I’ve know it for a while. Those exhaust pipes are too close to the top cowl.

Is there any doubt?

I put this off as I really didn’t have a welding person who could just come and do it.

Now its really time to do taxi tests with the cowls on and as my luck would have it…. Hold on, Murphy has been co-building this plane from the start so where is a welding person? Despite this trend, my delaying worked and a very skilled welder has appeared.

Even better, a mobile setup so we would work ‘in situ’. I can’t show you his face, he is of course, very busy.

I’m not going to tell you how many times the exhausts came off and went back on. We needed two sessions in the end. He made a cut and we would assess. Then another cut and again rechecking. Finally a tack or two. Cowls off and on many times. The idea was to loose the minimum amount of material and just ease into the right position. I also discovered that you need the exhaust nuts done up tightly as almost tight makes a few degrees of height change.

Given I had the pipes ceramic coated inside and out, that had to be removed for the welding, but only in a small area. Yes you can buy 2000F paint, do you think I can get it is satin black? Matt black had to do. I didn’t want to wait a week or two.

With the masking tape making clean lines its not too horrible and you can’t see it with the cowls on anyway.

This is where we ended up.

Well clear of the top and bottom cowl.

I really did want the pipes a bit closer to the prop and pointing in but realistically that would have made them quite a bit shorter. This may or may not have been a problem as no one seems to know the ideal distance from prop to exhaust. I don’t have the time for extensive testing and multiple exhaust pipes of various lengths and angles to find out the truth. I suspect what I have will work OK if not the absolute optimum. I’m not racing, my mission is of another flavour.