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Cowl Exhaust:

   No, the ES cowl does not have big enough openings around the exhaust.
On the factory prototype, they sort of chewed away a semi-circular area of
the lower cowling just forward of each exhaust tunnel, then ended up putting
a metal flange around it that stuck down into the airstream.  I guess the
idea was to create a lower pressure area in the lee of the flange to help
airflow.  What I did on my first ES, and plan to do again, was to make two
cuts in each side of the lower cowling half, in line with the sides of the
exhaust tunnels and extending forward about ten inches.  Due to the compound
curve of the cowling, you can't just bend this downward; you have to then
cut perpendicular to the first cuts, going toward the center on each side,
but only about a quarter of the way in from each side.  Then I bent the
cut-out flaps down about 1-3/4" and built sidewalls, using 3- or 4-BID
inside and 1BID outside, fairing the whole thing with micro.  The result was
effectively two cowl flaps permanently open.  I think it looked fine, and I
had plenty of cooling flow, with CHT's in a very comfortable range, even
after a long climb in hot weather.  Incidentally, careful attention to
sealing all the baffles with hi-temp RTV is at least as important.

FB Tail:

   My kit was delivered in March, but the new FB tail just arrived a couple
of weeks ago.  Mark Mahnke was kind enough to send me a draft of the new
manual chapter they're working on, which has helped.  I've done a
preliminary fit, and it looks pretty good.  It's certainly going to save a
lot of time, and will avoid the problems of twist, asymetrical foil, and
mismatched VStab and rudder thickness that plagued the earlier tail.  I'm
not too thrilled with how it matches up to the upper fuselage half, however.
They have eliminated the joggles on the forward ends of the VStab skins, so
the upper fus. half just overlaps the VStab skins.  On mine, I ended up with
only about a half inch overlap, so I'll have to be doing a lot of
reinforcing on the inside of that joint to feel good about it.  There still
some head-scratchers on the assembly, however, and I've just mailed Mark a
4-page letter with pics, suggestions for the manual draft, and questions.
I'll keep you posted.

Air Box:

   We've covered this before on the LML, I think, but there is a nice air
box out there somewhere, originally designed when Bill Rogers was building
his S-ES in Florida, that fits snugly between the air intake on the engine
and the baffle behind the spinner.  It uses two large Brackett air filters,
one on each side, and has no alternate air.  The factory folks grumped about
that, but they don't have anything to offer.  I decided that by the time
both those large Brackett filters get clogged with ice or something, you're
in it deep anyway.
   I have the info on who has the air box somewhere, and could probably (?)
come up with it.  The original designer sold the molds, but someone else is
still making them.  It should be somewhere in the archives, though.  If it
doesn't turn up, let me know and I'll root in my files.  I need to do it
anyway, as I plan to buy another.

Jim Cameron, ES #2 in progress

LML website:   http://www.olsusa.com/Users/Mkaye/maillist.html
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Please send your photos and drawings to marvkaye@olsusa.com.