vmsguy

Date: October 4, 2007

Not much work today. I made alterations in the spars so I can later add wing struts.

I contacted Mike Freas, who has a STM ARF. And he pointed me to a picture on the internet of his plane. It was a pretty straight on picture. I knew that the wingspan is just under eight feet. So I simply did a little measuring and calculating based on the picture, and determined the strut was attached to the wing at about 18" from the wing center. I didn't like the looks, I thought it was a bit too close, so I arbitrarily said I'd try to put my strut at about 24" inches.

So onto my work. First, I measured from the wing center and found the rib bay just under 24". (picture 1)

I transefered the outside edges of the rib bay to the spars I glued together last night. (picture 2)

I cut a 1/8" deep area out between the lines I made. (picture 3)

Then glued in a 1/8" thick piece of ply. (picture 4) This will be the bottom of the spar, and make a nice hard surface for the strut mount to set against. After I get the ribs in place, I'll add a 1/8" ply between the ribs on the upper side of the spar. Later, I'll drill mount holes, and put blind nuts in place.

Progress is slow right now. I have only a few pieces glued together. So much is small prep work. I should be able to start adding ribs tomorrow.