ETLB Squawk Forums — Archive

With the spar pins installed and the struts in place, the wing is rock-solidly attached to the airplane.  But there is a gap between the fuselage and the wing.  It looks weird.  Should there be a gap?  Do people cover it somehow?

fill it with balsa wood and ply.

sorry Im an old aeromodeller...or foam and fibre glass

cheers  Arthur

The gap should definitely be sealed.  The simplest way is to do what glider flyers do and seal the gap with tape.  Or, you can use some type of weather stripping such as P-bulb or the like.

Gap seal tape: https://wingsandwheels.com/gap-seal-tape.html

P-bulb: https://www.aircraftspruce.com.....iy3XKH8aAgIqEALw_wcB

It's very important that the gap does not let exhaust carbon monoxide into the cockpit if it is an enclosed one. That happened with one of my Minimaxs. The CO detector's orange disc went black and I had a headache for a day.

The above advice is probably what you are after.  My favored way of making a gap filling would be to use a mixture of WEST System(tm) epoxy and their Microlight filler stuffed in once the surfaces have been covered with plastic sheet.  That can be smoothed to the outside shape, with a small radius.  Once it is cured you can sand it to a perfect surface and glue it to the fuselage.

Just to be complete:  You can also reduce drag quite a bit with a generous foam and glass filllet around the whole wing root and well aft of it.  These are usually built up of foam sanded to shape and glassed.  However unless you are embarking on a big program of drag reduction right now, it probably makes more sense to just seal the gap, finish the aircraft, and go flying.  Once you've had some fun with it, then you may want to go back and do various drag reduction projects.  It is a lot of fun to measure the increase in performance after each project.


Tom

I never heard of gap seal tape, thanks!  

This airplane may have the wings on and off, depending on where it's ultimately stored.  Does gap seal tape damage the paint?

As has been said, it is definitely a good idea to seal these gaps. I used thin ply plus microlite-thickened WEST epoxy filler to form the fairings on my Max. I also faired in the trailing edge of the aileron to fuselage interface. The gap there where the fuse curves away from the wing will create a lot of drag.

A couple of pics below, if you want more see my thread here:http://www.lonesomebuzzards.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1409444380/s-90/ posts 118 onwards.

Bruce

and after painting (with housepaint). . .

Wow, that looks much nicer than mine with the gap.  I've never worked with that filler material before.  I think a little "trial and error" is in order.  Thanks!

Quoted from nathan.bissonette   Should there be a gap?  

I'm guessing you bought the plane rather than being the builder? Perhaps I'm looking at the photo wrong but the photo appears to be the top of the right wing near the fore/aft center....correct? To answer your question quoted above, there should not be a significant gap at that point. Because of the tapering of the fuselage near the leading edge and trailing edge of the wing there will be a gap unless it's somehow filled or faired. The build instructions call for a 1.5MM spacer to be used to allow for fabric and paint thickness when the wing is positioned/mounted prior to covering, but the gap all but disappears when the covering and paint is done....certainly nothing like a 3/8" gap that it appears to be.

That being said, the suggestions above are certainly ways to fill it. It would be a fairly involved process to change/fix it.

Lynn

Quoted from lake_harley that is my exact same thoughts, in my stage of the build spar pin alignment is the most critical thing.on my mind. Its obvious this a second hand built airplane.

I'm guessing you bought the plane rather than being the builder? Perhaps I'm looking at the photo wrong but the photo appears to be the top of the right wing near the fore/aft center....correct? To answer your question quoted above, there should not be a significant gap at that point. Because of the tapering of the fuselage near the leading edge and trailing edge of the wing there will be a gap unless it's somehow filled or faired. The build instructions call for a 1.5MM spacer to be used to allow for fabric and paint thickness when the wing is positioned/mounted prior to covering, but the gap all but disappears when the covering and paint is done....certainly nothing like a 3/8" gap that it appears to be.

That being said, the suggestions above are certainly ways to fill it. It would be a fairly involved process to change/fix it.

Lynn

I have no idea how I copied my quote into Harleys. that is my exact same thoughts, in my stage of the build spar pin alignment is the most critical thing.on my mind. Its obvious this a second hand built airplane.

Quoted from nathan.bissonette I never heard of gap seal tape, thanks!  

This airplane may have the wings on and off, depending on where it's ultimately stored.  Does gap seal tape damage the paint?

I doubt it.  On my Fokker Eindecker replica I sealed the aileron gaps with clear Gorilla tape.

Lake and Gyro, you're right, I am not the builder.  It's a barn find (literally, I bought it from a salvage yard who had it in a storage barn the last three years).  Lots to learn.  

Nathan....do you have a set of plans for the MiniMAX? My guess is as you go through the plane you'll have a lot more questions. Everyone here is quite willing to help by answering question, but a set of plans would help familiarize you with just how a MiniMAX is put together.

I have a very old and tattered set of plans that I'll offer to you for the price of shipping. I haven't looked through them in quite a while, but I think they're complete, or almost complete. I got them with a damaged MiniMAX years ago that I parted out. I have another set for myself from when I built my plane, so I'd like to see someone get some good use out of the old set. You can send a PM if you're interested.

Lynn

Thanks for the offer, Lynn.  I bought a set of the digital plans currently offered by TEAM and have been studying them as questions arise.  My airplane doesn't precisely match those plans (seat reinforcement is different, windshield design is different).  I suspect the plans evolved between 2008 (when built) and 2018 (my version of the plans).   I tracked down the former owner and he's sending me his plans which should help me understand why certain things were done that way.  As I make repairs, I'll have to decide which version to use.  Mine may end up as a hybrid model.

As for questions, I've got one more.  On a previous thread, I asked about wing spar pins.  Someone suggested AN bolts instead of bending my own spar pins with a comment to the effect that "That's what TEAM is recommending these days."  Aside from buying the plans, is there another forum where TEAM posts information or answers questions?  I haven't found it.  

Thanks to all who've answered my questions so far.  Your folks are the greatest!

FWIW....I used an AN bolt, castellated nut and a hairpin for wing attachment. That just seemed more positive a retention, and less hassle than coming up with the bent 4130 pin and retention spring. But, the downside is installing the hairpin in the castellated nut when it's behind a bulkhead and/or carry through.

I think it's probably a personal preference/builders choice deal.

Lynn

My Max has pins in the rear spar, and AN bolts with nylock nuts in the front. Works great.

Nathan, maybe its the poor lighting and angle of the shot but the metal brackets behind your tape measure look like they might be too thin.

Do those parts match what the plans call for?

UL Builder: I don't know.  I never measured them.  I'll make a run to the hangar to check, later this week.  Thanks for asking!