Dear subscribers,

 

After reading the interesting posts about the firewall I wanted to share with you what I did. This will not work for the turbine versions but I think is doable for versions with straight firewall.

 

Originally I had the Lancair blanked in. Mine was in pretty bad shape, had all kind of holes and paint spots on it. A new blanked from Lancair runs around 700 $. Therefore I started looking for different options.

 

I bought an insulation blanked from Grob aircraft (was approx 170$ - I even have one left if anybody is interested – sometimes I just buy material twice in case for a first messed up try J)

It is called Marsotex Tyglas-isolation. It is in approx 1500 certified trainer planes that they built.

 

I put stainless sheet metal (0.5 mm = 0.02”) on top of it. I had it laser cut but if I would do it again I would make a cardboard template and cut the sheet metal manual (my firewall shape is not symmetrical and it took me 3 attempts to get all the coordinates right). The plane surface is pretty easy. Where it gets tricky is the pockets for the exhaust. I made cardboard templates and the cut the sheet metal accordingly. I had my triangles welded in (you need a really skilled welder for this since the material burns through easily while welding – it took my friend from work approx. 3 hrs). An easier option is that you rivet the pieces together (I would try this the next time).

 

My total material expense was approx 350$ (not counting the messed um material). I did not weigh my parts but I think they are not significantly heavier than the Lancair option. It is just a lot more work.

 

Regards

 

Ralf