lml@lancaironline.net Mailing List Archive

Rob,

You and Bill have listed great things to look at and/or consider adjusting after purchase. There may be a couple more:

1. Using the water level and the aircraft pitch level, measure the angle of incidence of the horizontal (-.5 to -1 degree).

2. Using the water level and the aircraft laterally level (to the line inscribed on the wingtip ribs), check the fuselage flap filets at the trailing edge. if these are not level, the wing TE (and thus the chord) may not be equal from side to side since that filet tip was (is) used to build the flaps and ailerons.

Scott Krueger

In a message dated 7/6/2010 3:05:05 P.M. Central Daylight Time, rwolf99@aol.com writes:

If possible, you might consider checking the alignment of the wings and tail. It doesn't take that long if the wings are attached.

Wings -- For a fast-build 320 there should be a pencil line scribed on the wingtip rib. If the wingtip is attached you won't be able to do this. Put a digital level on the pencil lines and make sure that they are both at the same angle. The plane need not be leveled for this, but the wings need to be attached. If the bottom skins are not on the wings, you can adjust this when you close them.

Horizontal Tail -- I think you need to get the plane level for this, at least wings level. Nose up or down doesn't matter. Use a water level (long vinyl tubing from Home Depot with water in it) to make sure the wingtips are at the same height, i.e., wings level. Then use the water level to make sure the horizontal tail tips are at the same height as each other. This ensures that the wings and tail are parallel to each other. Less important is that the tail is "square" with respect to the wing. Run a steel tape measure from the wingtip to the tail tip. Ensure that this distance is the same on both sides.

Vertical tail -- This one is hard to measure and most Lancairs, I suspect, have a bit of a twist. It does not seem to be a problem and can be fixed later. But a quick check would be to have the wings level and run a plumb-bob from the top of the tail to the floor. There will be a tiny hole in the fuselage a few inches forward of the aft end. Run your plumb-bob string thru that and get another mark on the floor. Use the plumb-bob on the center of the firewall (as close as you can get it). Take the string and see if the dots line up.

Note that I didn't say anything about the fuselage. The flying surfaces need to be aligned to each other but the fuselage can be cockeyed and it won't really matter.

By the way, if the horizontal tail is not attached and you have a small tail, my recommendation (yes, an opinion) is to get rid of it and get a big tail (it's the same as the Legacy tail). The handling qualities are more forgiving with the larger tail, and this has been documented by experienced test pilots (look at EAA Chapter 1000 website) and the Australian FAA (whatever they call themselves). You can certainly learn to adapt to the small tail, and those that have the small tails are happy with them, but if you have a choice I think it would be silly to use the small one. But as you can tell, there is a wide variety of opinion on this and I have very little hands-on experience in this area. From what I've heard, I would not cut off a small tail and replace it with a big one, but I wouldn't put on a small one today.

As far as other kit comments are concerned, Bill Hallerson gave a pretty good list. As far as a "winter project" is concerned, I think you're looking at about 1000 hours hands-on to finish this kit.

- Rob Wolf