F4U Corsair: The Engine Cowl

An issue that seems to have developed here lately is the fact that some of the planes being delivered now, have the cowl glued on the bulkhead of the fuse for some reason? That glitch has already been reported to FMS, and should have been rectified on the assembly line by now?

Fortunately, the cowl on mine wasn't glued on, so removing it was a breeze. But doing so reveled an entirely different issue I would have to deal with!

It looked like someone on the production line forgot to line up the firewall before they glued the two halves together! To correct this I had to split the forward section of the fuse apart so I could orientate the firewall in the correct position. Upon doing so, I discovered something interesting in the lower section of the cowl bulkhead? It appears FMS needed to counter balance the tail heavy issue on the Corsair by embedding 3-4 oz. of weights in the nose? This should be a viable solution if you're running the stock set-up! I plan to run the heavier SK 50-55 580 with a 5S lipo, so when I'm done with the build I might have to remove these weights to get the proper balance for CG?

Okay, I got my engine compartment issues solved, so now I need to figure out how to re-attach the cowl without the aid of glue? My solution was good 'ole rare earth magnets! My first shot was with the 3/8" round ones, but I didn't feel confident they had enough strength to hold the cowl in place? So I pulled them back out and replaced them with the much stronger square bronze rare earth magnets. 3 of these are enough to hold the cowl securely in place. I matched them up with some 3/8" barbed upholstery flat head tacks secured in the bulkhead with epoxy.

I made a simple little tool to form recessed pockets in the foam to set the magnets in so only 1/16" of the magnet sat above the surface. Secured with epoxy, I then used some packing tape to help contain the magnets in their pockets.

The cowl is now securely in place, and I feel confident it's not coming off without some considerable force!