Ed,

 

The ES wing mating procedure calls for a template on the inboard edge of the wing.  Both Bryan and I (and everybody else who's buying ES's these days) has their wings mated at the factory.  There's a guy locally with some really nice jigs to get the wings on straight.  My wings are correct at the roots, where the incidence measurements are checked.

 

Our wings were prepared in the Philippines and shipped to Redmond.  My wings had the release done, flaps and ailerons were completed, all hinges were in, all inspection panels were in, the pitot tube fitting was in, slosh doors in, bellcranks in, tanks sealed, and the bottom skin fitted.  I didn't even get blueprints for the wing templates.

 

The only thing Bryan and I (and other builders) do now is spread on the Hysol and close.  We used the factory jigs to close the wings.  The ES factory jigs are water cut aluminum, computer cut.  They look beautiful, far beyond anything you could fabricate at your hangar with plywood.  Either the factory jigs are off, or there is some twist introduced when the Philippines bonds the top skin to the ribs.

 

We did have to bond in our horizontal stabilizer, but it was closed at the factory too.  The cradle for the horiz stab was prepared at the factory on my fastbuild fuselage.  I had to put a tongue depressor under one side to get it level and at the exact right incidence.  All measured with digital levels, water levels, plumb bobs, eyeballs from several angles.

 

This situation isn't due to lousy tools or shoddy workmanship on my part.  In fact, I couldn't have made these measurements without my fancy digital level.  We are as aware as you are about how critical wing alignment is, it's just that we paid to have it done and then found out it wasn't perfect.

 

I doubt I built the rest of my plane "perfectly", but you get a little nervous when the "pros" deliver a product that isn't perfect.

 

Mike Easley

Colorado Springs