Wing to Fuselage Clearance

We are mounting the wings. Had to do a little shaving on the wing root fairings strips to prevent hitting the fuselage. On one side we have about .03" clearance, and the other (which we spent more time delicately removing material) we are flush or barely touching the fuselage.

Now we are having a discussion. My son says we need .03" clearance on both sides to compensate for hot days and wing expansion. I am not convinced. I like the zero clearance look.

Any opinions.

Another question: Does anybody create a fillet at the wing to fuselage interface, and if they do, with what material?

And...

Have you taken into account the deflection of the wings for a fully loaded aircraft? Point is, zero clearance may not be the best idea, IMHO. If you search the forums you may find that quite a few people have allowed a nominal clearance and used a rubber U channel edge trim to finish the look.

As far as a fillet goes, Jesse Saint can set you up with a really cool looking and aerodynamic intersection fairing for the -10. Looks kind of like the ones on a P-40. I am probably going to use them but for now, I opted for them rubber trim...

You'll want some clearance for paint. Otherwise they might not fit after you paint and worse the smaller the clearance the more likelihood of scratching paint taking then on and off.

Mine are cut back about 1/8 to 3/16 and a small rubber seal installed. Don't remember where I got the rubber from, but it then fits nicely against the fuselage.

The per-plans RV-10 wing root sucks. Either you have a gap that looks stupid or you end up chipping a lot of paint.

Go back to what Van's did on the two place RVs. Open the gap on the leading edge portion to 3/16" o4 1/4" and install the rubber gap seal - the same material you used on the bottom of the horizontal stabilizer. Take the gap seal from the forward end of the bottom spar to the forward end of the top spar. After you get the fit, put some black RTV into the seal groove and reinstall the fairing before the RTV sets. The RTV will prevent the seal from working free and banging on the side of the fusealge ( which really gets your attention).

Leave the rest of the wing root fairing (the part that has screws) as is.

Van's has this material in different lengths.

Carl