I just put together my first airplane. ( A superstar selct 40) I was told to glue some of the parts togeth, like the tail assembly.
1) Does anyone know if I should also glue the wings together in addition to bolting them.

I was also told to apply fiberglassto where the two wings join. I bought the fiberglass strip but I don't know how to apply it.

2)Do I wet it with water or epoxy before applying it? It doesn't come with instructions.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Charlie

If you're going to FG the center section, then by all means, epoxy the two halve together.

As for the Fiberglass, Here's what I do:

Spray the wing LIGHTLY with a spray adheasive then, tack the cloth down to the wing. Next, wet the cloth with THIN CA (You can use medium, but you'll have to rub it into the weave with some waxed paper). Whichever you use, do it outdoors! It will create tons of fumes!

Thanks

I have a SuperStar 40 Select as well. This is what I did. I simply bolted the wings together first with out gluing anything. It flew fine. I could do loops rolls, etc. Then once I flew it awhile, I found it to have around 8 deg's of diheidral(sp?). I unbolted the wings and took out the steel rod and bent it to around 7 deg's. slipped it back in then I had a flat bottom wing with 1 deg dihiedral. It flew quit different. I did this only to get me ready to go to an ugly stick type of plane.
If your bound and determined to "glue" the wings together, my own opinion would be to use epoxy or gorrilla glue and put it on one end of rod and slide it into one end of the wing, then glue the wings together. Make sure you get the epoxy/gorrilla down inside of the holes where the steel rod goes in on BOTH sides. The joint where the wings meet is important as well, DONT skimp on the epoxy here. It is better to wipe the excess of with alcohol and a rag than to not get enough in this joint.
As far as the fiberglass tape, I've used it once on a HOB Super Decathlon. What everyone at my field told me to use was THIN CA on it. I did and then monocoted over it and it turnd out really good, although I only used it on the bottom.
I would suggest just blting the wings together. If you insist, go ahead and epoxy as well. But skip the whole fiberglass tape thing. Just remember the lighter your aircraft the better you will be. If its as heavy as a rock it will fly like one.
Just my $.02, hope it helps

I use 30 minute epoxy thinned with alcohol to the consistancy of oil based paint to apply fiberglass. It is generally recommended to apply the epoxy glass to bare wood so I am wondering are you going to strip the coating from the wing? If you glue the two wing halves together and liberally coat the dihedral brace (wing joiner) and the socket it fits in you should be fine without the fiberglass tape.

Yes, I forgot to mention the part of stripping the covering to be able to use the tape as did CsteveC. I really think that the whole tape idea is a bit much. The only reason the HOB Decathlon needed it is B/C there was no main support running from each wing.

After hearing from all of you I think I'm going to skip the tape for now.

Thanks Alot

Don't bother with the fiberglass as folks have said.

When I do bother with it, I use "finish cure" 20min epoxy I get at my local hobby shop. It smells like epoxy pre-thinned with the right amount of alcohol. It's real thin and flows well though the cloth.

I've used the CA method, it works well, but does let off some nasty fumes. And the CA isn't sandable like epoxy is. Also, you can't quite get rid of the weave pattern with CA with out filler or something aferwards. 99% of the time I don't care about the weave pattern anyway.

My 2 friends just bought this plane and my dad is teaching them how to fly. I help both of them put there plan together. It is a good Idea to glue the tail. But, we have had no problems with just bolting the wing. Fly's great with out glue. But, if you want to to be safe glueing the wing isn't a bad idea.

I would recommend that you just glue them and be done with it. If you are going to put an oversized engine on the front, then glassing the mid section would be in order.

I prefer to spray the fiberglass to get it tacky. Less of a mess. As was pointed out, peel back the covering! Apply to top and bottom. This really strengthens the wing. Thin CA works great. Work the glue in slowly back-and-forth all the way around. No need to wet anything. If you do, it will make quite a mess.

dead stick and me put my superstar select together without fiberglassing or glueing and its worked(previously noted). i wouldnt bother fiberglassing or glueing waste of time because that steel bar is enough to hold the wing in place plus it adds weight