REFLECTOR: Southco fasteners

Chuck c.harbert at comcast.net
Tue Oct 2 14:39:43 CDT 2007


Andy, the upper and lower cowls (where the curved parts mate to the forward 
fuselage) slide into a receiver groove (male into female), so there is a 
positive lock. It is tight and there is no deformity from air pressure. 
Duane has seen this on my plane and liked it. It's at least as strong as the 
screws, because you get a larger area of attachment, plus you can take off 
the cowls in under a minute, without tools and no screw heads showing. 
Lancair uses a similar cowl attachment.

I'll send you some pics if you want.

Chuck H

Message: 5
Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 08:09:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: Andrew Ellzey <ajlz72756 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Southco fasteners
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list <reflector at tvbf.org>
Message-ID: <180262.78428.qm at web50811.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

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: 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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