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I need to replace my nose bowl on my pa 22/20. Is using the fiberglaess nose bowl agood idea ? There sure is a big Difference in cost. Will they last etc.
I should probably expand on the comments above, The Fiberglass / Composite Nosw Bowl has worked on my Pacer (22-20) for the past 25-30 years, as it was installed during the TailWheel conversion and original documentation did not survive, but assume that it was "documented" in a Field Approval, and it did get mentioned in the log book.
They (composite) nose bowls are initially "afordable", but do require some hand work to make them fit & function as your paticular application dictates. My current nosw bowl is from Spruce, I beleive it is the MC-3A (05-01183) at about 100.00 bucks. Compaired against an Uni-Vair metal one it is cheap, however you will need to do more work to get the final finish etc on the fiberglass one. The Fiberglass one is heavier, but maybe only a couple of pounds. There is a listing for a "Piper Type, two piece Nose Bowl" as well for 225.00 in the 2005 spruce catalog, probably a bit more now.
We got my Dad's from Stoddard's in Anchorage. It is reinforced with Kevlar and has held up well but is around $500. It is 1 lb lighter than aluminum and doesn't need any finish work done to it. I did spend a lot of time stretching a new bottom cowl lip to fit the angle of the lower lip of the nose bowl however. Not sure if this has been corrected as this was several years ago. http://www.stoddardairparts.com/stcmods.htm
I've developed a two-piece carbon fiber nose bowl for the PA-22, photos of prototype attached. I've also developed a lightweight carbon fiber molded console for use with Steve's Aircraft long skylight. It incorporates provisions for inertial reel shoulder harness attachments plus headset jacks. I built the molds so I can do short production runs of these parts. I run a small custom boat building company and have lots of talent in the composites department - might as well make full use of it!
I'm very interested in this thread, not that I'm ready for a nose bowl yet, but I hope to need one soon.
Please bear with me as I am still a rookie here, how do we 'legally' use these parts when they are not FAA approved? Does a copy of someones 337 do it?
Is this a secret handshake, wink wink kind of thing?
I'm really not excited about, or able to, spend $1000s rebuilding the cowling of my Pacer! This sounds like a great option.