Van's Air Force
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Cowling attach cam locks
- Thread starter Larry KMYA
- Start date
Skid
Well Known Member
I thought of installing these. It requires drilling out the rivets that hold the hinges, which will require paint repair, unless your airplane isn’t painted.
Used skybolts on the upper and lower cowl attachment of my RV-9A build and love them. all it takes is a minute or so to pull the top cowl. Assembly is reverse of removal…. I like the look myself.
I installed the Skybolt cam locks on my 14 and love em. Makes removing the upper cowl easy. PM me for discussion on locations.
Skybolts for my RV-10 cowl, including the lower split cowl.
Looks like several datapoints from happy SkyBolt customers.
As must be the case on VAF, you need another opinion from the other side
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I’m a happy “hinge design” person on my RV-7. Also takes 1 minute to remove the top cowl, another minute to pull the hinges on the lower cowl. Costs nothing extra (HW included as standard in the kit). Well proven design, etc…
Just want to offer an opposite experience – especially if the hinge is already installed.
As must be the case on VAF, you need another opinion from the other side
. I’m a happy “hinge design” person on my RV-7. Also takes 1 minute to remove the top cowl, another minute to pull the hinges on the lower cowl. Costs nothing extra (HW included as standard in the kit). Well proven design, etc…
Just want to offer an opposite experience – especially if the hinge is already installed.
Desert Rat
Well Known Member
I went with sky bolts all around the upper cowl and piano hinges on the vertical lower cowl. I started with about 1/32" gap at the horizontal split and thought I had it fitting really well. But, after flying I found out that there's enough slop in my installation that gap opened up to about 1/16". I looked at a bunch of RV's at OSH this year that had about the same, so I don't think that it's just me.
Also, even though I modified the width of the mounting tabs so that I could space them closer than the installation instructions specify I still have some pillowing between the fasteners that I can see in flight at the upper cowl to firewall edge.
Bottom line; If I had to do it again, I'd probably use piano hinges on the horizontal split. I'd still use skybolts on the upper cowl at the firewall, just because I don't want to have to fish around through the oil door trying to get hinge pins in, but I'm going to need to beef up that area of the fiberglass before paint or live with it pillowing up in flight.
Also, even though I modified the width of the mounting tabs so that I could space them closer than the installation instructions specify I still have some pillowing between the fasteners that I can see in flight at the upper cowl to firewall edge.
Bottom line; If I had to do it again, I'd probably use piano hinges on the horizontal split. I'd still use skybolts on the upper cowl at the firewall, just because I don't want to have to fish around through the oil door trying to get hinge pins in, but I'm going to need to beef up that area of the fiberglass before paint or live with it pillowing up in flight.
dmattmul
Well Known Member
I like the clean look of hinge pins but it's a builder's preference. An easy technique to using upper cowling hinge pins is to place the pin in the first hinge eyelet BEFORE attaching the top cowling then slide it in, no fishing required.
