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Other things I'd like to see would be some kind of channel on bottom of the plate, say 1 inch deep in which the bottom edge of the cowling could fit to keep it in place and stop it from slipping above and below the bottom of the plate.
I looked at the plate and bottom of the cowling. The cowling flap at the rear bottom is wider than the plate, so creating a channel, as is, wouldn't work. In addition cowling mounts flush to plate. We could move tank mounts forward a 1/2 or 1 inch, this would push the cowling in that far. Now i think if we cut out the cowling to leave two tabs at the edge of the plate, approx 1/2 inch in from the edge this might hold it in place, i just worry about them breaking off from a hard jolt.
I think if we just extend the end of the plate down 1-2 inches, this would keep the cowling from slipping below the plate. And I think we would have more material back there to work with for attachment points i.e. dry suit bottle bracket, loops of bungee/surg tube for lift/surface marker, butt plate for side mount, etc.
Another idea George had was to use 1 in angle of aly and weld to back of plate to give cowling something to sit on, I like it. We could even use it as an attachment point for the cowling and mabye get rid of the bungees.