gwulle

I have a Sig Sundancer(the large one)and it is a royal pain putting the outer struts on evry time I go flying. It has 8 hex bolts with lock nuts. I have tried leaving the struts attached to the top wing after dis-assembly,but I can see it's only a matter of time before one gets broken off. Does anyone have any ideas? I would greatly appreciate any input.

Gaines

Dauntae

I have a Hog bipe and I also hate taking it apart, Only thing I can sugest is try installing blind nuts to cut down on the hassle but bipes do have this downfall. Fortunatly I can bring it in one piece in my van BUT not if I want to bring any of my 60-90 size planes then I have to take it apart.

Dauntae

WCB

That is the downside of having a bipe. I've got 2 of 'em and know all too well how you feel. The worse part is taking them apart when you are finished flying! When you are putting them together at least you having something to look forwards too.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

What I usually do is to attach the strut to the top wing with a hinge. Then they can just fold down

blikseme300

My Feedback: (118)

I look at assembling/tearing down of my bipes as 4-play! My Sundancer does take a few minutes, but my BME Ultimate takes about 30 minutes to assemble. I don't care though as the flying makes it all worth while. No pain, no gain.

If you don't like the assembly time, get a small electric that never needs any time at the field, IMHO.[>:]

Safe Flying!

spicy

Here is what I did on my Skybolt. I used clevis pins and grommets available from McMaster Carr. I made the struts from aluminum with the holes sized for the grommets. I bonded the pins in a modified plywood rib. The retaining wires are just piano wire bent so that it cannot come out in flight. It take me just a couple minutes to put the wings on at the field.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Geeze, I hope that's not the GP Skybolt - That thing has the best strut attachment design EVER! Simple and quick! I was really disappointed that the new ARF doesn't use the same system.

spicy

Yes, this is a GP Skybolt kit. Obviously, I don't share your opinion of or enthusiasm of the stock strut attachment, but to each their own. This strut attachment has performed very well for me.

ballgunner

My Feedback: (1)

You've never really had any fun at all until youv'e got WWI bipes. Monoplanes also require much attaching and detaching of bracng wires. For example look at the cabane struts on a Fokker D-VII, and the interplanes are N shaped as well. At least it doesn't have interplane wire braces such as a Sopwith Pup or a Camel. Even the Fokker E-III has enough wires on it to make a fence. There's an old saying that supposedly came from WWI mechanics. "Rig the wires and throw in a pigeon. If it gets out there's a wire missing somewhere". In any case it's still a rewarding exercise to see the old ones fly in their stately manner instead of something screaming around the sky as if it were looking for the next pylon.

SoCalSal

My Feedback: (16)

Have you thought of making a "jig" or so to say a pair of temp/ struts that would go onto the inboard ends of the wings to keep them spaced and braced during transpotation. It may be as simple as cutting some thin pine strips and drilling some holes or glueing some pegs to fit the inboard ends.

chuck l

My Feedback: (17)

Gaines

I've been flying my Sun Dancer for over a year and leave the struts attached to the top wing. The wings go into a simple pvc pipe rack that slides into the back of the SUV. The top wing is upside down on the top rack. Never had a problem and I can have the engine running in ten minutes at the field. If you want a picture of the rack let me know.

Chuck

west6008

Any bipe I ever built had interplane struts that were just for looks.
If I went to the trouble of fastening them securely to the wings, the slightest
crash would bust the struts and gouge out chunks of both wings.
For a while I left the struts out, but that looked really clueless.
So I fashioned struts from balsa with thin wires at the ends which plug into
little pieces of tubing glued to the wing.
Flimsy and useless, but they look right.

flipstart

I have 2 WWI planes, a 1/5 scale Albatros and 1/4 scale Nieuport 28. On both of those, I formed some brass U brackets that traps end of strut, brackets are screwed to a hard point on wing and stay attached. The U bracket has a .082 hole drilled through both sides to match hole in strut. Glue in a piece of nyrod in hole in strut. Then run a allen head 2-56 X 1/2" screw through one side of bracket, through nyrod and out opposite side of bracket. Not exactly scale but it is reasonably easy to attach at field. This method seems to hold up fairly well-best I have come up with so far. Flying wires can also be easily attached with flat angle bracket under the screw head.