How hard is a Diamant to assemble?

Chip Bearden wrote:
OK, someone else started it. Here's my worst-ever rigging
story...involving a Diamant. I was just a kid, maybe 14 or 15, and one
of my dad's friends took delivery of a new 16.5. We headed up to the
airport one morning to help him rig it for the first flight. Only one
wingstand. Homemade trailer so no fuselage stand. But there were at
least 4 of us so how bad could it be?

The metal fittings were all covered with some kind of preservative
(Cosmoline?) to inhibit rust on the voyage over from Europe. So we
cleaned that off as best we could (we were in a hurry) and slapped the
wings on. Really heavy, but they went on quickly. But the main pin
wouldn't go in.

Remove wings, stare at everything, insert wings, push, shove, groan,
sweat. It was July, I believe, in Indiana...in full sun...in midday.
Hot. Repeat at least a dozen times. Finally we laid the wings down on
the grass and slid them together without the fuselage. Yup, the pin
went in fine. Nothing wrong there. By now we were convinced it was
just a matter of "persuasion". So back on to the fuselage with the
wings. The main pin had a threaded hole into which you inserted a long
T-shaped handle just for assembly. So two of us got on the T handle
and pushed like crazy. There may have been a hammer involved but I've
repressed that memory. Simultaneously we put our full strength into
rotating the handle, trying to twist the pin into place...and twisted
the handle right off, shearing it where it inserted into the main pin.

Now the main pin was part way in with no good way of removing it. At
that point we gave up. Somehow we propped up the other wingtip
temporarily (hood of a car?). The owner called a couple of mechanics
from his company and we took a well-deserved break. They arrived about
90 minutes later, drilled out the stub of the handle from the pin,
rethreaded it, extracted the pin, and watched as we removed the wings.
Their boss was there so they couldn't say what they really thought,
but the looks were enough. Then we watched as they cleaned off the
REST of the rust inhibitor from all the fittings and made up a new
handle. Late that afternoon, the big ship went together like a dream.
I still have a 35 mm slide or two from that first flight just before
sunset.

It's amazing how many rules we broke that day, which far surpassed in
hours, frustration, and effort the nearly one hour my family spent in
the pouring rain in a plowed field trying to remove the wings from my
Dad's 1-23...before he remembered he hadn't disconnected the ailerons.
But the lessons learned have been valuable my entire soaring
career.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"
USA


Thanks for that Chip. Your stories remind of the situation with the
LAK-12. Assembling the -12 is matter of knowledge, finesse, and proper
rigging aids. Done correctly the -12 goes together easily and without
strain. I assemble mine by myself. Even though each panel weighs 230
pounds one never comes close to lifting that: the wing dolly carries the
weight. Done incorrectly all of the rumours about the -12 seem to be
true (i.e., it takes 10 strong men, plenty of sledge hammers, and at
least 12 hours of sweaty labor by all). I have done it both incorrectly
(no hammers though) and correctly. There is a world of difference.
Disassembly is trivial and very much like taking apart a 15 meter
because no finesse is required. Again the wing dolly, not the human,
carries the weight - just like for a 15 meter wing.

Regards,

-Doug