Ive just completed the two wings of the kadet and now im joining them. But ive ran into a couple of problems. I havent glued anything yet.

1) The right wing's leading edge is la little less than 1/16 of an inch a head of the left one. Should i sand it so its even or do something about it another way?

2) When the wing is joined the center bottom of the wing is a wedged shape. Its the part where your supposed to put the masking tape. The wedge is about 2/16 inch wide. Is this normal, should i put filler in it or do something?

3) How perfect does the wings have to fit togther. If there is some gaps would wood filler fix it or would something else have to be done?

Thanks for the answers in advance,

Papa

the things you describe will not affect the flying. the main thing is that when the wing is all done that it does not have a twist in it. set it level on a table, supported by a couple of books. look at it from the front, center and raise and lower your head and make sure that it is not twisted. for example, as you lower your head you should eventually begin to see the underside of the wing. You should see an equal amount on both the left and right wing panels. Even this is not super-critical, but it is worth a look.

Hey PaPa: Good choice of airplane! I use clothes pins to hold the root ribs together. You want to get as much root rib surface as possible to make contact. You do not want the wing to fold up on you in mid air. Apply a thin coat of 30 min epoxy to both surfaces to be glued. Same with the diheadral brace. You can clean up what ever glue oozes out with rubbing alcohol before it sets up. Hopefully you have not sheeted the center section yet, so you can use the clothes pins. Line everything up at the front, leading edge, and if the trailing edge does not quite line up, you can glue some balsa to the trailing edge to make it line up. DON'T SAND THE LEADING EDGE!!!!!! Always glad to help if I can. Garry

Don't worry too much about the wedge. Make sure that the 2 top, and 2 bottom spars are touching, and you get a good epoxy bond between the spars and the wing joiner. Once the epoxy is on and everything is set properly, add a drop of CA to the leading and trailing edge to hold them in place while the epoxy cures.

Once the two halves are together, go ahead and sand the leading edge so they are even. (That small amount won't hurt anything.)

Ive glued the two wings together but didn't use epoxy just ca+ glue, is that ok?
I also filled the wedge with wood filler?

You disappoint me, PaPa... we told you in a previous thread that you needed to use epoxy to glue the wing halves together.

I just finished the left wing on my LT-40, I was using Aliphatic Wood Glue that dries hard so you can sand it. Is this the same as CA glue??..

Epoxy glue to join the wings... are you kidding. The guy told me I could use this Aliphatic Wood Glue for the whole plane.

Is there any other spots you need to use the epoxy glue?

Ya the guy at LHS said i could use CA+ for the wings and the instructions also said to use Medium and Slow CA.

I guess i have 2 options now:
1) leave the wings as it is, with the CA glue.
2) Cut the wood filler out of the wedge and flow some epoxy into it.
Please tell me what to do.

Thank you,

Papa

Dogz,
the wood glue you used is fine, but I would recommend epoxy for joining the wing halves together. CA is super glue,Cyanoacrylate, not the same as aliphatic. It is good to strengthen the firewall with epoxy. Also fuelproof any exposed wood by painting it with epoxy.

PaPa,
leave them as they are . You can always order a replacement wing set when they fail. Give them a good tug each time you arrive at the flying site.

I get the feeling that my wings are gonna just come apart in the air. Woould my wings really hold? And how much is a replacement wing set?

Papa

Remove as much of the wood filler that you can, flow in epoxy as best you can use some 6oz fiberglass tape and seal it down over the joint you may thin the epoxy with alcochol to make it brush easier

Thanks for the heads up.........

Lucky I'm about 2 days behind you Papa in the kits building..!!

Do what crazieflyer says. Remove what you can of the filler but take care not to damage anything. Put in what epoxy you can. Using the fiberglass tape on the joint will add a lot of strength, so be sure to use it. Cover it with some epoxy and use a heat gun to cause it to thin out, or do the alcohol thinning as mentioned, with very little alcohol. That will give you a lot of strength.

No, no, no....

Papa, leave the wing alone! Many kit MFG's suggest using CA for holding the wing halves together. There's nothing wrong with it. Epoxy is stronger, but more importantly, epoxy gives you more time to work.

But the CA is just fine! DON'T tear anything apart!

Im so confused????

The thing is only a trainer not an acrbatic plane. The wing forces can't be that high on a trainer...

You're right Dogz, they're not. Don't worry about it Papa. Go on to the next step. It'll be fine. I have built hundreds of planes and have CA'd many a wing together. Even on some high speed aerobatic planes.

I had the very same trouble with my wing for my sig lt 40. I had about an 1/8th to a 1/16th inch gap in the bottom. I checked the dihedral template and found out that it had a curved side that was cut in it at the factory. I used CA that was called for in the instructions, you end up cutting up the root ribs to get the dihedral brace into the wing, per instructions. I epoxied the dihedral brace per instructions also. I also used the fiberglass strip that can with kit. The wing seems really strong.

Thanks guys,
1 last question
For gluing the firewall in the book tells me to use medium CA, but ive heard from almost anywhere i got to use epoxy? Which one do i use and what glue for the triangle backs?
If i use epoxy is epoxy 11 good enough?

Thanks,

Papa

Hey PaPa: Long time. If the book says mediem ca will work, You can probably trust it. I Tend to over power, so I also tend to over build. For piece of mind, I would use 30 min epoxy, on any thing to do with the firewall, landing gear, or wing joining. I don't mind the extra once or 2 of wieght. Garry

I glued my fire wall as per the instructions and then epoxied the balsa triangles that go behind the fire wall.

"CA" stands for "CRAPPY AIRPLANE"

Or cardiopulmonary asphyxiation. :bananahea

Papa, I would use epoxy. Anything longer than 15 minute epoxy should do fine. The brand of epoxy doesn't matter.