Message text written by INTERNET:DJA727@aol.com
>I have rigged the wings, set the
sweep and have started to measure the gap between the root rib and the
fuselage with the sockets in there. The starboard forward gap is 11.5 mm
and
that translates to 2 metal plates to be bonded in -- just about what I
figured. On the port forward pin, the gap with the socket in there measures
only 2 mm!! When you do the book calculation, that leaves a negative number
at the first step. (subtracting 3mm). There isn't even enough room for the
6
plies of fiberglass I am somewhat dismayed, since the pin needs to be
threaded into a taped hole in the wing root. I can't get a metal plate in
there unless I machine away some of the square socket to allow for this.
Does anyone have any ideas? The manual says you "may" end up needing to
install the metal plates to fill the gap, but what do you do if there is no
metal plate? I can't imagine taping threads into the carbon fiber wing root
rib directly.
<
My Europa is a Classic but I had a similar problem in reverse. Having
thought I had mounted the sockets with the correct spacing my inspector
noticed much later that the pins were not fully entering the sockets during
rigging. The reason I mention this is that I found out that there are 2
versions of the sockets. The earlier ones were not as deep. The factory may
still have some of these assuming that they are OK to use. There are many
early Europas out there with them so they must be acceptable. The only
problem I can see is if the new sockets also involved longer pins.
As an aside, when I set up my wings I noticed the gap could be changed
slightly by moving the wingtip fore and aft. When I checked the measurement
of each wingtip to the fin I needed a small amount of fore-aft pressure to
set this so they were equal. Having done the rigging this way my wings are
slightly more awkward to rig than some. In retrospect it might have been
better to accept the wings slightly skewed to have easy rigging. However
this may be a consideration to overcome your particular rigging problem.
Nigel Charles
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