The Murphy Builders Site

Hi Ben !

You were right! The standard cowl for the Rebel is a fiberglass
nosebowl, with aluminum sides, usually made in "4 door" style, for
ease of access for daily inspection & maintenance. Ideally, the
nosebowl is split, also, so you can change alternator belts without
removing the prop.

In recent years, many builders have opted for the all-fiberglass
"speed cowl" - a mis-nomer, as it makes no difference to speed, but
looks fast ! ;-) It also makes inspection and maintenance more of
a pain than a 4 door aluminum cowl, and generally requires some
modification to give good cooling .... I replaced mine with a nice
4 door metal cowl last year ! :-)

I only know of one Murphy aircraft that had an all-metal cowl -
the formed aluminum nosebowl was a work of art (actually, Nigel .. ;-) )
It was beautiful, but VERY time consuming to make, so not really a
practical choice.

Not really sure if there's much weight difference, but the
aluminum wins hands down for ease of maintenance, and it's probably
easier to install, and a bit more rugged ....

......bobp

-------------------------------orig.-------------------------
On Saturday 01 October 2005 04:42 pm, bransom@dcsol.com wrote:

I take it then that aluminum isn't the norm for cowls? Surprise to me.

What

is the usual?
-Ben/ 496R

Lightweight starter, nippondenso alternator, and a composite prop are

biggies. You can also save weight on your exhaust, electronic ignotion
instead of mags and use an aluminum cowl.
Drew

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