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 Sailplane Construction Project Session #66

Comet Sailplane Project
 
Today I finished planking the cowl frame. The picture below shows the bottom planking in progress.
 
 
This picture shows the bottom and the top of cowl frame planked from the left side. Notice that the side planking pieces will not come in contact with the diagonal brace.
 
Therefore, I added a partial bulkhead piece on top of the diagonal and contoured it such that the side planking will now come in contact along the diagonal brace as shown below.
 
I also had to add three pieces on the right side as shown below.
 
The picture below taken from the front of the cowl shows the planking complete.
 
This picture shows the cowl's finished planking from the right side.
 
Once the barrel planking had thoroughly dried, I removed the cowl from the fuselage and took this picture from the rear of the cowl.
 
Next I trimmed off and sanded all of the planking strip on the front. I cut out and sanded the cowl's front bulkhead as shown below.
 
This is another shot  of the planked cowl from the side. The cowl had become completely rigid once the glue dried on all of the planking strips.
 
The cowl was then reinstalled on the fuselage as shown in the front view below.
 
The cowl installation below showed that the snug interface between the cowls rear bulkhead and the firewall was preserved with no gaps. The effort and time required to build this cowl was considerable more than what I had envisioned.
 
I am most pleased with the outcome of this cowl so far and I am so glad I expended the extra effort to go back get it aligned straight and symmetrical. Tomorrow I will glue two 3/16" balsa sheets onto the front of the cowls, rotating each grain 90 degrees to the other, to form the rounded front end of the cowl. Then I cut out the openings for the engine's cylinder head and exhaust. I still have not decided on the number and size of exit cooling air openings in the cowl...............Tandy
 
 

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