ORIGINAL: Stickbuilder
With the G-26 I would only have been able to attach the cowl for about 270 degrees of the cowl diameter, and that was not an acceptable amount of support for me.
I was worried about that initially, on my
A-R-F, but mine has been surprisingly solid. I had to cut the ring from about 4 o'clock around to about 10 o'clock, which removed two of the six mounting screws (at the 6 o'clock and 8 o'clock spots). The dummy engine and the mounting ring itself make the cowl stiff enough that it doesn't flex much.
Just got back from our monthly club meeting. We had one of the better turnouts in a long time, about 30 or so of our 68 members. We've got a neighbor (she has only lived near the field about two years) who is circulating a petition trying to get our field closed. Claims we fly over her house all the time; there might be a rare instance, and those should not happen, as she is over 100 yards from the end of our runway, and is in a "No-Fly" zone which is clearly noted by posted signs. We can't use that part of the runway due to trees there, and normally the closest we ever get to her house is about 200 yards. We've been working to stay further away, as she has been complaining over a year, on and off, but she is the ONLY neighbor that complains, out of about twenty who have lived there over 30 years (our club has flown there since 1968). Given what it takes to lose a flying site these days, we're worried, but our other neighbors have supported us for a long time and we hope that they will stand by us.
I got voted Prez. of the club. Please, no applause
, it was sort of a shotgun wedding. Nobody else wanted it.