Wings

The wing spar is being made out of wood. Many careful laminations of wood will ensure that the main wing spar does not snap or crack under stress. 1. The spar is laminated together using aircraft grade spruce layers. Note the six degrees of right and left dihedral built into the spar. 2. Hardwood blocks made from white maple are then epoxy glued into place along the spar center line. 3. Aircraft grade 1/8 inch plywood with a 45 degree bias is cut as a shearweb and then glued into place using a 12:1 scarf joint. 4. Urethane varnish is then applied in five separate coats to protect the wood.

One of the retract shaft supports clamped to the aft spar face.

Here we see both sets of retract shaft supports with the upper retract arm in place. Note the rod-end bearing that will attach to the lower retract arm in the following picture.

One of the main gear legs with the lower retract arm attached to the lower portion of the leg and joined to the upper retract arm. One of the down-lock latches can be seen attached to the upper portion of the gear leg.

I have drilled the mounting hole through the spar and enlarged them to accept the 3/8 in. bushing stock for the 1/4 in. bolts that will attach the brackets seen in the photos above. The brown colored brackets are for attaching the main gear legs to the front side of the spar.
The retraction is a simple straight back affair actuated by the retract shaft that extends to below the cockpit. From there the shaft will be driven by a series of gears and chain that the pilot will crank by a handle on the right side of the cockpit.
The upper and lower retract arms act just like a human arm to raise and lower the gear. The retract shaft attaches to what would be the "Shoulder" in the human arm and causes the "elbow" or the rod-end bearing to bend and therefor raise or lower the gear. Large diameter 4130 steel with a 5/8 in. axel bolt for the main wheels will slide onto the bottom of the leg pictured here allowing toe-in and toe-out to be set at the proper time.
After the gear and retract is all worked-out I'll start building the rest of the wing around it. All the wing ribs are done and more rapid progress should be seen in the future.