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On Friday, August 26, 2016 at 7:32:30 AM UTC-4, Dave Nadler wrote:
On Friday, August 26, 2016 at 2:32:43 AM UTC-4, wrote:
Alignment suggestion: how about a simple sight gauge?
A removable fixture sitting on top of the fuselage (maybe 1� pvc pipe
attached to a FG saddle) which "fixes" two vertical “whiskers� aligning
perpendicular to the fuselage center-line. These “whiskers� would be spaced
as far apart as possible without interfering with walking out the wing. With the fixture on the fuselage top “sweet spot", just "gun sight" the
whiskers while out at the tip until properly aligned with a reference
point on your wing. Wing should then be positioned close enough to align
dead on within the adjustable travel of the rigger base if needed.

Hi Marshall - Perhaps I don't understand? A sight-gauge on the fuselage
won't help if my eye (at the root) is in the right location, but the
center of the wing (in the dolly) is not.

Sorry Dave...laughing at myself because I left out the most important piece of the rigger locating concept. Pull the fuselage out and ready it to put the wings on. Place the "whisker saddle" on the top of the fuselage. You know the rigger vertical post will always be "X" paces out from the fuselage when you are ready to slide the spar into the fuselage. So before you pull the wing out, walk out from the fuselage those same "X" paces, "gun sight" the whiskers to create an imaginary alignment plane and position a marker on the ground at intersection of X paces and alignment plane. Now just jockey the rigger vertical post until it is over the marker you placed on the ground and you should be aligned within the travel adjustment of the rigger base. With both wings on, remove whisker saddle and pick up ground markers. Very simple and very few pieces.


I think you could also fashion a simple battery powered "fan line laser" rig to create the alignment plane. Position the laser rig (dollar bill footprint) in the fuselage spar box, shoot the fan line, and place the ground marker. Remove laser rig before inserting wing. Laser would have to be bright enough to see in the daytime. Watch this video for concept of fan laser rig. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxf7_bRIIWw . Here is one of many laser parts house http://www.greenlasermodules.com/index.html .

Beauty is this would work for any sailplane and any rigger.

Bests.

Hahaha! I was using the "take 8 paces from the fuselage and plant the wingstand", then "pull the wingtip out and carry it around to the wingstand, then sight through the fuselage carry-through to get the fore-aft alignment" since I built my first WingMate solo rigging aid in 1982. The only difference is that my LS-3 trailer was rigged so you could pivot the wing spar on the dolly. For my ASW 24, I set the wingtip into the stand by the rudder, walk back up to the trailer and transfer the spar from the spar pin hole closest to the root rib to the hole at the tip of the spar, then walk back to the wingtip and carry the stand--with tip installed--around pivoting on the spar dolly until I can sight through the fuselage carry-through.

Any adjustments for height I can make by rolling the fuselage for the first wing and, for the second wing, by adjusting one or both wingtip supports and/or cranking the fuselage dolly up or down. Sounds complicated but as you all are saying, it works very well in practice. I've been solo rigging/derigging for almost 35 years and the only time I need help is when the wind picks up pretty strongly.

I haven't built any WingMates for a while but I may get back to it. The number of solo-rigging pilots at the contests these days is pretty impressive.

Chip Bearden

Here is an article that might be worth reading on using lasers as alignment tools for sailplane assembly.

http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder/Co...LaserAlign.htm