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NACA vent in the cheek cowl ?

Larry DeCamp

Well Known Member
Sam Jones no longer offers cheek cowl so I will fabricate from scratch. I read here about An RV4 that had NACA inlets on the bottom of the cheeks that workwell. Does anyone know how to contact that person ?
 
I have a neighbor that has done that and I copied his. Used one of Van?s vents as a start and made my own NACA vent and molded it to fit inside the teardrops. Passed Van?s 2? vent hose through the fuselage side and then to an eyeball vent on the instrument panel. Neighbor says it is extremely effective.
I can email a couple of pictures if you want.

Ross Scroggs
RV-4. #3911
Locust Grove, GA.
 
A bit Cheeky...

Sam Jones no longer offers cheek cowl so I will fabricate from scratch. I read here about An RV4 that had NACA inlets on the bottom of the cheeks that workwell. Does anyone know how to contact that person ?

Larry,
My buddies "Hollywood and Cheez" of Hotel Whiskey Aviation both installed their NACA ducts on the underside of the cheek on their Fours, nearly invisible unless you know where to look. VERY effective. Difficult to install post construction I might add...

I will PM you their contact info...
V/R
Smokey
 
RV-10 vents

I installed two RV-10 vents up by the rudder pedals. It works great. In the hot summer, with the air blowing up your legs, it’s great. In the winter, they don’t leak air at all. Cheap and easy and effective.
 
I was going to do the same thing. I saw it on a -4 at a local fly in and thought it looked really good. But after cutting the hole and checking where the hose would enter through the side skin, the throttle/mixture cables were right in the way. So there was no way it would work on the left side with my setup. I glassed the hole up and abandoned the idea.
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Venting a bit...

I was going to do the same thing. I glassed the hole up and abandoned the idea.

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Arlie/Mike,
There are many ways to skin the proverbial cool air cat, ( I had 4 different vent combos on my Four) however, Hollywood's NACA vent on the underside of the cowl cheek is slick.
I will try to get pics...
V/R
Smokey
 
My build is almost finished and I still haven't decided where to put the fresh air duct. Here was my inspiration
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Thanks to all !

VAF is the greatest. This is what I was looking for. Please forward the email,PM etc to help me do this.
 
Ross's Vent Photos

He kindly sent them to me, and I'm posting them with his permission. On a couple, I tweaked the exposure for clarity.

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Dave
 
Just a quick note to back up this great thread. I just Finished my -4 build with the NACA’s in the cowl cheeks. Thy work amazing and are so much air I split each side to two different eye ball vents, so I have 4 vents up front. Yes it’s a lot of work to glass them in and get everything to work including throttle and mixture cable clearance but when it’s said and done it’s super clean and most inmportantly a blast of air.
 
How efficient is the NACA duct on the right side? I read somewhere that it doesn?t work as good because of prop rotation and airflow down the fuselage? If there?s not any difference then I can move my vent to the right side without any interference on the inside. Then just use one duct for both panel eyeball vents
 
I have one on both sides

I put the NACA vents on both sides of my-4, just below the cheeks, and both produce strong airflow. I don't notice a difference between the 2. Because the panel space is limited on the -4 and I didn't want them at my knees, I installed the eyeball directly to the back of the NACA vent with no flex ducting.
 
I read somewhere that it doesn?t work as good because of prop rotation and airflow down the fuselage?

I have one on both sides. I get similar airflow out of both vents. Not sure where this wife tale keeps coming from. If i had to do it again, I would only use one NACA intake and split the air into 2 vents.

Those NACA vents look great on the cheeks.

Not sure the NACA vent is working as the design intends in those locations. we may be able to get away with a smaller hole there due to the angle of the cheek.
 
What size vent and source ?

Good info from all,thanks much. Vans website is hard to find a suitable specimen and ACS is also limited. What size and where to buy ??
 
Finally, air....

Good info from all,thanks much. Vans website is hard to find a suitable specimen and ACS is also limited. What size and where to buy ??


Larry,
Cheez just sent me this photo, he's been down unda, that's why it took awhile. Purchase the Van's SV-1 Vent Kit and download cutting template online. I glued mine to the inner skin with HySol. Still stuck after 20+years!


Cheez' RV4 is one of the nicest ones out there BTW...:)
V/R
Smokey
 
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