Hi, I have a 1979 Gulfstream(Grumman) AA 5A.

Need to change landing light bulb.

Removed top and bottom cover screws O.k. Left and right screws turn but refuse to come out.

Suspect captive nuts are no longer captive!

It is a single piece nose cowl, no access to back of screws.

It has been suggested I will have to drill them out but expect the screws will just spin with the drill.

So what should be a simple job looks like becoming an expensive maintenance engineer job.

The only inexpensive solution I can think off would be to cut the cover so it could be pulled out from under one of the screws and then turned out of the way on the last screw.

That should give access to the bulb.

Any advice or suggestion on the above method or an alternative method.

I have seen the mod to split the front cowl, but has it involves removing the prop it is not something I will be doing.