Wooden Wing stand
By: John Wilson
“My wooden wing stand is a system that I made to allow me to install my wings onto my Ragwing with out any help. I copied a homemade drywall stand that I saw years ago. It is a sliding mast system with a one way ratchet pulley. At the top of the mast is a pivot that allows the horizontal support to be leveled by selection the proper hole in the metal brace.
- Load the wing onto the stand using the orange painted ¼” rod (inserted into wing strut straps) while the stand is down as low as it can go. The black web strap is clipped to hold the wing on the stand while I move around to the other side of the stand.
- Crank the stand up until the mast pivot is at the correct point in reference to the airplane. Pivot the wing to horizontal and secure the metal brace with a wing nut.
- Roll the stand over to the airplane and adjust as necessary. Removal is the same steps in reverse. A breeze over 8mph make the situation dicey for one person.
Stand was constructed of seasoned 2×4’s left over from a remodeling project. A 1” deep slot was cut on both sides with a table saw. The slot was waxed and siliconed to make the sliding bracket move easily.
A ratchet was built of strap steel, mild steel sheet, a precast V belt pulley, a ½” threaded rod and cold rolled pins. The ratchet dog works only on the rising mode to lock the mast into any height position. 1/16” aircraft cable attached to the bottom of the sliding mast runs through a pulley block at the top of the stationary mast and down to the ratchet.
The sliding bracket was built of 1/8” – 2” box tube that was split in half. The mast system is attached to a rolling triangle base at about 10 degree angle with a 3/8’ bolt and wing nut. I used 7 wing nuts in the whole system to make it portable. The mast is braced with ½” EMT conduit in 2 directions with more wing nuts. Three wing cradles are slid onto the top bar. These have felt fabric glued to the bottom cradle to stop hanger rash on the trailing edge of the wing. The center cradle has the web tape mentioned earlier. The triangle base are more 2×4’s glued, bolted, and gusseted where necessary. Large caster wheels allow it to travel over bumpy ground.
This system takes about 5 minutes to put together. It is light cheap and portable. It allows me to assemble my plane with out help as it is not often available when I need it. “- John Wilson