[Talkrc] Could Use Some Sage Advice

[rick]

Hello and greetings from the Wet Side!

To fill-in for the non flying days around here (think H2O), I'm going to try to build a Pilatus Turbo Porter.  If you ever saw the movie, Air America, you saw a funky looking plane, the Turbo Porter.  I got plans for it from the Australian magazine Airborne.  It's about six feet in wingspan, about 8 pounds and flies with a 46 or 60 size engine. 

The Porter is a high wing plane.  The plans call for each wing half to plug into the top of the cabin, like a Sig or Top Flight J-3 Cub.  There are two 1/8 inch music wires (toward the leading edge and toward the trailing edge) that extend from the cabin into each wing half.  The wires go into each wing half inside four brass tubes.  Each of the four brass tubes are 3-1/4 inches long and goes from the root rib pass the next rib.  The plans call for a hook to be attached to each root rib so a rubber band can hold the wing halves to the cabin sides.  Each wing half or panel has a functional wing strut.

>From a posting on the web, a builder said that the single hook arrangement does not work.  The slightest reward force applied to the leading edge causes the wing panel to sweep back.  He added second hook setup, but it did not stop the wing halves from sweeping back.  He finally used a bolt and blind nut to hold the wing halves to the cabin.  This work for him.  I seen a Sig J-3 Cub with the same wing bolt method.  But with a not-so-perfect landing, the wing-cabin area was a mess!   On another web posting, that builder used 1/4 inch music wire instead of 1/8 inch but did not specify how he attached the wing to the cabin.  I hope I have given you a visual picture of the setup.  

Now here is where I could use your experience in building.   Should I go with the bolt and blind nut setup and pray that all my landings will be perfect?  Do you have any suggestions as to a better method to hold the wing panels to the cabin?  The cabin area is too small for a wing tube setup used in many pattern ships.  Also I would think that 1/8 inch wire would be adequate and that 1/4 inch is overkill. Any and all advice is most welcome and appreciated.

Thanks,

Rick Magnuson aka elricko



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