Well sorta of kinda
smokyray said:
I think the scientific approach to cooling an air-cooled engine designed in the 1930's with fluid dynamics is noteworthy, but excessive.
Take all the money you would spend on cowling mods and buy a bunch of 100LL, find a cute girl and take her to the bahamas...
You won't need any cowling air restrictions there...
RR
I hear you smokeyray, the KISS method and lets jut go fly attitude is not much unlike Van's bang for buck design philosophy, if it works well, good enough. It's like alternative engines, I don't get it but my hat is off to all of them for doing it.
However, let me ask you this, if you can make a cowl change that gives you 8 mph faster cruise speed with no down side or "excessive" effort or cost, than is that not awesome and worth it?
Lets assume ratio of new/old cruise speed is (198/190) = 1.04. Better miles per gal means more money for drinks on the beach w/ your new girlfriend. If you add EI, better wheel and gear fairings lets say you gain 10%. In a year say you by 1000 gal at $4.50/gal you may save $450 a year. That is probably over est by double, but $200 a year ain't bad.
Just look at old cowls and new cowls on a Lancair, Cirrus or Piper, they are different than antique classic planes. Clearly Van did not copy the cowl of a Luscombe. Van's base design is good enough, but there's room for improvement.
I'm sure Van approves of any mod that increases performance and is still safe. I know Van did and still does a lot of experimentation on different ideas. Many don't work, but for the ones that do, he included in the new kits.
What if Vas was satisfied with the *S-t-i-t-s Playboy he first modified and improved, there would be no RV-3 or RV-4 and so on........
What ever floats your boat smokyray, that is totally cool, you like to fly and not tinker. Sure an extra 10 mph will not make it more fun to acro or takeoff/land shorter, but Allan's my hero! I also have ideas but too lazy to do them. He does them and we all benifit, even if you don't follow them. Keep up the good work Allan.
*language filter does not like the slang for breast or teat, ha ha