ORIGINAL: ropowell

Greg,

Since you're about to start the wing mounting -- let me add some comments. I mounted the wings as per instructions and at first, I wondered about the strength of the mounts -- especially the mounting of the cabane struts to the fuselage with a single small wood screw at each point. Said screw goes thru a thin sheet balsa side into a thin (1/16 -) lightweight plywood doubler. I fully intended to add a another plywood doubler to help anchor these screws and even considered going to a screw/nut anchorage, but somehow I never did anything beyond the suggested technique.

In the small flying time that I had, I did not see any problems with the mount system. And you're right, having those wing templets makes the alignment a NO PROBLEM event. It's quite amazing how easily this step goes.

When my aircraft spun to the ground there were extreme impact forces. The engine crushed the perimeter of the firewall back into the fuselage; the landing gear was ripped off taking part of both supporting fuselage formers but no other serious damage to the fuselage. The top wing came forward stripping out the cabane support screws from the fuselage with almost no damage to the fuselage and absolutely NO damage to the top wing. The screw anchorage system became a perfect "weak link" which minimized the damage from this serious accident! Neither wing required more than ten minutes of repairs!

So my point is: As I rebuild, I plan to use the anchorage system suggested with very little additions. I still believe a second small doubler may be appropriate just to handle normal wear and tear but not so strong that it destroys the fuselage on a hard landing or ...

Dick