| Date: 12-03-2021 | |
| Number of Hours: 10 | |
| Manual Reference: no ref |
This plane has the Mike Melvill carbon cowls. Lightweight and proven. There is a problem putting them on by yourself.
As you see here the cowls sit on a lip upside down. Take your hand away and they just fall before you can get a couple of fasteners in place. What tends to happen is that you struggle getting one in and then this takes all the weight while you try to get another fastener in on the other side.
What I wanted was a way to get the bottom cowl to just sit there while I sort out the screwdriver. Sure the camlocs get to sit permanently later but its still a problem.
These pics are the result of several failed attempts and a few layups that I had to redo. It was a process. Above are ‘carbon hooks’ on the right side.
After cure I added three plies of glass to ensure they will not delam. When I had one on each side they did during trial fits. Two on one side spreads the load.
Forward at the spar also on the right side I have these tabs. The idea is that you slide these in place on the right side and ensure that the hooks are positioned too. I do this while holding the boat tail at the back.
Here we are on the left side. Once the right is engaged a much shorter tab on the left is easily slotted in.
Here we are on the left side again. Note we have no hooks here just the barely engaged tabs. This is all that is needed and works a treat. The bottom cowl can now sit there without fasteners quite happily.
I especially wanted this for all the cowl cooling duct work I will be doing soon. I need to be able to get the bottom cowl on and off quickly and without drama.