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Nice!!
Brian, you're on it... very nice work. Can't wait for more. :) I think you can put that cut out material back in place at the cowl exit when you're done. Some Speed Back Baby!!
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While it may appear like I am on a fast track to test flight, I still have many things to do while the cowl is off to prepare for Osh. so it may be a few days before the results are in.
I also need to clean the belly of the plane, the flaps and a few other things before the show. Tonight I finished up the cowling part of the install. Next is to add the switch and wires to the panel. I decided to forgo the model airplane servo type wiring and connectors and splice in some real Tefzel airplane grade wire. Just from limited testing I am not sure it would be wise to try and run two of these things off of one of those tiny extension leads/connectors. I don't like redoing stuff so I did not want to take a chance and decided to roll my own wiring. Did that and then reflective taped them to the cowl up and around to the top left corner where I will install a connector. Not sure if it will help or not but I also applied some reflective tape to the actuator body where possible. ![]() Tested everything up to this point and was trying to see how much power these things had and almost mashed the tip of my middle finger off. Beware these things are strong! DISCLAIMER: Please make up your own mind as to the value of any product that I review here on VAF. I like to review the products that I buy and use. Typically I tell it like it is and include my likes and my dislikes. In this case I am a guy with a problem keeping his CHT's under control during climbout on hot days and Allan came along and offered a commercial solution to my problem. I am taking the risk of trying his new product by buying/installing/using them and will report my experience here in this thread. As always Your Results May Vary! |
Brian-
Are you going to be running both doors off one switch or two? |
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Each unit has its own internal limit switches so there is not problem with em getting out of sync or anything like that. They just run till the end and stop. DISCLAIMER: Please make up your own mind as to the value of any product that I review here on VAF. I like to review the products that I buy and use. Typically I tell it like it is and include my likes and my dislikes. In this case I am a guy with a problem keeping his CHT's under control during climbout on hot days and Allan came along and offered a commercial solution to my problem. I am taking the risk of trying his new product by buying/installing/using them and will report my experience here in this thread. As always Your Results May Vary! |
Is one enough, two too many.
Brian I was just wondering, the reason you went with two cowl flaps. Could that be overkill for any reason. Maybe a chance of a little shock cooling ? :eek: Two sure look better and make for a balanced appearance. :)
Can't wait to see them at OSh. Your going to be the first consumer tester. |
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![]() Just telling it like it is: I have no idea what alloy this stuff is made out of and I am sure Allan can tell us but I can tell you that the form/fit/appearance of these things are as good as it gets. There is no sign of a crack or stress marks on any of these parts. Someone did a great job designing the tools for his press brake. Lets also keep in mind that these are cowl flaps and not spars.... DISCLAIMER: Please make up your own mind as to the value of any product that I review here on VAF. I like to review the products that I buy and use. Typically I tell it like it is and include my likes and my dislikes. In this case I am a guy with a problem keeping his CHT's under control during climbout on hot days and Allan came along and offered a commercial solution to my problem. I am taking the risk of trying his new product by buying/installing/using them and will report my experience here in this thread. As always Your Results May Vary! |
Working on mine. Plans say to drill .201 hole in 4 places. Where did .201 come from? The closest I got was a 13/64 drill.
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I doubt the radius is that critical as long as it looks good to suit you. Something else to consider (I did not and wish I had) is the area up at the ends of the hinge. The hinge is not as wide as the flap so it leaves two gaps, one on each side. If I were doing it over again, I would customize my cutout in that area to eliminate those gaps.... ![]() DISCLAIMER: Please make up your own mind as to the value of any product that I review here on VAF. I like to review the products that I buy and use. Typically I tell it like it is and include my likes and my dislikes. In this case I am a guy with a problem keeping his CHT's under control during climbout on hot days and Allan came along and offered a commercial solution to my problem. I am taking the risk of trying his new product by buying/installing/using them and will report my experience here in this thread. As always Your Results May Vary! |
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Thanks Brian,
Wish I had read your post before I cut my opening because I have the same gap at the hinge as you do. For the RV4 cowl, its only about 0.70 thick as it isnt honeycombed on the bottom. So the cowl flap sticks out at the bottom a lot. ![]() I had to make a .125 shim all of the way around. ![]() My cowl flap still sticks out about .050 so I need to increase the .125 shim to .175 to get it flush. ![]() I used 6/32 screws temporally until I decide what the final configuration will be. ![]() |
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Cowl flap is wired up now. I put the switch and the led just above the flap switch.
![]() ![]() ![]() I will flight test it tomorrow. |
how did do the connector/connection for cowl removal?
I have mine on order! |
The kit included two sets of wires. I ran one from the servo up the side of the bottom cowl and covered it with aluminum tape to hold it in place.
The other set of wires is ran from the switch through the firewall and just used the supplied connector (someone said they were RC connectors) to connect to the wire from the servo and attached a standoff from my battery cover to hold them in place. I may change the connectors to a molex connector in the future. A side benefit now is that if the cowl flap is down for taxiing in, you will have a blinking light on the panel to remind you to turn the master switch off. ![]() |
Many thanks Brian & Thomas for posting your install. :)
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After running a 10K race in the pouring rain this morning, I changed the oil, finished the switch/wiring/led install for the cowl flaps (used a 2 pin molex plug for the disconnect), made another radiant heat shield for the non heat muff side of the exhaust, changed out some non-aircraft grade cushion clamps that were turning to goo and put the cowl on and took her for a spin.
I forgot to take one with em closed....sorry! ![]() ![]() ![]() Too early to tell but I can say that I can already see a difference in CHT's during a hi performance climb. The cloud deck was not that high so I could not get a true test but the initial temps are promising. I don't want to post numbers until I can go out and do some climbs with em open vs shut in similar atmospheric conditions. To do otherwise will just be a WAG and not very meaningful. Straight and level in cruise @ 4300ft I am seeing a change of about 3 knots TAS open vs closed. The sound from the engine area changes when they are open. Had the best wheel landing I have ever pulled off tonight. Too bad there was nobody there to see it! |
Temperature Improvements?
...We received many e-mails and phone calls asking for information as to the difference in climb temperatures we encountered on climb outs. I am very reluctant to say this will do "this" when it comes to temperature problems as the root causes can be any number of, or a combination of several things. That being said, I went out this last weekend to do some testing with temperature being the only parameter looked at. With the engine fully warmed up, I performed nine climbs to altitude, at three different climb speeds, 80 kts, 100 kts and 120 kts all starting at 1,500' and terminating at 8,500'. Each speed first with EZ Cool flaps closed, then with one open, then with both open. The results were as follows;
....80 kts closed= peak 430 deg. one open = 419 deg two open = 407 deg. ..100 kts closed= peak 424 deg. one open = 407 deg two open = 396 deg. ..120 kts closed= peak 416 deg. one open = 397 deg two open = 387 deg. The outside air temperature here in So Cal was a hot and muggy high 80s during the tests. Everything full foreword, at 2,750 rpm working the engine as hard as possible. None of this is chiseled in stone, and others results may vary. As a reference point, this was what I saw and was very repeatable for me. I didn't notice any speed penalty at these low speeds but did see about three kts reduction at 180 kts after opening both cowl flaps and letting it all settle down. Thanks, Allan...:D |
Engine/prop
Allan,
What engine and prop is in your RV-9A test aircraft? You mentioned everything was full foward during the test. For clarification you had your mixture full rich during your climb to 8.5K? If so you were burning a bit of fuel I would imagine. Typically I reduce my burn rate to ~9 gph and climb out at 115-120 kts to keep my CHT's below 400 degrees in the hot AZ morning temps. If I were to climb out with full mixture I would be buring ~15 gph. Running full rich will help keep the CHT's down a bit but isn't my normal TO procedure once I get to a few thousand feet AGL. I am trying to figure how effective the cowl flap might be in my RV (IO-360, CS Hartzell BA). Any addition data points would be helpful. |
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Allen, my new to me RV6A does not have the honeycomb type cowl construction so I suspect when I go to cut my new cowl flaps in this weekend they are going to protrude a good amount.
I am planning to mount with nut plates and #6 screws for easy removal so I could add shims later very easily. Do you expect to have shims made anytime soon? If so I will hold off on trying to make my own as I am not at my home shop and making these kind of things is not as easy as when I am based at my own shop. I can't wait to see how much better the CHTs and oil temps react on climbout down here in the Hot Country. Randall Carlsbad NM, but home is Sedona AZ. |
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Hey Randy,
Really happy with the one cowl flap on my RV-4. It is keeping the temps under 400 on climb out in the mornings here in Phoenix. |
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Much appreciate it |
Thanks for all your products Allan! looking forward to getting two of these.
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As a buyer and not a builder,
What process did you use the cut the hole ? What tool to cut the fiberglass ? |
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Here is the graph of takeoff from Goodyear Airport and flight to Casa Grande. ![]() I flew to Casa Grande and landed and went inside for 10 min to simulate a heat soaked engine then came back out and flew back to Goodyear. This is the graph of the takeoff and return flight to Goodyear. ![]() Before both rear cylinders would have got up to around 415 on climbout before reaching pattern altitude. Really happy with the oil temperatures. I attribute the low oil temps to mounting the standard Vans oil cooler on the engine frame instead of on the #3 cylinder baffle. |
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EZ Cool Pirep
I flew with my EZ Cool cowl flaps for the first time yesterday and I can say I am happy with the results.
My engine instrumentation does not give me a digital readout like I am used to so I don't have much in the way of hard data to offer, but, I would definitely say it made the difference I was looking for. Temps on the ground in Pecos TX were around 98F. Without the cowl flaps I know my oil temps would have gotten up into the yellow zone on the analog oil temp gauge which starts at 220F. I was able to climb directly on up to 7,500' using about 120 MPH climb speed with power on the IO360 w Hartzel CS set at 24 square mixture set ROP. Oil cooler is Vans stock unit mounted to the baffle. Once I leveled out, I left the flaps open until I began to see the oil temp coming down a little from it's max temp during climb of about 210. With the flaps closed and the cruise speed of about 160 knots the oil temps remained right around 195F. I guess that means at least 10F difference in oil temp but I rally think it is more than that as I would not have climbed like that before because the oil temps would have gone higher than I am comfortable with. In the past the oil temp would get up into the yellow, above 220F even just from descending down into the desert heat if it was above 100F on the ground. Descending back into Carlsbad this time, with ground temps of about 102F the oil temps stayed easily below the yellow zone. I opened the cowl flaps as I got close to turning final. Interesting to hear the difference in the sound of the engine as the flaps close up. I noticed a speed increase of about 3 knots from closing the flaps. I had to put 1/8" shims under mine as the cowl is not honeycomb style. To get the installation really right I may need to install some different shims as one corner of the flaps still protrudes a bit. I plan to end up with flush screws going into nut plates on the inside when I take them back out for painting. I experienced a bit of binding at first to the point where one corner would not close all the way, but opening up the fiberglass hole a little more in the tight spots took care of that. Sorry I cannot more actual data but I can say that these cowl flaps have obviously given me what I had hoped to achieve when I purchased them and that is full functionality of my RV6A in the summer temps of the SW desert. I will report more after more flying time in high temps as it happens. Randall in Carlsbad |
More results !!!
...I had some spare time on Sunday the 27th, so decided to go fly my RV-9. It was very hot here in so cal, 100 degrees and matching humidity. So as it turned out a good day to watch and check my temperatures with the new cowl flaps. I tried a 90 kt climb without the flaps open and the cht temperatures soared to 450 by 6000 ft. I descended and tried it again with both flaps open and the engine already heated up. Everything was identical conditions except the results. I went to 8,500 ft and could not get temps over 380 degrees, even with aggressive leaning. After doing this again, I am extremely happy with this products performance. I am very confident that if you are having heating issues, there is nothing you can do that is more effective at reducing them than this installation. This is not sales hype to move product but my actual results. Don't fight and chase this issue as we did for over four years with very costly, marginal results at best. We are confident that you will experience similar reductions in your temperatures should you install this product. Thanks, Allan...:D
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EZ Cool Cowl Flaps Results????
...With almost 200 of these out there now and many installations in progress, I would expect that pilot reports should start coming in at a good pace now. If you have any information or suggestions to contribute, please do so as it helps others that are undecided. Thanks, Allan...:D
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Well here is another one now with a bit more time on them.
Before the cowl flaps were installed my oil temps would climb up to 220 pretty easily in warm weather and especially if I wanted to do a hard climb. Now I find that in 85F OAT, I can sustain a 110 MPH climb on up into the cooler air while keeping the oil temps down below 200F. The flaps really did make quite a difference on my 6A with IO360 and CS Hartzel. Randall |
Same Story
I'm finding that on 90 degree days I'm able to keep CHT right at 400 and climb aggressively, whereas before the flap I would limit climbs to 300fpm on a smiliar day once a couple thousand off the surface, and still see CHTs in the 410-420 range. O-320 with FP Sterba wood prop.
One suggestion for Allan concerning future kits, and this might make sense only to those familiar with the product: With the cowl off the plane, the connector with 2 male pins is attached to my engine mount with a zip tie over silicon wrap. On 2 occasions now, performing short engine runs without the cowling on, the male pins have swung in the breeze to contact something metal and blew the 1A fuse. If the female connector were what was attached to the plane, and a male-male wire used between the plane and the cowl flap, this would not be able to happen. |
Personal inspection
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Just beautiful. A professional job. Outstanding!. I may have to hire you to come and install mine.:D Wondering what your impressions of them are now that you've taken a cross country in relatively hot weather conditions. |
This Makes Sense!!!!!
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so what connectors do y'all recommend be used? I just received my flap (got one) and will start planning the surgery soon.
Also, wouldn't this flap also be a good on top of the cowl for post landing heat venting? |
Very Interesting!
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... There are a couple of other guys that are in the build or testing stage without paint, that are putting the EZ Cool Flaps on the flat sides of the lower cowl at the rear, just below the hinge part line. These should also function well in this area and allow for very easy access as well. We will post the information when it comes in. Thanks, Allan...:D |
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