Wing Cradle

Wing Cradle

With the empennage complete and while waiting for the next set of kits I don't have a whole lot of hands on labor activities that I can do.  I have plenty of paperwork exercises around the planning and a good bit of reading I can do but it was nice out this weekend and I was itching for a project.

Going the quick build route means the wings are going to come 95% assembled.  This is great but I need a place to store them and a convenient way of moving them around.  Luckily someone else thought of this first and even put the plans for public consumption.  One builder whose log I look at periodically has them posted, but in case something happens to the site I'll copy the highlights.

Material wise I spent about $50 total.  If you have some of this stuff laying around you can make it a bit cheaper. This entire thing is made with;

• 4 4" castering wheels
• 2 2x6x10'
• 3 2x4x10'
• 1 2x4x8'
• 1 16" x 8' length of carpet
• 1 box 3" wood screws

Mouser provided a handy chart for the length cuts, as you can see the 2x6's don't get cut.

10'	28"	28"	28"	24"	9"
10'	28"	24"	24"	24"	16"
10'	24"	24"	23.75"	23.75"	16"
8'	23.75"	10.25"	10.25"	10.25"	10.25

After that you just use 3" screws to put everything together per the picture.  There are probably a number of ways you can construct it but if you're making these chances are you're building an airplane so should be easy to figure out.   In my case I partially built the frames first but then on the carpeted end built from the middle out so everything was snug.  Last part of the framing was to close the 2x4 ends in next to the 2x6s and then finish it up with the wheels and carpet.  I didn't do locking wheels, mainly because I picked them up at Harbor Freight for $4 a pop and didn't see a locking option.  All in all it took me maybe 3 hours total to complete.

Wing Cradle