Mini ShowTime cowl
 

Hi,
The cowl on the Mini ShowTime is the wrong size. If you shove the cowl on far enough for the Park 480 shaft to stick through enough (takes A LOT of force), then the battery hatch cannot be opened any more. And the Park 480 by the way is the officially recommended motor for this.

Obviously you have to be able to open the battery hatch... so the motor needs to stick out farther so the cowl doesn't have to be shoved so far on.

I'm curious if anyone else has done something like adding spacers to the motor mount to get it forward enough through the cowl. The spacers would need to be fairly long. Could someone here who's got the Mini ShowTime share what they did?? Or was your cowling a different size?

Strange because the Park 480 should fit without changes/modifications. It's even the motor pictured in the instructions (I installed everything exactly according to manual).

Thanks

RE: Mini ShowTime cowl
 

After doing some more mock installing, I figure I could cut away a section of the cowl on the top-side of the cowl, which would just allow the battery hatch to slip into place.

Still odd that that needs doing. Certainly no procedure in the manual like that.

RE: Mini ShowTime cowl
 

I don't have this problem. Mine fits fine with the 480 (about 1/32 clearance spinner the cowl). The cowl overlays the hatch by maybe 1/4" which allows it to still be lifted up in the back for removal as it is tapered in the back and can be slid back as you raise it up. No cowl cutting was necessary. I'll take some pictures.

RE: Mini ShowTime cowl
 

Thanks. I've been able to compare your figures with mine and I've examined it some more. I've determined that it boils down to the top back edge of the cowl tapering downward when the cowl is stretching a bit around the nose. If the battery hatch is installed before putting on the cowl, then it squeazes that down like a vice. When the hatch is left off, the downward taper gets in the way of allowing it to slip foward enough for the back section of the hatch to start slipping down and forward on to it's seat.

So it's just a minor variation in the form of my cowl.

I've been marking with a pen on the cowl where exactly the sticking points are. I figure that I could just use a fine grinding stone drill bit to carve out a sort of "moon sliver" on the back top edge of the cowl. Unless looking at it closely, it should be hardly noticable.

So looks like it will be ok and requiring no radical modification.

Thanks for your help

RE: Mini ShowTime cowl
 

Yes, it sounds like a slight variation in the shape of your cowl. i use the thin composite cutting disk in a dremel for cutting things like this. Works great.

RE: Mini ShowTime cowl
 

By the way, has your mini ShowTime's tail wheel been ok? How does it hold up with grass field landings?

I know that tail wheels on ARF's can be generally not so great, but I carelessly screwed this one up a little as well. The plastic "hinge flap" part of it got a little messed up (totally my fault). So with mine that part of it won't be supporting it as much as it should. That's why I'm particularly curious how it holds up generally.

I might just clip it off and install a simple non-steerable tail skid. I'll never taxi this around anyway.

Cheers