Thorp Air Command - T18.net

DaveM, I want my FAB back. ;-)

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Bumped Ito a T-18 builder in Texas, he used a twin Comanche nose bowl on his Plane. The bowl was a good fit for the plane and needed little modification. LoPresti makes a twin Comanche nose bowl that is supposed to increase cooling and speed plus it just looks good. Has anyone tried to use a LoPresti nose bowl on a T-18? Chuck

The popular early cowl was the twin commanche style (look at ACS , they still offer it). It's not the same dimensions as the actual PA-30 nose bowl, just styled after it You may ask a Mustang II builder though, several of them have used the actual twin commanche cowl. Of course Sam James offers a Lopresti inspired cowl for them too, so that may help answer the question.

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Lee Walton
Houston, TX
N51863,N118LW
KEFD

Hi All,
I'm trying to get the cowling fitted on my S18. In the attached pictures, the top section of the cowl is sitting right down on the teeth of the flywheel. Even so, the edge of the cowl sticks up above the edge of the spinner by about 1/4 inch. With the necessary clearance between the flywheel and the cowl, the cowl will stick up above the spinner by about 3/4 inches. Not very aerodynamic. Is this to be expected? My engine is an IO360, the cowl is part of a kit bought from Mike Archer at CSA. Spinner was supplied with the prop.

Thanks,
Pancho

Spinner needs to be 12 3/4" in diameter.

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Bob Highley
N711SH
SN 835
KLAL

With a fixed pitch prop I have a 4" extension as called out on the plans so my spinner rear bulkhead is 4" in front of the front face of the fly wheel, that might get you the clearance that you need. It kind of looks like the top cowl piece need to come forward looking at the one photo that's from the front.

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Bruce Finney
N18JF T-18C #262
Yelm, WA USA

Our spinners are 12.5”. The vans stuff is 13”. Spinners that come from prop suppliers can be anything. When you install the cheeks, the upper cowl will clear the ring gear.
Cubes