How do I prevent this problem?

[GazzaS]

Hi Everyone,
    My first Albatros (by Roden) had a single-piece lower wing.

My second Albatros (by WnW) had a two-piece lower wing.

This two piece lower wing led me to breaking a cabane strut and finally removing one of the lower wings, shaving it further, and putting it back in place, at the cost of some minor damage to the finish.

Here's how it happened:
When I dry fitted the wings, with my naked eye I could detect a fair amount of anhedral.  It looked like FIG. A below:


After shaving both wings equally, it looked to my eyes like FIG. B:


But, after breaking the cabane and taking another look from dead ahead, I realized that I was confronting this in FIG. C:


AS my eyes failed me, I'm not really certain how to deal with this in the future.  There are various ideas crossing my mind as how to avoid this in the future.  I'd really like to know how you experts avoid this.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Gaz

[GazzaS]

Hi,

If you look carefully at the bottom of part A23 you’ll see a couple of ‘guides’; the tabs on the wings must go under those. It’s very easy to position A23 in such a way that they’re ineffective. I suggest you cut the wing tab to avoid interference with those guides, make sure the slot and recess in the fuselage is absolutely clean, and try again. You can also bend the tabs to a better angle, but you’ll have to enlarge the slot slightly to get it fully seated.

Herr Baron,
     Thank you for your answer.  Thankfully I have the Trilogy kit so I was able to go have a good look at part A23.  Now I can understand what you are writing about.  I tried hard not to get any paint or debris in any place where a part was to fit later.  Perhaps I wasn't as successful as hoped. 
     I have both wings in now and aligned alright after doing some serious shaving of the wing tabs.


Gaz

[RAGIII]

Justin has certainly given you very sound advice. A funny thing here, I found that the order I inserted the wings made a difference. I don't know why but it did. My Left wing wanted to droop and especially if inserted after the right  I just kept test fitting before I glued. I did bend the tabs as stated in my build log as well as trim the wing mating surfaces that fit into the slot. Another odd thing is that I wiggled the wing forward to back and that seemed to help  I have built 3 of these kits and probably by blind Luck have had no bent, broken, or otherwise banana like struts. I did break a landing gear strut on one by just being careless. One last word of advice. Do NOT Ever push or put Downward pressure on the upper wing towards the lower wing to get the struts in place. That puts too much pressure on the cabane as you discovered. I actually mounted All of My WNW Albatros Wings by placing the upper wing on inverted a flat surface and putting the inverted fuselage on top. If any pressure was needed I applied it at the Lower wing pushing slightly. Ok so this is far more Long winded than I intended but I hope it gives you some insight along with RBs' excellent technical advice 

RAGIII

[GazzaS]

Justin has certainly given you very sound advice. A funny thing here, I found that the order I inserted the wings made a difference. I don't know why but it did. My Left wing wanted to droop and especially if inserted after the right  I just kept test fitting before I glued. I did bend the tabs as stated in my build log as well as trim the wing mating surfaces that fit into the slot. Another odd thing is that I wiggled the wing forward to back and that seemed to help  I have built 3 of these kits and probably by blind Luck have had no bent, broken, or otherwise banana like struts. I did break a landing gear strut on one by just being careless. One last word of advice. Do NOT Ever push or put Downward pressure on the upper wing towards the lower wing to get the struts in place. That puts too much pressure on the cabane as you discovered. I actually mounted All of My WNW Albatros Wings by placing the upper wing on inverted a flat surface and putting the inverted fuselage on top. If any pressure was needed I applied it at the Lower wing pushing slightly. Ok so this is far more Long winded than I intended but I hope it gives you some insight along with RBs' excellent technical advice 

RAGIII

Rick,
    I appreciate you taking the time to give me an informative post.   As I have two more D.V's in my possession I'm grateful for the tips from both you and Justin.  I think painting the wing stubs before test fitting them may have helped to 'muddy' my view of the situation.  So, now I have Justin's and your approaches and my painfully gained experience.  Hopefully the next D.V will come easier. 


Gaz