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Old 14th Oct 2009, 16:58
  #71 (permalink)  
MasterGreen
 
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: New Zealand
Age: 73
Posts: 120
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Jamie,
The outer wing panels are plugged in at the spar and secured by 4 bolts a side + rivets (as per plan, or screws / captive nuts in our case) around the skin join. It is a bit of mission, needing 3 people, but not a major problem. Wiggle / push / wiggle / bugger / back a bit .... etc. I have done worse on gliders.

As long as you make the required quick join provisions for the light / strobe cables and whatever in the wing it is possible to de- rig it in 30 minutes. The aileron push rods are one piece and can be disconnected at either end. The flaps are just a set of bolts along the trailing edge.

Wings off she is 8ft or so span. Each panel being another 8 ft = 24ft span.

One word of caution. We are close to 4000 logged hours on this sucker and God alone knows how many peripheral hours. To do a decent job you will need some seriously competent metal skills and a lot of patience. It CAN be assembled with basic tools and some help. As part of your research I would take a long look at the Yahoo group for the T51 - found here :

titanmustang : Titan T-51 Mustang Builders Group

There are lots of links, photos and observations there that will be invaluable. I would never do another one, in fact if I knew 4 years ago what I know now, I would never have started this one. Right now I am pleased I did, but building one of these is a once in a lifetime job. Satisfying when done, character building - definitely.

Costs - well I have just done the accounts up to yesterday. With the caveat that we brought the main components 4 years ago at way old prices and didn't spend too much on specialised equipment (since we have most of it in house). There are no hangerage costs in here either. The butcher's bill to date is NZ$143,412.04 exactly.....

MG
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