up the wings and everything they do not line up correctly. In the directions it says that they should be able to line right up with without forcing anything. But, I am forcing the two wings together in order to screw in the I-struts to the top and bottom wings. What did I do wrong here? I though maybe I didn't give it enough dihydral but I did everything as what the directions said. In what step could I have made a mistake. It is not covered or anything yet, so if you guys have anything suggestions that would be great. And I am afraid to do anything to much because I am afraid to screw up the incedince and alignment.

Jollidude

My Feedback: (39)

It does sound like the bottom wing has less dihedral than called for. I wouldn't worry too much about that changing the flight characteristics, you won't even notice it, and it certainly won't affect the wing incidences. Cut new interplane struts from light ply to fit the larger spacing or simply glue a piece of ply to the existing struts to extend them a bit and drill new holes to match the spacing. I have had my Hog for 8 years now and I still enjoy flying it. Building is always a process of screwing up and then fixing your screw-ups. I've never yet built something that was perfect, they all have mistakes, even if I'm the only one that knows they are there. To quote a popular song from a few years ago, "Don't worry, Be happy!"

Cheers!

Jollidude

dmcmike

My Feedback: (14)

I had the same kind of problem... how far off is the alighnment? Mine was only about 1/16", so I just sorta "lined up" the holes by tweaking the wings a bit. One thing I did was to put an oversized (4-40 i think) blind nut in the struts to keep from wearing a larger hole in the struts.

dingo9882

It is off by about a 1/4 of an inch. If I just force in into the holes will that effect the flight characteristics? I also thought that if I were to do that I was putting pressure on the wing which could eventually lead to it failing in flight (breaking off). What else can I do here?

dingo9882

I just measured the dihedral and it is definitly off. The plans call for 2 3/8 of an inch of dihedral. I am measuring about a 1/4 of an inch difference. How the hell did I do that? What should I do now? Better yet...is there anything I can do?

gboulton

My Feedback: (15)

dingo,

Can you take some pictures?

dingo9882

dingo9882

Yeah I can send you some pictures

Jollidude

My Feedback: (39)

Forcing the wings together will eventually cause something to fail, (the I-strut screws will probably pull out of the struts). Take my advice above and make longer struts, you really don't want to go cutting into the wing to increase the dihedral, that will open all kinds of opportunities for mistakes like misaligned wing halves, etc. You will find absolutely no difference in flying quality between a Hog with the stock dihedral and one with 1/4" less. Misaligned wing halves WILL affect flying!

Cheers!

Jollidude

EscapeFlyer

My Feedback: (1)

I concure with Jollidude.

dmcmike

My Feedback: (14)

i'm with Jollidude... mine was off by less than half a screw, and after flying it for a year, things now line up the way they should. A quarter inch is too much to tweak out of the wing. Just cut some new struts, using the ends of the ones you have for a pattern adding in that extra 1/4" you need in the middle. Then, when you make the holes for the screws that pass through the struts, use a blind nut thats big enough to act as a sleeve for the screw, letting the screw pass through it. Put the large end of the nut in so that it's against the head of the screw. This will stop the wearing of the hold in the strut. I did that to mine, and no troubles at all. Don't sweat the dihedral angle at all. you'll never notice it, but a tweaked or warped wing, you will definately notice!

Hircflyer

I know how you feel.....mine turned out the same way.....easy fix. Just cut the strut in half.......then install the wings on the fuslage with the struts installed on both wings.

Make a splice piece from scrap ply....on both sides of the strut.

See picture easier to see than try to dscribe.......important fact it WON"T matter.................my Hog flies just fine.

And your are not forcing anything.

bipeaddict

You can also craft new struts. Use cardboard to make a template for the new strut. Cut a new strut out of thin plywood. Laminate balsa sheet on each side of the plywood. Sand to an airfoil shape. Now you are good to go. Otherwise, the splicing option sounds good.

dingo9882

Sounds good to me. I thought I was going to have to make a new wing or something. And I was just not up to that again.