RV-14 QB Fuselage Faulty Cowling Hinge Install

[Meat]

Hi All,

Working on my cowling and fabricating the various hinges and hinge pins. I discovered an issue with the Vans preinstalled cowling hinges on my QB fuselage. Reference p. 29-07 in the KAI. Both my FF-00006B-L and-R hinges mounted vertically on the firewall sides to secure the lower cowling don't match the plans. In a nutshell they're too long, have 2 extra eyelets and are mounted 1/4" too low. The two top extra eyelets are easily removed. Mine have 18 eyelets and the plans depict 16. More concerning is the entire hinge is mounted 1/4" too low. I've reviewed Section 45, Cowling and I'm reasonably sure this won't cause an issue when I rivet the corresponding hinge halves to the lower cowling. But it's hard to be sure.

Has anyone else run into this issue from the factory with the cowling hinges on their QB fuselage? If so, did it cause you any problems and how did you deal with it?

Thanks for your time and feedback.

 

[Tommy123]

Send a good photo with a scale for reference to Vans support.

 

[MED]

We had to remove eyelets to make our 2 QB fuselages match the drawing. Everything worked out and we have not had any problems.

 

[Jetmart]

Same here. Mine was mounted in correct position at bottom. Van's told me to cut off the two top eyelets.

 

[Desert Rat]

1/4". is only 1/2 of one eyelet. If the 14 cowl is like the 7, then it's only a bets guess where the seam will land back there after trimming.

Seems to me that this isn't something to be worrying about until after you see where that line is going to fall.

 

[Meat]

Thanks for all the feedback. Building on!

 

[dmattmul]

PIREP Top Cowling Hinge Pins

I know most 14 fliers struggle with the top starboard top hinge pin or at least I did. You need to slide the end all the way port and then insert it into the pins without dropping it or let the one end get tangled on the port side wiring. Sometimes I would even drop the pin and then need to remove the bottom cowling to retrieve it. (Happened twice) This helps me keep the end with the L bend from falling down into wiring and helps stabilize the pin while I insert it. It's 2 O ring wire connectors that fits the hinge pin semi-tight and can be removed once pin is close to being in place. See pic:

 

[Pskluz]

I have the exact same situation with my QB fuselage. Just got off the phone with builder's support and based on their advice, I marked the 2 extra eyelets as being in error and that they might need to be removed during the cowl installation. I made them aware that is seems to be a common error on QB fuselages and that the QB facility might have improper assembly instructions. Besides from having 18 eyelets, the location of the eyelets doesn't match either.