Scale 1/3 Scale Extra 330L Build.

I thought you were taking a few days off?

TonyHallo said:

I thought you were taking a few days off?

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I was but schedules around the house has changed and it is cold and raining and it was just bugging me that I was not able to get it done. Now I can leave it alone.

Picked up my buddies laser yesterday day going to see if I can setup the rudder and glue it in then I can work on finishing the woodwork around the rudder.
Just had a thought maybe I should work on the cowl and try to get it fitted, need to make a cowl ring and all the changes to front and split the bottom of the cowl to cut out a pie slice so it fits the fuselage properly. If I work on the front and keep turning the fuselage over I am going to be fighting the rudder all the time sticking up in the back. There is one big BUT do not have the engine. Not sure if I should attempt to do the cowl without the engine in hand. Cannot make up my mind.
Any suggestions

If you had one of Terry's custom stands it would be easy to flip back and forth.
I personally would never install a cowl without the engine.

When you put together an ARF, the cowl is already mounted and you fit the engine to the cowl, why not the same here? I agree you will hit the rudder post a couple of times. On my builds with flat tail surfaces I always make the rudder and tail removable.

acerc said:

I personally would never install a cowl without the engine.

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I like to mount the cowl square to the fuselage, matter a fact I normally start by mounting the cowl to the firewall before starting to build the fuselage, what is your reasoning for having the engine in hand? Maybe I'm missing something?
I can remember years ago I built an Ace 33% Extra 230 kit, Quardra 52 with a Byron Purr Power muffler, the engine box was redesigned for the muffler mount, I guess my measurements were a little off, when the cowl was mounted to center of the spinner, it was pointing left and was noticeable. I wasn't upset when I put it in. From that day I began mounting the cowl to the firewall first. Attached is an example.

acerc said:

If you had one of Terry's custom stands it would be easy to flip back and forth.
I personally would never install a cowl without the engine.

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I have as you have always mounted the engine and then fitted the cowl to suite the engine. This gives me chance to make some minor adjustments to the cowl to get a good fit and spacing with the spinner.
I should think about one of those Terry stands, or make my own shipping that stand to Canada would be price prohibitive.

TonyHallo said:

I like to mount the cowl square to the fuselage, matter a fact I normally start by mounting the cowl to the firewall before starting to build the fuselage, what is your reasoning for having the engine in hand? Maybe I'm missing something?
I can remember years ago I built an Ace 33% Extra 230 kit, Quardra 52 with a Byron Purr Power muffler, the engine box was redesigned for the muffler mount, I guess my measurements were a little off, when the cowl was mounted to center of the spinner, it was pointing left and was noticeable. I wasn't upset when I put it in. From that day I began mounting the cowl to the firewall first. Attached is an example.

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Because sometimes things are off a little, maybe thrust angles, maybe cowl ring or other type of cowl mount. And to me it is simpler to shim things to fit together than separate. I assume we are talking ARF's here as kit or scratch builds are different.

TonyHallo said:

When you put together an ARF, the cowl is already mounted and you fit the engine to the cowl, why not the same here? I agree you will hit the rudder post a couple of times. On my builds with flat tail surfaces I always make the rudder and tail removable.

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Have to agree with that is how ARF’s are done, if did do it this way I would leave my self some wiggle room to space the motor to the cowl to get a good tight gap but with this cowl the spinner really does not fit shape wise with the cowl it just have big oval hole in the front.
The stabilizer is removable but not the rudder it fully glued in and it is also has an aerofoil.

Ok as you gentlemen know my cowl is considerably bigger than the F1 bulkhead when I fit the cowl to the bulkhead there is about 3/16 of an inch clearance all the way around or there about. So been thinking about that because it has been bothering me because it really takes away from the lines of the plane and the finished product would look like hell.
So if you look at the picture of the drawing I made of the bottom of bulkhead F1. The out line of the bottom of the bulk is in purple. There is a added section in orange added to the bottom of F1 and the shape is blended in to F1. If I do this and add that piece to the bottom of F1 it will take up the excess cowl material. Will have to do some shaping to blend that backwards into the fuselage but that can be done once the extra piece is added and the cowl fitted. What do think.