Eagler's Nest
Airframes => Single Seaters => XL => Topic started by: 914pete on July 27, 2017, 06:14:49 AM
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I spent a good part of the day yesterday building my seat. I added an extra vertical strip to make it 2" wider but kept the 36" vertical dimension. It definitely was a little tedious but once in the groove, kinda fun to construct. I rounded the edges of each aluminum strip, scuffed with a scotch brite, and pre-painted each strip prior to assembly. I positioned the weave on a thick piece of corrugated cardboard and taped down the 36" verticals to hold everything in place. Then I center punched and drilled through the aluminum into the cardboard. Once done riveting, it was easy to just peel the whole thing off the cardboard. It came out really nice. It's light, strong and surprisingly rigid. Now, the bad part....I think the 36" vertical dimension is too short for me. With the tail wheel on the ground I felt like I was leaning way too far back. I propped up the tail with my bike stand to simulate level flight and I felt like I would definitely be slipping forward all the time. There seems to not be enough length to form a "seat". I only have an inch or so of head room and my feet with bent knees are almost touching the firewall and my knees the top bar of station #2. I can't see having enough room for the rudder pedals. I'm 5'9" 170lbs. My first thought was that maybe it will stretch over time? Seems pretty rigid. I will probably add 6" extensions to the verticals and play around with it a little and eventually build another one.
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I think the seat was a carry over from the original LE. I have seen some just add the strips at the top rivet'd on, and you can always add another vertical strip once done it may still look good.
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I added 7" to the vertical strips. So they are now 43" long. It's a much better "sling" now. Probably could have gone 7.5". I would have rather used full 43" length verticals and might some day build another seat but hardly noticeable add on and seems very strong. I folded over 1/4" on half of them and slid under the last horizontal strip before riveting which adds some strength. Ended up using 16 horizontal strips. Much more comfortable.
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I have discovered the same issue, and will probably be adding strips as others have done. I may build a new one tho. Undecided yet.