REFLECTOR: Southco fasteners

[Andrew Ellzey]

I remember this thread but was concerned that this wouldn't be secure enough to keep the cowling from deforming due to the air pressure in this area. I can't understand how anyone would be loosing screws through their prop if your nut plates or screws were changed when the locking feature was warn out. How many aircraft are flying with this cowling mod?
 
Andy Ellzey


----- Original Message ----
From: Scott Derrick <scott at tnstaafl.net>
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list <reflector at tvbf.org>
Sent: Monday, October 1, 2007 9:04:24 AM
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Southco fasteners


Andy,

Where the cowl mates with the fuselage you may want to consider what 
some of us have done. Normally the cowling edge is overlapped by the lip 
  on the fuselage, captive nuts are installed on the cowling with screw 
holes through the fuselage lip.

I put a second lip on the fuselage inside & parallel to the outside lip. 
The forward cowl edge(lip) fits in between and is captured by the two 
fuselage lips. Both top and bottom cowls are down this way.

No screws, no fasteners....

You can then use SouthCo's or what ever captive fastener you want on the 
  cowl to wing interface...

I did this because I was really tired of fixing the screw dings in my 
prop...

Scott

Craig and Denise Woolston wrote:
> Andy-
> 
>   We seriously considered it but decided against after doing the entire
> engine cooling plenum with them and learning what was possible and not.  The
> reason is the Southco's don't retract enough to slide the cowl out.  We used
> piano hinges on the sides where the cowl attaches to the wing, on top and
> bottom.  But for the perimeter around the firewall found it was too
> difficult to get the cowl off because the Southco stays in the hole (even
> with the springs under them) enough that you can't get the cowl off by your
> self.
>   If you changed your cowl so the outside portion lay against the fuselage
> piece or even built an offset land for the cowl, then I think it would work
> great.  We just didn't want to modify the cowl, we wanted to fly...
>   We did you Southco's on the fairings around the exhaust cutouts.
> 
> YMMV,
> Craig
> XL-5FG Flying in Lancaster, CA
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
> Behalf Of Andrew Ellzey
> Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2007 4:51 PM
> To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
> Subject: REFLECTOR: Southco fasteners
> 
> I am working on my cowlings and would like to know if anyone has tried to
> use Southco or Airloc Fasteners. I owned a M20E Mooney for 15 years and
> would like to make my cowlings easier to remove than the factory called for
> 10/32 screws. I have see the piano hinge method but I didn't choose to go
> that route.
>  
> Andy Ellzey
> XLGRG
> 
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