I am trying to determine what I want to build for my second plane. I think a plane with a cowl really makes a plane look much sharper. But, I was wondering, can you remove the engine once the cowl is in place with out removing and recoving the entire fuse?

Reason I am asking is what if I need to remove the engine for another plane down the road and do not want to mess the plane up.


Thanks in advance for your feedback,



Wings,

Most of the planes that have cowls are set up so that the cowl can be removed without too much effort. Usually by removing a few screws. The engines are set up to be removed by taking the screws or bolts out of the motor mount. No muss, no fuss.

Most builders shy away from building a cowl around an engine due to the severe problems encountered when attempting to maintain or adjust an engine. The ARF manufacturers understand this, too, and design their planes to have removable cowls.

Take a stroll through your local hobby shop and look into a few of the kits that have cowls to get a better idea of the way they are generally set up. If you find one that catches your eye, make your hobby shop owner happy and buy it.

If it's a scale plane, leave the cowl on. If it's a regular old sport plane, I'd leave it off to save weight. Note the plane in my avatar. I save a whole ounce (!!!) without the cowl. Yeah, not much (1/80 total weight) but an once here..and ounce there... it gets lighter in a hurry.

Of course, the cowl usually make the plane look a whole lot nicer. A plane built to use a cowl looks like crap with the cowl off. In my humble opinion of course. And while it doesn't matter when flying 3D, a cowl reduces drag quite a bit, and can actually make a plane fly better.
Dennis-

Talking about heavy cowls I bought one of the 40 sized Pheonix Sukhois last month and after I got it home I noticed how heavy the cowling was. 4 Onces to be exact! But I can't keep it off because a suk wouldn't be a Suk without that huge round cowl on the front end. I'll just add more motor than I normally would. For comparison the cowl on my UCD 60 was under 2 ounces. And the UCD is a much larger bird than the Suk.

You say you want to build you second plane. Good on you!!!

Do you mean scratch build from plans, or build from a kit?

If you build from a kit, the designer of the kit will have thought about engine access for you( if the model has a cowl, that is), by making the cowl removeable, or allowing enough clearance to remove/fit your engine with the cowl in place.

If you scratch build, the world is your slimy bivalve.

Most designs featuring cowled engines allow for access as well, although some are better than others. In the end, it's up to you. Plus, models can be cowled simply with balsa, and do not necessarily require skills with using fibreglass or other exotic(?) materials.

Good luck with your project,

Chunkylad

This thread might of interest to you :

[link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/Second_plane_%28with_cowl_and_scale_looks%29_%2D_d oes_it_exist%3F/m_1241733/tm.htm]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/Second_plane_%28with_cowl_and_scale_looks%29_%2D_d oes_it_exist%3F/m_1241733/tm.htm[/link]

photoniq

4 ounces?!?! Holy! I think my 25% Sukhoi's weighs about that much [X(]

Thanks for the info guys. I plan to build from a kit.


Thanks,

Wings,