April 27-30, 2020
We finally got word that the QB wings and fuselage made it to Van’s factory!! They’re getting a quality inspection and then they’ll get shipped down to us. In order to be ready to receive them, we needed to build some cradles to hold them. Doing some research of the forums and other blogs gave us a general idea of the form, but no solid info (like dimensions). Van’s drawings include a cradle for the wing, but they instruct you to use a rib to get the dimensions of the leading edge – which isn’t helpful when you need the cradle already built to accept the QB wing delivery.
The wings are just about 8″ thick, so I cut the cradle for them 9″ at the top, and just guessed at a wing shape for the bottom. I then lined the plywood with 1/2″ water pipe insulation. The spars are also 8″ thick so I made some cut-outs for those to sit in and padded them with carpet and pipe insulation. The rest of the design is already online and pretty simple. Just a few plywood pieces on the ends, an 8′ 2×4 down the middle and some 45 degree reinforcement pieces.
The fuse cradle was even harder to track down dimensions for online. I made a square box around the bottom with 10′ 2x4s and made it 4 ft wide. The front fuse support is 20″ tall and around 2.5′ deep. The rear support is a ratchet strap ran over 4′ sections that have 45 degree supports near the bottom. I bolted through the eye of the straps with some 7/16 bolts and fender washers. If I did it again, I think I would have built it 12′ long instead of 10′. There’s a bit much hanging off the front of the support but I don’t want to move it anymore rearward because the strap will be about halfway between the tail and cockpit area, which is too close for me. I reinforced all the vertical pieces with 45 degree gussets and its stupid strong.
Mid-Build Fuselage Cradle 
Finished Cradles
-Paul
(Total Build Time: 161.0)