On the days that the weather’s been warmer I’ve been working on a sideline project to build a wing removal and installation lift, since in the very near future the wings will be coming off the plane.  I looked around for ideas, not surprisingly finding the best ones on the COBA forum.

I’ll note that a fair number of wing removal/install methods listed on the forum involved using an engine hoist hovering somewhere above the wing surface… which is only inviting trouble in my book, with a heavy arm and chain hovering over a painted fiberglass/foam wing.  No thank you.

So the best wing lift (and to be clear, NOT a storage dolly) I found that works for me is this triangular contraption.  After some assessment on how to construct it, I tweaked the design a little bit to make it collapsible.  I’ll further note that one of the main features I like about this design is that all 3 corner heights are independently raised or lowered via wheeled trailer hitch jacks.

So here is the near-final assembly of the wing lift.  I’d say it’s about 80% complete as I need to swap out some hardware and add the padded cross supports on each end that interface with the bottom wing surface.

I made the short end and one long side collapsible with hinges, with the other long side un-collapsed, that simply bolts onto the 3 expanded segments when they’re set in the expanded position.

I’ll note that today was warm during day, but the weather was being a bit sneaky as it is still rather chilly at night.

Back on the planes… On the left front corner of the top cowling, with the thinner micro application, I used my micrometer to measure the micro.  Instead of using the 1/16″ thick G10 “washers” as I did on the right side, I scrounged through my carbon fiber scraps and found an acceptable thickness for this CAMLOC hole.

I then floxed and clamped the carbon fiber “washer” into place.

On the top center of the top cowling, I only needed 0.02″ to 0.03″ added thickness around the CAMLOC hole.  Instead of trying to add a “washer” or disc of some other material, I simply laid up a 2 full and 1 half ply layup of carbon fiber.  I then of course peel plied the layup.

I also spent a good 45 minutes cleaning up the outboard strake-to-wing seam, doing a flox fill on the right wing edge.  I then identified a few other minor divots that needed tending to, which I will knock out tomorrow.

I’ll continue to nug through the minor fills and cleanups, get those knocked out, and press forward with completing the finishing of this bird.