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Kwik Fli 3 - 50th anniversary build


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Hi Daniel,

Yes, I used a standard nylon mount: I don't like not having free access to the engine, so I made the cowl removable, and basically shaped it around the engine. Plenty of room for the 61FX with this approach. Following pictures should hopefully be more or less self explanatory: I glued some hardwood blocks to the firewall to give hard mountpoints for the cowl, then screwed some thin ply onto these after protecting them with sellotape. Then mount the engine - the black mount in the pictures isn't the one I used in the end as it was too large.

I then used a sacrificial plastic spinner base plate tack glued to the nose ring with spacers, fix that to the prop shaft, then start gluing lumps of balsa on between the ply mounts and the nose ring. Once all dry, remove the spinner base plate, remove the cowl, remove the engine, refit the cowl and sand to shape. Result is a tailor-made cowl that fits well but is removable easily for engine maintenance. Works a treat.

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Roughly sanded to shape:

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Checking fit - cutout for exhaust still needed:

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Final cowl, which I glassed on the inside and covered with film on the outside:

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Hope this helps!

Simon

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Hi Daniel, yes I still regularly fly this. If you build one at the original scale (i.e. 60" wingspan), remember that it was designed for the 60-size engines of the late 1960s, so a modern 61 provides really sparkling performance in the air and virtually unlimited verticals. You might get away with a modern 52 maybe but I wouldn't go any smaller - even with the modern 61, the take-off run is quite long and you have to be sure it's got airspeed before rotating. If you're looking for something for a smaller engine, look at Martyn Kinder's Kwik Fli 40 **LINK** or the more recent Flea Fli **LINK** threads

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