I am currently building a Sig SE. I believe the method employed to secure the wings to the fuse is a weak point. One suggestion I received from a friend was to mount 1/4-20 bolts at the root rib and use a plastic nut in the fuse. I considered installing a threaded brass insert into the root rib and a 1/4-20 plastic bolt through the fuse. I am not sure there will be enough room for either of these options. What other methods could be used to secure the wing. The hook and rubber bands just does not look that sturdy to me.

Thanks,

Victor

vkernus,
I've had 3 Sig SE's, all with over at least 200 flights on them. You'll find here on this forum that this method of securing the wings is just fine, and will hold the wings together just fine. There are a few tweaks that people use, but the basic idea of the 2 J-hooks works just fine. When I assembled mine I installed the J-hooks before sheeting the wings, this let me put a nut (with red thread lock) on the end of the J-hook. This will ensure that it won't pull out of the wood (which is a weakness in the wood and not in the design). The other thing I do with mine is I use a zip tie to hold the 2 hooks together. I can do this because I transport my plane to the field assembled, so I don't have to worry about putting the plane together at the field. But a couple of #64 rubber bands will do just fine.

This design works because there just isn't a lot of linear force pulling the wings apart from each other. The main stresses on the wing are absorbed by the aluminum wing tube, and the use of rubber bands (or zip ties) is more than enough to hold the two wing halves together.

I use a #64 rubber band and top it off with a zip tie as well. Never had a problem with this system. I also know of a couple of others in our club that do different things. One member uses a short spring between the two j-hooks and still another uses 2 'O' rings. I also epoxied in my j hooks...found about the bolting trick too late to do mine that way.

I agree with RCKen... My first SE was an ARF which caught a bad crosswind gust and didn't obey my commands... so it crashed... [:@](well that's my story and I'm sticking with it)... My second (and current) SE is from a kit. No problems with either concerning the j-hook method.
As a matter of fact... the arf's wings stayed in place through the crash and all i had was two rubber bands doubled over on the j-hooks. [8D]

No problems here with the hooks and zip tie method. I have about 25 flights on mine and no issues.

well it appears there is no need to beef up the wing connection. I didn't think there was much stress on the joint, but for whatever reason, holding on both wings with one rubber band just doesnt seem right.[8D]

Victor

Well, I certainly would not rely on just one rubber band. Altough the design is proven, I would always want a back up connection should the primary one fail. It's been known to happen.

As others have already pointed out the stock wing mounting is fine...

I built my SSE more than 4 years ago and used the stock mounting method. This plane has hundreds of trouble free flights -- the stock wing mouinting has never been a problem... A single #64 rubber band is enough. However, since I rarely had to remove the wings on mine I backed it up with a small zip tie.

RCKen's gotta be right about most of the stress being taken on the aluminum tube. I unknowlingly took one of mine off with nothing holding the wings together. I flew for about 5 minutes on low rates doing slow rolls and loops. It wasn't until I went to high rates and did a roll when the wings went in different directions. Sometimes ya gotta laugh and learn or get out of this hobby or it will drive you mad.

Sorry, but I am unable to stop laughing. I have this image of the look on your face when both wings separated. Again, I apologize, but I sure wish you had a video.