Hi
I had high hopes of making some clever, or so I thought, handle devices for single handed wing removal.  I believed I could make some(4) tabs that would stick through the fabric about an inch.  Each of the tabs would be of aluminum angle iron and two would be attached to the front spar in the vertical and two to the rear spar in the vertical.  Almost no air resistance would be created as they are so small.  I then fabricated some handles which dropped down onto the tabs, two to each handle, and pins were inserted.  The two arms or handles were spaced out equally from the wings balance point as determined by placing a pipe under the wing and rocking until balance located.  Hopefully a photo is attached showing these arms.  All was going well until the rubber met the road of actually trying to use them to lift the wing up from the approximate height one would experience in the field.  Even though the wing is light, my geometry and/or physics is off as it was quite difficult to lift even without the aileron attached.  The plan was to lift the wing from the horizontal, rotate to the vertical, walk to wing storage location in either a trailer or some other storage situation.  My design doesn't cut it, too hard to lift while horizontal.  Any and all comments appreciated on this whole idea.  Thanks.
Kim Brown
New Hampshire

Make the lifting handles "L" shaped with a vertical riser towards the leading edge. Trying to hold the weight at arms length is very difficult, but by adding the riser you can balance the moment and reduce the felt weight back to actual weight.  If they are say two feet long you can put your elbows or hip against the risers or leading edge and it will feel much much lighter. BTW I love the idea, I might steal it for mine if you don't mind

My bad, missed the "rotate wing to vertical" part, add a bow from the the top of the leverage "L" piece to the trailing edge of the wing piece so you can balance the wing on your leg and slide your hands up towards the trailing edge

Kim, The few times that I needed to lift my wings, and there was no one to help me, I removed the ailerons, and reached in the trailing edge opening. There are a lot of "handles" in there. Now this is not convenient for a "one man assembly", but in an emergency, it is one solution for one person to pick up the wings.

In reply to Stilson, might you be able to sketch your idea, sometimes I have trouble going from words to design.  I would be happy if a modification to my idea does in fact allow it to work, which it doesn't do at the moment.  Perhaps just sketch it, take a photo of it, and send the photo in.  Much appreciated if you can.  Thank you.
Kim Brown

My only experience (mis) handling my wings by myself, I ended up punching a hole in the aileron via a sharp edge on something else. It's 2 person, 4 eyes, 4 hands from now on. I may however incorporate the wing folding mechanism soon.

Kim,  What I did is to remove the wing of my MiniMax.  Lay it on the grass.  Rotate up on the leading edge.  Install my handle on the front strut/attach fitting and carry the 28lb wing into my trailer/Mobel hangar.  See attached photos
BobN

Well I sketched it but can't  get it to post (always says file to big on pics from my phone), so an analogy.  If you walk up to somebody, squat down a little, wrap your arms around their waste and stand up you will probably be able to lift them.  Even if they stick their legs out you naturally lean back a bit to balance.  Now if you walk up to the same person, stay arms length away and grab their collar, chances are you won't be able to lift them. They weigh the same but the ergonomics are way different.  If you take that same handle you have and add a vertical piece close to the leading edge you can bear hug the verticals so to speak, if that makes sense...

Replying to Stilson:
I think I understand from your description.  Extend the existing member out slightly past the leading edge and do a ninety degree turn, of course it can be done with an arc also.  do this to both of the arms, and then run connecting cross pieces as it is the cross pieces that the hands will actually grab. I'll try to fabricate these additions and give the device another try.

Replying to Puff:
The wing fold idea has been discussed a lot here and I also have messed around with it a bit.  What stopped me from going further was that the wing was longer than the distance to the tail from the hinge point, and then the issue is what to do with the tail braces.  How were you intending to implement a wing fold idea in your plane?

Thanks
Kim Brown
New Hampshire

Quoted from kfb

Replying to Stilson:
I think I understand from your description.  Extend the existing member out slightly past the leading edge and do a ninety degree turn, of course it can be done with an arc also.  do this to both of the arms, and then run connecting cross pieces as it is the cross pieces that the hands will actually grab.

Thanks
Kim Brown
New Hampshire

Precisely, and if you extended the vertical piece longer than the distance back to the wings c of g you can gain leaverage, your lower hand will have to offset with push, but being close to your body core and using your muscle groups more effectively it shouldn't be an issue.

Has anybody tried lifting straps, the kind they use for moving household appliances?  I was thinking of wrapping two around the wings and lifting by the straps.  To avoid the leverage problem, rest the wing on some sawhorses?  I dunno, still trying to figure out how to do this by myself.

as for the tail braces, I was going to leave the rear edges close, but not too close, and hold the wings at both the lower edge and together at the top.
As for the length, I hadn't thought of that and may be a problem. I will let you know.

Quoted from nathan.bissonette

Has anybody tried lifting straps, the kind they use for moving household appliances?  I was thinking of wrapping two around the wings and lifting by the straps.  To avoid the leverage problem, rest the wing on some sawhorses?  I dunno, still trying to figure out how to do this by myself.

I feel this is a good and simple solution.

I've tried two solutions to this problem.
First was some wing carriers, with them I could easily pickup the wing off of saw horses and then hang the wing on some shelf brackets in my garage.
https://ulbuilder.wordpress.com/2015/09/20/wing-carriers/

My second solution combined the carriers and the saw horses into a single contraption that makes it pretty easy for one person to install & remove the wings and safely store them against a wall. No lifting required, roles around on casters and is fully adjustable for height, angle of attack and dihedral to get everything lined up.
https://ulbuilder.wordpress.com/2017/09/10/updated-wing-wizard/

The carrier might be a good choice for trailering.
The wing wizard might not work well trying to roll up/down a trailer ramp so is more suited towards a garage/hanger.

If I were to build another wing carrier today I would use the carpet covered support arms from the wizard and just connect two of them with a couple pipes.