7-4-2020

For my air inlet I wanted to retain the "Bearhawk chin" look but determined the sheetmetal piece provided in the kit was simply too large for my application.

I mocked up my initial idea planning to make the necessary parts out of fiberglass (see photo 1) but after cutting out the section of the engine cowling to provide clearance for the alternate air box I realized there was simply not enough room between the ALT AIR box and where I wanted to place the inlet filter.

To achieve my original idea (of a flat inlet filter) I would need enough space behind the filter to construct a diffuser housing which could tie into the ALT AIR box. Photo 2 shows how little space I really have.

This forced me to sit back and reconsider my options and in the end, I decided to follow the advice of the good folks at API and simply use unfiltered ram air as my primary air source and filtered ALT AIR as my secondary air source.

In reality, the only real "downside" to this setup will be adjusting my flying technique to use ALT AIR on the ground when in dusty or potentially dusty conditions.