Jaguar Cowlings & Owner Comments
AuC.0001: 2000. N28840.
Mock-up. If I had to start somewhere, it would be with the first prototype. It took a full year to get to this point from the first foam and Bondo mock-up. It underwent MANY fine changes. No paint or anything. Changes were made primarily to the way the center, forward, lower cowlings were made. This cowling was scrapped. Tooling was modified.
AuC.0002: 2002. N58018. This was just a Traveler test fit. The cowling was modified again then scrapped after new tooling was made.
AuC.0003: 2002. Various. Test fit on several planes over several months. The cowling was modified again then scrapped after new tooling was made.
AuC.0004: 2003. N119ST.
The first cowling out of the new tooling. It began life as a 2-layer splash. After verifying the fit, Dave, my fabricator, make it strong enough to fly. I installed it on N119ST and flight testing began (Brian Sandberg had left N119ST with me to use for flight testing while he was stationed in Afghanistan). I found a couple of areas where the air just didn't do what I wanted it to do. This cowling was scrapped after making new tooling.
This cowling was then modified to be able to take different, one-piece, lower cowlings. I flew about 30 flights with 5 different lower cowling and cooling air exit area configurations. I watched the behavior of the air using dyed mineral oil. There were still two small areas (one in each inlet) where there is some flow recirculation. Not great, but not bad enough to fix. By this time, Brian was back in the States. I put his original cowling back on.This cowling was HEAVILY modified more than once. All new tooling was made after the final configuration was determined.
AuC.0005: 2004. N28747.
This, the fifth version of the cowling, is the cowling that went on N28747. This cowling, and the tooling that made it, was the version used to for FAA flight testing and certification. Installation on -747 was done on a Field Approval.-747 was in Experimental Airworthiness for the entire duration of the Flight Test Program on N1976T. That's the cowling you see in the 5th picture. I made about 50 flights with dyed mineral oil to watch the behavior of the air flow on the new cowling (including all of the minor modifications I made looking for speed).
Summer 2005: I contacted the FAA to start certification of the STC for the Jaguar Cowling. As it turns out, I couldn't use N28747. I had to find a stock Tiger, get the tooling certified first. Then, get the cowling certified that it came out of the tooling. Then, get started on the STC process. It was a major set back since -747 was already set up to do the flight testing.
AuC.0006: 2006. N1976T.
This is the cowling that went on N1976T. This plane and Jaguar Cowling combination was used from 2005 to 2009 for all certification flight testing. This cowling was the first STC'd cowling.
Jaguar Cowling STC approved August 2009: SA02251LA
AuC.0007: 2010. N3752W.
In Martin's words. "With my old cowling, during routine 100+ degree summer days in Northern California, I often observed 400+ CHTs on my JPI700 in normal cruise (normally 2600 RPM@8000'). With the Jaguar Cowling, I'm able to keep the CHTs around 380 in cruise. In terms of speed, I'm seeing around 143-144 TAS at 10K feet. That's 5-6 knots faster than with the production cowling."
AuC.0008: 2010. N923TE.
Ned really wanted a Jaguar cowling on his AG5B. Since the inlet is totally different, the first step was to change the airbox to an AA5B airbox. Converting it was easy. Dealing with the approval, a little more work. At issue was the 3-Blade prop. My DER wouldn't sign off on it. Not sure why. My guy at the Sacto FSDO, Richard Dilbeck, came through with flying colors. The spinner is a little smaller on the MT Prop. Other than that, everything went quite well.
AuC.0009: 2010. N119ST.
N119ST flew all 6 of the original prototypes. This is also the plane on which I did all of the original, non-certified, flight testing. 9-Sierra-Tango was supposed to get the first production Jaguar Cowling. You know how that goes.
Brian: "I reliably get 5-10 KTAS better than book for any given RPM, and about 0.5 gph less than the performance charts predict, all with cooler and more even CHTs. I once did a speed run over the ocean a cool spring day and saw 151 KTAS with CHTs at 390-410 degF. I couldn't be happier with the results. Keep up the good work."
AuC.0010: 2010. N28218.
Phillip Kelsey: "I have seen a dramatic decrease in the spread between hottest and coldest cylinders. The cowling takes less than half the time to R&R versus the old one. I also used 10 pound struts to hold the cowl lids open. I spent well over 120 hours installing it due in part to not devoting full time to the project.
AuC.0011: 2010. N28739.
Boris Veledritsky was the first onwer to install his own cowling. He and I exchanged many phone calls sorting out the details of the installation instructions. Boris provided a lot of information on his experiences and I incorporated them into the installation instructions. Now, the bad news is, I can't find any of the pictures he sent. This is a picture of me and the first tooling on the new cowling master.
AuC.0012: 2012. N1515R. A 1975 TIger, Serial Number 0015, with a Jaguar Cowling installed by the owner, Ray Owen of Ohio.
AuC.0013: 2011. VH-RTZ.
A customer 'Down Under.' This is Andrew Kerans' plane. Andrew lives in Australia. So, there are Jaguar Cowlings on two continent. I don't have a lot of information on the results of this Jaguar Cowling. I have had two other inquiries from Australia, one from England, and one from Belgium. Europe has their own FAA and just sending them a cowlingwith a U.S. STC is a no-no.
AuC.0014: 2012: N18AP.
Matt Drahazl: "Full throttle @ At 4500 feet I get 140 knots TAS @ 2700 RPM. I never saw 140 knots before. Pre-jaguar - for a brief moment, I could get about 132 KTAS before CHTs were blowing past 450. Now, the CHTs are straight line across at 428 degrees at 140 knots TAS. CHTs on the JagCowl CHTS are so even that you could draw a line across them with a straightedge, and they are at least 30 degrees lower than they were before the JagCowl installation."
NOTE: Both Matt's and Dan's (N4518B) Jaguar Cowlings were installed by Brooks Margolian, Orange, MA.
AuC.0015: 2012. N4518B.
"I was quite happy with the quality of the full Jaguar kit. I'm not a mechanic, yet I had no trouble understanding the kit directions and assisting my A&P with the install. With my old cowling,the highest cruise CHTs ran in the 390s. With the Jaguar cowl, my highest CHT is in the 360s. On a hot day, I might get a 369 on the CHT and the oil temps are consistently just past the central hash mark, far from red line. One surprise I had was the better visibility over the nose! My old cowl kept developing new cracks and was always needing patches riveted in. I'm certainly happy to leave that behind.
AuC.0016: 2013. N1540R. Bill's "Sweet Sixteen."
This "Sweet 16" cowling was a challenge. This was the first cowling to be pre-fit with fuselage mock-up. Pre-fitting to a known engine location seems to help a lot. The weird thing I noted was that the AG5B series doesn't use the same screw spacing as the real Grummans (I used 626 for initial fitting).Why they changed the screw spacing is a mystery to me.
I also had 'Composite Dave' change the front just slightly for a better fit. Then came the paint matching. 'Mr Bill' wanted the cowling to be painted and matched to his plane. Hmm. Have I told you that I hate painting stripes and clear? I used the ELT cover to color match. It's close. It looks pretty good actually. Not long after this Jaguar Cowling installation, we had to replace his nose gear torque tube (and clean up the floor). Then we did a new interior. It's a pretty sharp plane. Look for it at West coast fly-ins.
AuC.0017: 2012. N81166.
This was Dean White's plane. Great guy. I miss him. I was at the hangar one day in 2012 when Dean flew in, handed me a check for $5,000, and said, "I want one of your cowlings." What a guy. No BS. His cowling was installed 9 months later.
AuC.0018: 2012. N626FT. Purchased in 2012.
I installed this cowling and flew it in 2016. 626 is an AG5B and needed a different inlet. I designed an inlet for the AG5B and stacked the STC's. I saw 145 knots true.
One of the comments I've noticed from a couple of owners is "not much change in speed." I didn't pay much attention to this until Bob, N28697 (see below) said he hadn't noticed much difference in speed. Since I flew Bob's plane right after I installed his cowling and saw 144 knots TAS, I asked Bob about his flying technique. He commented that he flies at 2550 to 2650 rpm. There is no way to see what the maximum True Airspeed is unless you're Wide-Open-Throttle at or near sea-level.
AuC.0019: 2013. N28697.
I installed this and flew it in 2013. I saw 144 knots true at WOT at 1000 MSL and 2700 rpm. The paint used on '697 was a Base-coat/Clear-coat PPG paint. This was only the second time I'd painted clear. I'm not good at paint clear.
AuC.0020: 2013. N513RM.
This was the second plane to have a cowling pre-fit on the mock-up. This Tiger was previously owned by a long-time Grumman pilot who did all of his own maintenance. To say this plane needed to be annualed by someone who knew what they were doing is putting it mildly. From a fiberglass cover over the engine (no baffle seals) that was chafing the upper cowling, improperly installed brake master cylinders, gouges in the axle shafts, leaking #2 intake gasket, nose gear yoke bearings worn through, improperly installed wheel fairings, to black tape on the alternator wiring that was not only burned, but chafed through about 60%, the entire plane was AFU. I cringe when I see this type of maintenance.
AuC.0021: 2013. N4524P.
This cowling was sold to Dave Steward, Bob Steward's brother. I think the plan was to have Bob Steward install the cowling. Unfortunately, Bob passed away before that could be done. Dave took his plane and cowling to FletchAir to have the cowling installed. Let's just say that even though no problems with the installation instructions had been encountered so far, they had a tough time completing all of the steps properly.
AuC.0022: 2015: N4533U. Sold to Sam Boyle.
AuC.0023: 2017. N4532K.
Sold to Paul Franklin. I put a lot of time into this plane/cowling. Somehow, Paul got the idea that the price of the cowling included the installation. He refused to pay me for fitting the cowling and painting the inside. I lost about $8,000 on this deal.
AuC.0024: 2017: N9186M.
Larry bought two cowlings at cost in 2012. The caveat was that they needed to go onto an AG5B. For the next few years, I designed and STC'd a NACA inlet for AG5Bs that could use the AG5B carb-heat airbox. I used N626FT for about 4 years during all of the development and installation on 626.
AuC.0025: 2017. N26781. This is Bobby Denham's Tigerized Cheetah. He doesn't push his plane hard either.
AuC.0026: 2018. N28747. I started the installation onto '747 in 2018. I'm just finishing up some details. Soon. Very Soon.
AuC.0027: 2020. N4519C. I offered a $1000 discount the Jaguar Cowling. I needed 3 buyers to make the discount worth while. John Hosler was the first.
AuC.0028: 2020. N1504R. Paul Weschler was the second.
AuC.0029: 2020. NTBD. I'm paying for this. I still need a buyer.