REFLECTOR: Leveling the plane

Jim Sower canarder at frontiernet.net
Tue Jun 14 14:23:57 CDT 2005


That sounds like what I need to do.  Problem is I have a "bought" plane 
with no references.that I can find.  Is there a place on the belly that 
is parallel to the reference plane, or anything like that?  The guy I 
bought it from told me to use the wing leveling jig to level the plane, 
but it's a piece of plywood that doesn't fit all that well and has a 
dime store level glued to it.  I'd like some way to level it for real 
and then drill the holes like Joe did.
Been at a loss how to level this beast for the longest time ... Jim S.

> <>
> Joe Ewen wrote:
> Scott,
> Once I had my fuselage level in pitch, I put in permanent references for
> future use. Once the lower cowl is cut away its hard to reestablish pitch
> level. I made my reference points by drilling 1/4 holes in the fuselage
> side approximately 6" under the strake and 3' apart. I then filled the
> holes with micro, after cure the center of the filled holes was 
> drilled with
> a 1/8 bit (level to each other.) Now when I want to put the fuselage in
> pitch level, I insert 1/8" bits into the holes (shank into hole) and 
> rest a
> 4 foot level across the bits.
>
> For roll level I use a theodolite (a transit would work) and measure 
> down to
> the top of wing bolts inserted into the upper outboard bushings in the
> spare. Can read down to 0.005" from the horizontal plane. Water tubes work
> pretty well but do not have as good an accuracy level.
>
> Joe
>
>
>  
>


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