Newbie here looking for advice on a bolt-on wing. I am starting with an ARF - and Midwest Aerobat to be specific (uses dual aeleron servos). The wing halves have not been joined together yet. Like the guy with the TT60 trainer, the "windshield" of the fuse comes up over the leading edge of the wing. I was originally thinking of trying to attach the front of the wing with two dowels as outlined above but then came up with a different strategy that I will elaborate on shortly. Tonight, I decided to search for bolt-on wings which is how I finally arrived here; and found this thread quite interesting... and seems to be the perfect place to bounce this idea around.

My current idea involves adding two new center wing ribs, I photocopied the inside edge of one wing half so I would be able to make a template. With this template, I was going to add a 3/8"x3/8" tab to the front of the this rib. I was going to make two new ribs, using 1/8" thick plywood, and then epoxy them together. I was then going to epoxy a hard-wood block or two 1/8" plywood blocks on the front side of the plane's fuse former in front of the wing's leading edge. I then planned to drill a hole in the middle of this former and blocking material that will "accept" the 3/8"x3/8"x1/4" tab that is on the front of the two new ribs that will be glued between the wing halves. I will use a triangle-shaped file to create the corners in the hole that I drilled into the former/blocking material. I figured I could either glue a 1/4" strip of plywood onto the end of each side of the dihedral brace, or cut a new dihedral brace that is 1/4" longer on each end.

I have been pondering this now for several weeks and keep asking myself if I should attempt this or go with the rubber band-mounted system the plane came with.... At the field, I have seen several planes with bolt-on wings, but they generally seem to be low-wing planes that don't have the wing area of a typical trainer (thicker and smaller). That said, I wonder with this plane being a high-wing sport trainer, if I am asking for trouble by converting to a bolt-on wing, especially when pulling loops or pulling out of high-speed dives. I don't have the experience to know if the rubberbamds help dissipate (or spread out) some of these forces better then a bolted-on wing, etc. There seems to be varying opinions in this thread. I would be interested to hear what the thoughts (if any) are on using a single, but stronger, leading edge attachment scheme as I am thinking?

Here is a picture of the rib template I am considering....
Thanks in advance,
Loren