What's new
Van's Air Force

The definitive Van's Aircraft support community! Buying, building or flying an RV? Join our exclusive family of mentors and enthusiasts!

Lower Cowl doesn't match plans with newer nose strut

mcgaughy

mcgaughy

Well Known Member
Patron
Take a look at the attached photos. I was wondering if anyone else has ran into this...and if you did, you did you solve? RV7a with newer style cushion nose strut, horizontal induction cowl.

The bottom of my cowl is level with the bolt holes for the gear strut leg fairing and it should be lower per "C1" plans.


IMG_8797.jpegIMG_8795.jpeg
 
Old style gear leg used a fiberglass fairing to close in that area of the lower cowl. The new style great leg instead uses a couple of aluminum plates to close the gap between the cowl & gear leg. Put those plates against the cowl & it will be obvious how the cowl will need to be adapted to fit the new leg.
 
Ralph Inkster said:
Old style gear leg used a fiberglass fairing to close in that area of the lower cowl. The new style great leg instead uses a couple of aluminum plates to close the gap between the cowl & gear leg. Put those plates against the cowl & it will be obvious how the cowl will need to be adapted to fit the new leg.
Click to expand...
Mounting plates is what I'm preparing to do....and two problems present themselves in my case. No room for fairing bolt, and open gap on forward gear strut fairing. If the cowl was positioned as shown in C1, it would not be an issue.
 
Mine was a pepto cowl too. Same gear. Is it possible the cowl was sitting on that side and took a shape?
Fiberglass takes a shape pretty quick. Especially if it's warm.
I'll take a photo next trip to the hangar if you don't get one before then.
 
mcgaughy said:
Mounting plates is what I'm preparing to do....and two problems present themselves in my case. No room for fairing bolt, and open gap on forward gear strut fairing. If the cowl was positioned as shown in C1, it would not be an issue.
Click to expand...

wirejock said:
Mine was a pepto cowl too. Same gear. Is it possible the cowl was sitting on that side and took a shape?
Fiberglass takes a shape pretty quick. Especially if it's warm.
I'll take a photo next trip to the hangar if you don't get one before then.
Click to expand...
It does not appear that it deformed. With it being that close to the firewall flange, it would be next to impossible I have noticed my cowl quality is poor at best. I'd like a picture very much. I've also sent a question to vans. I'm too far down the road to not try some sort of modification on mine.
 
mcgaughy said:
It does not appear that it deformed. With it being that close to the firewall flange, it would be next to impossible I have noticed my cowl quality is poor at best. I'd like a picture very much. I've also sent a question to vans. I'm too far down the road to not try some sort of modification on mine.
Click to expand...

Here's a photo. You can see the fairing bolt us just above the cowl lower edge.
20250428_113559.jpg
 
mcgaughy said:
Thanks so much. Would you mind taking a side view picture too? I'm interested to see if the exposed area of the forward side of the strut is exposed to the wind slip stream. On C1, it's not.
Click to expand...
There's a little exposed. I didn't mess with it.20250429_140624.jpg
 
wirejock said:
There's a little exposed. I didn't mess with it.View attachment 86436
Click to expand...
Larry, I assume that you are not planing on making/using the upper gear leg to bottom cowl fairing as per the plans, at least in the -9A plans? The RV-10 did not have this fairing, and I was thinking I would just skip this one on my build. Just wondering if others are doing the same. My airport buddy has one on his -9A, but I am pondering its importance.
 
Mine has two plates to cover the hole, but no fairing. Unless I missed that. The plates are not installed in the photo.
 
wirejock said:
Mine has two plates to cover the hole, but no fairing. Unless I missed that. The plates are not installed in the photo.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the -9A plans has the plate also to cover the slot, but then an upper fiberglass intersect fairing.
 
Just looked thru RV14A plans & no mention of fiberglass fairing, just the close out plate to fill in the hole.
It looks like It’s your option to add a custom fairing, or not.
 
Ralph Inkster said:
Just looked thru RV14A plans & no mention of fiberglass fairing, just the close out plate to fill in the hole.
It looks like It’s your option to add a custom fairing, or not.
Click to expand...
The RV-14A nose wheel fairing extends through a plate attached to the bottom of the cowling.
 
I think the issue is the drawing depicts a cowl for a carburated engine and not the fuel injected cowl. I have the a RV-9A with the new gear and a carburated engine/cowl and the bottom of the cowl is horizontal like the plans and the bolt hole has plenty of clearance, just like the plans I don't think you are crazy or did anything wrong, the drawing isn't clear on cowling style. I don’t have the plates installed at the moment, but the LE of the nose-strut pant ends inside the cowl, so I will not be making a fairing. I have heard people say the fairing for the old style strut would crack due to movement of the nose strut. If you feel the need to cover the gap, I would add the fairing to the LE of the nose strut pant and not the cowl. This doesn’t solve the bolt issue but hopefully makes it sense why the plans seem wrong.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_3478.JPG
    IMG_3478.JPG
    1.9 MB · Views: 11
  • IMG_3479.JPG
    IMG_3479.JPG
    1.3 MB · Views: 12
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top