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Cowl Trimming

The cowling on my RV-10 was really good fitting and required very minimal work to fit the spinner nicely. My RV-9A cowl is a different story though. I ended up cutting the face behind the spinner completely off, then reattaching it with some flox using 1/8" spacers behind the spinner. Once cured, I pulled the cowl and fiberglass taped it. Fits perfectly now and looks great.
 
Thanks David. I've already spent a great deal of time getting the spinner face sorted. Pretty close to finished there. Just curious if the ring gear could make contact with the cowl. Is it standard practice to trim down the aft part of the cowl intakes?
 
Thanks David. I've already spent a great deal of time getting the spinner face sorted. Pretty close to finished there. Just curious if the ring gear could make contact with the cowl. Is it standard practice to trim down the aft part of the cowl intakes?

Can you post a picture? It would help. FYI, I'm not aware of people trimming in the area you mention. I didn't need to trim that area on the -6 or the -10.
 
Kyle...I posted a link to the pic in my first post. The area of concern is aft portion of pink cowl, near the ring gear. I need to tidy things up to get symmetry still, but wonder if folks trim enough off to get that away from the ring gear. Could be I'm chasing a "non-issue". Thanks.
 
Kyle...I posted a link to the pic in my first post. The area of concern is aft portion of pink cowl, near the ring gear. I need to tidy things up to get symmetry still, but wonder if folks trim enough off to get that away from the ring gear. Could be I'm chasing a "non-issue". Thanks.

I see the link to your picture. Missed it the first time through. I didn't trim the cowl on my -6 in that area, but did avoid that area for installing the cowl join nutplates. There is probably 1/2", maybe a little more clearance there on my airplane and I have never seen any indication of rubbing from the ring gear against the cowl. I think most of the movement in that area is vertical, because of G's, and/or rotational because of torque. In other words, not side to side.

Note that I have a wooden prop, which greatly reduces gyroscopic forces.
 
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