May 2001: What I thought would take a couple of weeks to mold into a new cowling design has taken 3 months. I spent a lot of time leveling the plane and the cowling to the plane.

September 2001: I've finally got the tooling finished and my compsites guy has started an initial sample of the cowling. I get a call from Jim LoPresti. Ask for details.

January 2002: After messing with a three piece version of the lower cowling, I decide to go with a cowling split down the middle. This, like many other decisions, has its pros and cons. It also adds three months to the completion date for a flyable cowling.

Summer 2002: By now, I've fitted my cowling to every Grumman from a Traveler to a Tiger. I finally finish the design of the inlets. What a pain in the ass. Talk about trying to understand and design around a multi-complex three-dimensional inlet and controlling the flow while at the same time making it fit within the cowling. and making it all fit! Unbelievable. I hope it works.

April 2003: I thought I was going to have a flyable cowling by Friday this week. I've spent the last three days just fitting the baffles. Of all the things holding up the process. I never expected the tail pipe to be the biggest holdup. I could get the cowling on without the baffles, but with the baffles, there just wasn't enough room. So, I made a decision to find a way to clear the tail pipe. So far, so good.

April 2003: I got most of the baffles finished. The only concern right now is that I need to raise the floors on both inlets by about 1/2 inch and moving the right inlet to the inside about 1/4 inch and move the outside wall of the left inlet inboard about 1/4 inch. Then, two things: 1) finding a way to seal off the space between the inlets and the engine; and 2) finding a way to channel fresh air into the muffler.

Summer 2003: Finally. After fitting the baffles, making several changes to the metal baffle and flexible seals, I finally got it all to fit together. By August, I was able to get the cam-locks installed and the cowling buttoned up.

August 2003: With the airplane finally out of the hanger for the first time in almost a year, I did a runup and systems check. The first taxi-test took place on August 12, 2003. This was followed shortly by a real quick hop to pattern altitude and back. The #3 cylinder was running a little hot. I modified the baffle behind the #3 cylinder and made a second test flight. This time the CHTs stayed under 430 when climbing out with an ambient temperature of 108 degrees.

Four days later: The first sustained flight. This flight was with two other Tigers in photo chase. The picture at the top of this page was taken that day. On this flight I had a manometer set up to measure the pressure drop across the cylinders in climb and in straight and level flight. The results were a consistent 20% greater pressure drop across the cylinders with the new cowling. This is both good and bad. Stay tuned to this channel.....

All of 2004: So, what happened in 2004? Well, it went like this. Through the end of 2003 and early 2004, I tested 4 new bottom cowling configurations. I really wanted to be sure there wasn't any more speed to be found. There wasn't. There were some possible cooling improvements though. Then, N119ST, the test plane, went to Ohio. I bought a 78 Tiger in April 2004. This is what happened from April to July 4th: 1). I took my new plane all apart; 2) performed the most thorough annual on the plane it ever had. The poor thing had been neglected something awful; 3) installed new ported and polished Lycoming cylinders; 4) installed a Garmin 430, an Apollo SL60, Garmin 340, and Garmin 327; 5) used the plane as the fabrication fixture for all new tooling for the new cowling; 6) I finished the plane on the 4th of July at 2:00a. At 10:00a, I took off on the planes maiden flight to Baraboo, Wisconsin.

September to December 2004: Finalized the design of the cowling, fitted and finished the installation on my plane.

January to July 2005: Completed the final painting and baffle installation. Next: Fly it and see how fast it is..
• WOW!! It's almost 2007. Did almost 2 years go by since I wrote in here? Damn. OK, let's see. In January of 2005, I was getting ready to move from a real shit hole called Lancaster (it's on the high desert near Edwards Air Force Bace) where I had been living for the previous 22 years. Moving. Finally. It's like it took FOREVER. I could go on. In fact, call me, I'll reminisce about the wind, extreme cold in the winter and the extreme heat in the summer. By February 5th, I was moved to BEAUTIFUL Auburn, California. It's in the Gold Country in Northern California.

I started flying my cowling sometime around the middle of January. I put on about 100 hours in 2005. Getting the EXPERIMENTAL decal for the cowling was a milestone in itself. The guys in Sacremento are a lot easier to deal with. Here is what I learned in 2005.

First, it is a lot easier to build the cowling than it is to get the drawings and paperwork on the cowling approved. Second, I routinely see 146 to 149 knots true airspeed at 2700 rpm. I once asked Peter Otten what his Tiger (with the IO360 and a constant speed prop) would true out at. He told me, it's about 148 to 149 knots true. So, I'm within a knot or two of his. I can run over redline, he can't. If I push it hard, I true out at 152 to 154 knots under most conditions. The cylinder head temperatures (CHTs) typically run about 410 give or take 3 degrees when in level cruise at 2700 rpm. That's using a JPI 800. When I installed an FAA certified EI for flight testing, the CHTs were around 360. degrees. If I back off on the power, I can routinely get 380 (JPI) or 330 (EI) CHTs. Also, if I fly at 2520 to 2550 rpm, I can pretty much stay with a stock Tiger.

July to December 2005: I flew the plane the 7 miles to McClelland AFB for the '05 AYA Fly-In. My alternator failed the day after the race. The replacement (Kelly) alternator failed within 20 minutes of being installed. I didn't get a replacement for about a month. In July, I hired a DER and a DAR to work on the STC stuff for my cowling. I was hoping to do it all myself, but, I didn't know where to get started. I started taking orders for pre-certified cowling in July. I got two takers at $6,000. That's 25% off the estimated finished cost of $8,000. What? Where's the love? Where's the faith? Through the end of '05, I worked with the DERs to come up with what I needed for the STC. I started looking for someone to draw up the cowling. Of everything involved in this project, the drawings are the most difficult. WHY? Because I can't sit at home and do them myself.

February 2006: One of my customers and good friend, Mark, well, his wife worked for a company that did mechanical drawings. A draftsperson who worked there is an expert in AutoCAD and needed some extra income on the side. She estimated about 40 hours to do the drawings. Can you say, "Naive." We had no clue how long it would take.

March to July 2006: We finished up the first complete set of drawings. I submitted them to the DER. When I got them back, I could almost see the original drawings through the 'red-line' corrections.

August 2006: I resumitted the drawings. We talked about the drawings and installation of the baffles. Shit, this could get nasty.

September 2006: I resumitted the drawings. Fewer changes, still too much amiguity. I hired a structural engineer to do the calculations on the actual strength of the cowling. I got sample strips to do pull tests on the fiberglass material.

October to November 2006: We did, what I thought, was the final set of drawings. I resumitted the drawings.

November to December 2006: We are working, reworking, the layup procedures on the drawings. We found a way to incorporate a lot of stuff into the drawings themselves. More fixing the drawings.

January and 2007: It's almost 2007. As I sit here and update this update, I estimate the drawings will be finished in February '07. ONE YEAR AFTER THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO TAKE 40 HOURS. I really jumped into a big project for my first STC. What better way is there to learn how to swim? The future? I have already begun a new cowling. No nose gear fairing at all. At least not attached to the cowling. Now, I need to update the other pages on this web site.

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