steveadams
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 191
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 Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 7:05 am Post subject: CH 640 Cowl |
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I have just about 200 hrs of flight time on my CH640. I just wanted to post a quick message about the cowl. The only problem that has developed with my airframe has been a few cracks in the upper cowl. All are along the front, 1 is about 20 cm from the lateral edge, and 2 more are in the center area where there is a cutout for the spinner and starter gear. The ones in the center at this point are supericial, not through the full thickness, and about 1-2 cm long. I think this is because there must be quite a bit of upward flexing of the center of the cowl in flight (maybe my baffling is too airtight). I had already reinforced these areas with some extra layers of fiberglass, but they developed some small cracks anyway. I am going to modify the cowl a bit by adding a connection from the upper to lower cowl around the sides of the spinner/starter gear (basically making seperate inlets on the right and left instead of one gaping hole) to keep the cowl from flexing up in the middle. Cooling has never been an issue so I don't think this will have any significant effect there. Does anyone foresee any other potential problems with doing this?It's not a major problem, but once you are flying it is painful to have to stop, do some repairs and repaint the cowl. On the upside, I guess it will give it a sportier look  I just thought builders would want to know this is a potential problem, and you should at a minimum reinforce the cowl a bit. Other than the cowl there have been absolutely no problems. This is a great airplane. Happy building.
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