Easy Airfield Rigging for Biplanes

Readers of this forum might be interested in my jury rig for holding the wing sections of a Flair Stearman together for stowage, assembly at the airfield or transport. The jury rig allows the port and starboard double wing sections to be removed and fitted with all flying and landing wires ready-fitted and tensioned. A short video can be viewed, which I hope is self-explanatory.

Edited By Kit Davidson on 03/08/2015 15:01:06

Edited By Kit Davidson on 03/08/2015 15:01:32

Very neat

M

My Seagull Gypsy Moth came with similar supports, it keeps everything tight when fitting and removing the wings a simple but effective solution.

Like it, been trying to reduce the assembly time of my DB Major Mannock but with 78 inch one piece wings another solution is needed.

On my Jabberwock the top wing is one piece, but the lower wing halves plug on to short stubs in the fuselage sides. They stay rigged to the top wing, so I just have two bolts to undo for the top wing and two 3mm screws to retain the lowers to the fuselage sides, ease the lowers out 1/2" and lift the lot off. I've made a dummy centre section that the wings bolt to for transport and storage.

Kit,

That is neat and useful, I could use that in my Tiger Moth. Would you have the plans for the rig? Could you share please?

Thanks

Mannish, thank you for your interest. Of course I will share, please standby. I am out on my bike at present with an iPad in my saddlebag. Someone else in this forum said that similar jury rigs are supplied with the Flair Tiger Moth kit. I have found none. I have one of those built and another unused kit I acquired in my workshop. My jury rig would work well with the Flair Tiger Moth but it is not necessary. The Flair Tiger Moth has half wing assembly roots in the same vertical plane. A simple ply board suitably pegged and drilled will pick up the wing attachment bolts. I can publish photographs here later. The snag with this device is that the assembled half wing is vulnerable with the board removed. It helps to have 2 people when fitting the wings. If you have a J Perkins Super Tiger Moth, I have developed a system of passing the assembled complete double wing assembly over the tailplane and fin to mate up with the cabane struts further forward. I intend a video of this method in the next few days. Rigging of this model also takes only 10 minutes.

Kit, I would very much like a copy of your plan too. I have the Flair stearman sitting in a box ready to be built. I had been scratching my head with setting up some form of Jury rig system.

Thank you KIt, there is no hurry, enjoy your ride. The Tiger Moth I am talking about is from Falcon Models.