N247BR

Wing Spars - Preparation and Installation


WING SPARS

The KIS Cruiser Wing Spars consist of a Center Spar and individual Wing Spar's.  The Center Spar spans the width of the fuselage and extends close to two feet on either side of the fuselage.  The Wing Spars are each joined to the Center Spar by two large bolts.


Wing Spars Wing Spars
This shows all the spars (center and wing) with the two parts of the wing spar shown. Pre-bonding photo showing assembled wing and center spars.  The hard part is finished.
Wing Spars The worst part of preparing the spars was sanding  & some grinding of the layers of glass from the inside of the outter spar and from the outside of the inner section.  As can be seen in the photo, the inside was sanded down until the carbon fiber was the top layer.  

The inner section was also trimmed to allow it to only go two inches into the inner section.  It was still a very tight fit.
Wing Spars Wing Spars


The work surface (solid core door mounted to my work bench) was flat and leveled.  I then placed the spars on it and leveled them to the work surface.  These photos show the spars both clamped into place with the Hysol already in place.  I am doing the final checks before allowing the epoxy to setup.
Wing Spars Wing Spars
Preparing to bond in the aluminum inserts into all of the spar sections at one time.  The tape is to keep the spars from sticking together during this process.  I also purchased some bolts from the local hardware store to use for this operation so that no possible damage could result to the actual nuts and bolts.
 I moved this operation to my deck on a warm (hot) clear day.  I placed the ends of the wing spars and the main center spar on some shelves (like shown) and leveled everything out.  I streached a tight string between the ends and measured to the center point to set the angles.  A bit of grinding and twiching and everything matched.  I let it sit overnight and then disassembled.
Wing Spars Before the wing spar is bonded into the wings it is best to angle the top edge of the inner spar mountto  clear the fuselage during installation.
Wing Spars Wing Spars
The boxed section of the wing spar extends for about half the length of the wing spar.  The outer portion will require spacer blocks to be constructed to fill the space for the wing rib. The spacer is constructed from the supplied foam andcovered with two layers of glass.  The blue foam was not thick enough so I also used some of the white foam as a spacer.