Thats a nice point, Wings.
That was also my theory.

I dont fall in love with my planes, I respect them. So if I lose one every now and then, so be it.
Its a hobby and I'm enjoying it ever so much.

Ouch that Kadet really took a beating. I never thought about the flying issues. Have you ever had a bolt loosen itself in flight?

No, that crash didn't result from the wing coming off, it resulted from the wing breaking when pulling out of a dive. I learned the hard way to cut the throttle immediately in a dive.

But, it would be the same result. After the wing seperated from the plane, it was like a high speed dart heading towards the ground. That was a sick feeling, because as I stood there and watched it coming down, there was not a thing I could do about it .


After impact, it took forever for the wing to every so gently spin to the ground like a feather. Half of the wing is still in a tree. Luckily the half that had the servos left made it back to earth.

Wings

Say Minnflyer, what are the breaking strenghts of the smaller bolts? I agree - you don't want failure in flight. Most inflight wing failures happen with positive G's and isnt that when the wing is pushing into the fuse (for a low wing plane. Sounds like the needs are different for low and high wings????

many years ago, when radios, airplanes, and pilots started getting better, some people decided to do away with their rubber bands and switch to bolts.

The idea of using nylon bolts was originally so that they would break on impact.

The idea didn't work.

Today, most people still use Nylon bolts simply because they won't vibrate loose like a steel screw/blind nut can.

I can't recall EVER seeing a crash where wing bolts failed in flight.

Here's a Strength chart:

Say Minnflyer - what size of wing bolts do you use??

I usually use 1/4 -20, although on my Sig Wonder it has 10-24, but that's a very small plane.

The trainer that I just got done repeatedly killing went through Nylon wing bolts like candy. I had to order a 100 Ct. bag of them from the Airplane factory because when I first started flying it I would sometimes cart-wheel on either takeoff or landing. Also in every single crash the nylon bolt would shear, especially in ones where the wingtip impacted first. Bear in mind that the wing was mounted to the square alluminum fuse by two tandem bolts, one metal 1/4" right behind the wing spar and one nylon 1/4" right before the trailing edge. They do shear on my trainer, but I dont think that they will on my cub, which has four bolt/dowel insert points.

I was at a club meeting some told me there was a conversion kit for a hobbistar 60 mkIII to bolt the wing on vers. rubber bands
any ideas out there on if this is true and where could I get one

http://www.masportaviator.com/ah.asp?ID=106&Index=2

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

wether the wing bolts on or bands on doesn't make much difference in flight, if it's done correctly. It's your job, as the builder, to spread the loads the bolts will impose over enough of the wing and fuse to keep things strong. THat usually means installing a bolt plate in the wing, thu which the bolts go, that is strongly bonded to the wing structure. Likewise, the block that the bolt threads into must be strongly mounted to the fuse, in a manner in which it will not concentrate stress too much. Usually the wing saddle area is doubled anyway, providing good strength. I have both high wing and low wing planes I've convereted for bolt on wings.

In my mustang, I used a 3 bolt system, 2 bolts forward, 1 aft. I installed a spruce block in the front bottom of the wing, inset into the centre rib, and extending to the next rib in each direction, where it is again inset and glued full lenght to the landing gear block in the wing. In the rear, I installed a similar block, again securely braced to available ribs (actually this is in the 'stang's radiator bulge). In the plane, I installed maple blocks that span the fuse. Securely notched and epoxied to the fuse doublers of the wing saddle. Threaded the maple blocks to take 1/4-28 nylon bolts, hardened with CA.

In my high wing Aquastar 1/2a seaplane, I set 2 dowels in the LE, with matching holes drilled in the fuse former over top of the windshield. In the rear, I installed a maple block, as in the mustang, and a plywood plate recessed into the top of the wing's TE. A pair of nylon bolts join it all up. 1 would have been enough, but for some reason I used 2 bolts.

J

The front of a wing has most of the force against it, the rear of the wing - very little. A single 10-32 nylon flathead bolt is plenty strong enough, but I usually use two. The nice thing is that you can embed a piece of 1/8" plywood (aircraft grade, not light ply) and the 10-24 will countersink flat with the surface of the 1/8" ply.