Folks
I have a question for you experanced flyers. I am building a Goldberg Protege 60 kit. I have the option for a rubber band wing or a bolt on wing. I am to the point where I have to make a decission as I will need to drill for the dowel rod. My original thought had been to go as far as possiable with the removable and not decide till the end, but the sheeting I will install next will cover up acces to this area so I would like to hear opinions on this option. I have the parts to do either and I feel the accuracy of the bolt on would be better.

Thanks in advance

My choice would be to go for the bolt on wing. I've never been a big fan of rubber bands as I don't feel they really save much in a crash, like they are supposed to. If you have the choice at this point, and you wing is designed to distribute the load of a dowel and bolts, then I would say to make it a bolt on wing.

That's my 2¢ worth

Ken

Ditto on Ken's post. I haven't seen one guy at the field that had rubber band mounts that liked them. All lusted over a couple bolts to hold the wing on.

Don

There is nothing wrong with rubber bands. When the plane is in the air, you'll never notice them. The bolt on wing will not give you any additional accuracy in wing positioning. From an aestethic perspective, the bolt on wing is more appealling, but it takes a little more effort to get it right.

Bottom line - if you want a bolt on wing, use the bolt on option. If you don't mind rubber bands, use rubber bands. Do what you want, not what everybody else wants.

Brad

Im not an experienced flyer but I do have an Alpha 40 trainer that uses Rubber Bands, and I have come to hate them very much. It used to not bother me but now it does. Ive had to use up to 12-14 bands to hold my wing down securely in flight,so that it would stay rested in its saddle. In doing so ,the sheeting around my leading edge was crushed.[sm=disappointed.gif] I had to use that many bands because I started noticing that after I landed my plane that my wing was moved slightly off center each time.
I am now converting my wing to bolts. Save yourself some time of having to go back and make this change. Go with the Bolts.

I would go with bolt on wing, if you follow instructions you wont have any problems with the alignment. the plus side is no rubber bands to mess with or buy or forget to bring. this is just me but I have flown a lot of planes using rubber bands in the past and have had problems with the covering messing up wood cracking from the stress they put on the top of the wing. when they started coming out with the kits with optional bolts I always went that way. the only downside I can think of is be careful not to over tighten the bolts.

Ditto with Horace. Another con of the rubber bands are that they do not resist glow fuel well. Over time(and sunlight does help either) they will eventually snap. I would take the extra time and do wing bolts....

Thank you all very much!! You confirmed my choice of the bolt on wing. I will glue the support blocks today and drill for the dowel. This kit did come with the optional bolt on kit and I will now use it.

Thanks again

I have a third suggestion. Do both.

Rubber bands will not save your plane in a crash, but they WILL save you from major damage in a minor mishap - they type which are very common among newbies. Bang a wingtip on the ground and with rubber bands, you may have a wingtip to fix. With bolts, you have to fix the wingtip plus the fuselage which you ripped wide open.

So if you build it with both, you can start out with rubber bands, then when you are comfortable with it, you already have the option of bolting it on.

Thanks Minn. Can do.

Ditto... You gotta know you're gonna cartwheel it while you're learning - Would be a minor repair (if any) with rubber bands, done for the day with bolts... When you get more 'sperince, you can use bolts... A bag of #64 rubber bands is a couple of bucks, cheap enough to replace regularly (good idea), so weakening with sun and fuel shouldn't be an issue.

Cheers!

Jim

Hello All,
I am building a Sig Seniorita I would like to go ahead and have the wing ready for bolt on but start out with rubberbands as Minn said. Can anyone give me instructions on this process and what hardware is needed my manual does not include this.
Thanks
Chris

Topher, if the plane is not designed to have a bolt-on wing, the customization can become very complicated. I am not familiar enough with the Signorita to give any details, I just thought I'd let you know that it may not be an easy modification to do.

Tophergreen, I am to new to know. But if your wing looks like the Sig LT40 it is different than my Goldberg setup. Mine came with 3 sheets of info and parts. Mod to the wing and mod to the fuse, but my fuse is different than the LT 40 again looking at Ken's LT 40 build thread. I do not thnk my instructions would be of much help.

I agree with Minnflyer about doing both and as far as modifying a wing to bolt on a little common cents goes a long ways and a visit to someone that builds will save those CENTS. ENJOY !!! RED