Wing joiner tension

[Nigel Argall]

Guys, please give me a steer here. The new WLM 1 is almost ready to go. I've never done a wing join like this. All looks OK (see pic) and when I shove it together... seems OK. BUT, when you tip the nose forward (or vice versa), a small gap opens up between the trailing edge and the centre section - just a millimetre or 2. I could just tighten the shock cord loops that are holding it together or is a bit of movement 'normal'. Other thought is to get thicker shock cord - I'm using 3mm which seems to stretch quite easily.
My only other experience of this type of fitting is the Grunau Baby but, that has a much narrower centre section and can be accessed as it is covered by a fitting so I just use plastic ties to hold wings on - not sure if that is accepted practice but it works! All your advice will, as always, be gratefully received.

[Peter Balcombe]

Nigel, I guess that any arrangement to hold the parts together, but which will fail in the event of an ‘arrival’ is ok.
Thin tie wraps should be ok.

[chris williams]

No 63 rubber bands have always worked well for me:

Three bands for each set of hooks...

[terry white]

Hi Nigel, This is one of the problems with using flat steel joiners as a wing joiner. I stopped using this system some years ago now much preferring a steel or carbon round joiner which is far more rigid holding the wing tight to the fuselage. The other con with the flat steel joiner is its 'forward flexible' nutcracker action on the fuselage when the model has an arrival. This especial when the leading edge of the wing is forward of the cockpit area, 'the weakest part of the fus'. I strongly suggest if you are using this method of wing joining that you use an anti-crush former across the fuselage both at the leading and trailing edge positions of the wing. Although I know many builders still prefer this method of wing joiner on old timers, most fast, aerobatic, glass model builders would only use round joiners.

[roo Hawkins]

Hi I stopped using flat joiner as well. I do have some old model with flat joiner and I use plastic ties