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Thu 01 December 2005

With a fresh mind, we restarted the cowl work. First up was getting a repeatable position for the front of the upper cowl. This was done via two 'precision cut' supports.
Then the new rear cut line could be marked - I used the same method as we have developed for the canopy work. Masking tape plus sharpie line. This new rear edge allows the front to come up and back a little which helps the 'planar' problem at the front and obviously helps the height problem.
The handheld band sander was used - it seems to result in a straighter edge than hand sanding large changes.
Then after the upper cowl was 'getting there' the lower cowl was attached. The problem was then holding the upper cowl at the right height. A cord sling from the roof rafters worked well.
Rather than using the hinge (which can move fore and aft) a single tie was sorted in the center rear location and the forward center line could be matched on the spinner plate.
Then the old hinge joint was used to get a rough idea on the lower cowl position. The summary was the RHS was good the LHS was not quite there.
Therefore we went round all four side edges and straightened / levelled them. This has the side impact of helping the rear of the lower cowl come upward slight which helps reduce the rear gap and spinner alignment.
Carl Morgan