aggie84

I bought my Chipmunk already built from a flying buddy of mine. I originally put a 61 FX in it. Last summer the engine died on takeoff (hole in pressure line) and I nosed it in. Not much damage done but it totaled out the cowl. I decided to take out the 61 (it went quite nicely in a Venus) and put a 91 FS back in its place. I ordered a new cowl from precision-fiberglass-prod.com and it arrived today. (Very nice btw and good price). Does anyone have any pictures of how they cut their cowl? Anthing you'd do different or better?

There has to be a way to get the cowl over the cylinder and needle valve without cutting it to pieces but I can't see it. I'm sorta thinking about cutting the right side off, hinging the two pieces together at the top and figuring out a way to attach the two pieces at the bottom (maybe a strip of lite ply overlapping the two pieces and then screw into the lite ply). This seem like a lot of trouble but it would be easy to put on and take off.

Just wondering what to do,

Thanks for the help,
Tim

DVI

Hi Aggie84
I to have a Goldberg Chipmunk. I have a OS61Fx mounted in it and a fiberglass cowl. The way I found to get the cowl over the engine was to take the head off of the engine and reinstall it after the cowl was put on. Don't plan on taking cowl off very often!

I dont know how much bigger the 90 size engine is over the 60 size but you may want to give it a try.

TexasAirBoss

My Feedback: (22)

I had trouble just getting an OS 61 in that cowl !!!
One simple solution is a cut from the back of the engine opening to the rear of the cowl. Wrestle it over the cylinder then bolt it down. I know I just read about the method that you propose. Someone had pics and everything.
BTW, moving back to Knoxville in 5 years myself.

aggie84

Your cut looks pretty clean to me! Nothing looks bigger than it has to be. I've gone ahead and cut mine out like usual, but its not nearly as neat as I'd like it to be. The 91FS has such a huge cylinder head, both in diameter and length that a lot of cowl has to be removed. I started painting it today and will post some pix when I get finished.

BTW, I noticed that you installed the cockpit kit. I "landed" my chippie inverted last spring and had to replace the canopy. When I did that I went ahead and put in the cockpit. It really dresses the plane up.

Thanks for the picture,
Tim

TexasAirBoss

My Feedback: (22)

Oops, I guess some guys have gone inverted with the 90 4s.

Yes, the cockpit is easy and adds much to appearance.

One secrete: Paint the canopy frame with grey primer before shooting the white !! Looks cool when the inside is a different color.