Wings

[Brock]

Looks nice! ....

Wowa!  Hold that complement!
I was just looking over the Irondesign videos and the diagonals jumped out screaming at me.  "Backwards!"
Now I remember double checking everything thrice before I started glueing those in but I'm now realizing they are slanted the wrong direction.  Someone take a look and confirm this.  Could be I'm tired and just don't see it.

The pic below shows my wing with the root to the left.  Hat covers the end to keep me from walking into it.  All along I was thinking the first diagonal bolts up to the front spar but now I see it's the aft spar?!

[Kamcoman77]

Whoops! Better call Leonard and ask if this is critical. You could probably put in a couple of new diagonals running the other direction that would create an X. I was thinking about doing that.

[Brock]

Whoops! Better call Leonard and ask if this is critical....

Kamco, thanks for the suggestion.  I just spoke with Leonard, he sounded good, how old is he?
Anyway, Leonard said to leave my diagonals alone and fly it (I need to build it first).  That it's not a high powered machine (understatement).  It's still a diagonal as far as he is concerned (though in tension rather than compression).  Now, I'll have to decide to make the second wing correctly or make them both the same.  Didn't I already mention how I like semetry?

[Kamcoman77]

Leonard turned 101 a few months ago! He is a truly amazing man. I would build my 2nd wing with the same diagonal orientation as the 1st. I like symmetry, too. I had a feeling that Leonard would say it's OK as you built it.

[Brock]

Today I cut the wing trailing-edges and glued on the first of the gussets to support the tailing edge.  The cutting of the 1" x 3/8" x ~10' peice has been the subject to my latest day-dreams (er night-mares), how was I going to do it.  Although I liked the 2X4 & carpet tape solution, I decided to just cut the wood without the 2X4.  The magic bullet was this hedgehog-featherboard that I picked up to try.  It worked like a charm, I recommend it.  Here are a few pics.