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thorskip

Member
The RV8 I purchased has cowling wires accessible thru the foreward storage compartment. It looks clean but I'm wondering what kind of nightmare it will be when I take the cowling off, which I haven't done. Does anyone have experience with these who can give me some advice on how to make this job go ok? Any thoughts I'm sure will help. Thanks

Thorskip
 
Can you post some pictures? There are many ways to do cowl pins, so advice would be a shot in the dark without knowing what you have.

Of course, the best resource would be the guy you bought it from (or who built it) - can you ask them? I'd think that they'd be happy to show you the motor if you bought the airplane! One of the things that is being looked at right now in the Safety world by the EAA and others is the higher-than-normal accident rate in homebuilts that are BOUGHT, rather than built. Many of these accidents are being attributed to variations in airplanes from the initial design, and the lack of a "checkout of the new pilot/owner by the old pilot/owner.

I am not saying that cowl pins are going to bring you down (I am pretty sure they won't), but if the previous owner didn't show you how to get the cowl off, what other little "improvements" might he not have shown you? Worst case? Think John Denver and his odd fuel selector.

Sorry for the pedantics, hope I don't offend,

Paul
 
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That's what I did. I love the look and put my cowl on/off by myself. The side hinges are fairly easy. The top cowl hinges accessed via the oil door can be a pain, but are getting easier.
 
thorskip said:
The RV8 I purchased has cowling wires accessible thru the foreward storage compartment. It looks clean but I'm wondering what kind of nightmare it will be when I take the cowling off, which I haven't done. Does anyone have experience with these who can give me some advice on how to make this job go ok? Any thoughts I'm sure will help. Thanks

Thorskip
Click to expand...

This is a very common practice for the pins connecting the upper and lower cowls. RV6 builders would hide the pin coming through the NACA duct going forward. You will remove these first before removing the upper top cowl pins, screws or whatever cowl fasteners you have and then remove the pins, screws or whatever fasteners for the bottom cowl at your firewall. Sometimes depending on the setup removing the cowl can be a two person job.
 
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