Rigging and wing fitting

Hit a slight snag in that I cant get the drilling boss tool onto the rear top cabane (as the built up training edge prevents getting it seated in far enough to align the pilot holes). Mike Flemming is making up a shorter thinner boss that we can use so hope to get on and finish wing mount drilling shortly.

In the meantime the port wing strut can be re-fitted and, instead of temporary tying the flying and landing wires with cable ties I thought I would have a crack at the first crimped flying wire. I wasn’t sure how to set the turnbuckle prior to this.. should it be fully back off, mid way or fully the other way !

In the end I backed it off fully leaving a couple of threads in place .. this meant you could ‘see’ around 12 mm of thread at each joint. In that way, as you tighten the centre shaft they both close up.

Using moles grips to gently hold the collars in place I cramped the first, remembering to have slipped on BOTH collars as well as the heat shrink tubing (you cant slip them on afterwards !)

The first one went on very easily … and after a few turns was tightening nicely with still plenty of room for adjustment.

All four wires were then completed and loosely tightened in turn to bring a balanced rigid feel to the structure

You will see you have a junction where each pair of wires cross. You can either use plastic/overlap joints or, an idea I got from flying the old Stampe (G-AYCK) and my mate John Graham … bind a bullet shaped piece of dowel wood in place which does the job nicely. Looking at the picture now it may be a little too long, but I can trim that back when I can stand back and look at it in proportion.