Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Mystery solved.

Last fall I built a wing to replace one that broke in flight. I bought a wing kit from Brodak, the mfg. and set up the wing jig using plans I had saved. I had two sets of wing plans for this plane and when I measured the distance between the ribs and set the jig to that the wing came out 5 inches longer than it should have been. I have pondered how that could have happened ever since. I ordered a kit of the whole plane and while waiting for it I set up the wing jig again and it came out to the right size. A bit later I measured the plans again and got a different dimension. It was the larger dimension from last year. I finally figured out what was going on. I separated the two wing drawings and compared them. One set was enlarged when I had some copies made at Office Depot without me noticing it. The other set was the right size. Last year I measured from the enlarged set by mistake and built the longer wing from it. I put the enlarged set in the trash. I got another set of plans with the new kit and they are the right size. The new plane is taking shape and I'm assembling the fuselage now. It should be ready to glue together by next week and flying in another month. If I can settle on a paint scheme.