Seating in any of the RV side by sides
 

What I would like to do is find a really cheap, used leather office chair from a local thrift store or Craig's list and modify it to have it fit the RV.

Has anyone else toyed with this idea? This picture is really close to the look of the Van's seat already.

Yes, someone has toyed with this idea quite recently:

http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...d.php?t=123563

Interesting but before I would do this, I would make sure I could answer these questions first:

1- Safety. Does it meet any type of standards of engineering for use in an airplane? How will it react in an accident? Fire? Fumes when exposed to airplane conditions? Sun light exposure? Hot days?

2- Practical. Will it fit? How much does it weigh? Are the angles close enough to match the floor and back of your plane? Modifications needed? Worth having a plane with office seats in it?

On the surface it looks light a realy nice fit when you remove all the base and arm rest. Even looks like the proper shape.

You will get answers about ho the seats are not fire rated and the smoke from them will kill you. It may be too late by the time the seats catch fire if you are in the air so any seat or bale of hay would be about the same.

Inflight is not the only place to think about fire. If you have to put down in a field and rip a wing off or tip over, fire is a real strong possibility. These planes are not the quickest to get out of - especially when they have flipped and that is a large percentage (guess only) of the accidents.

It is your airplane and you can put what you want in it. We all make choices on our perceived risk associated with our choice.

I went with leather seats from Abby and am very happy. They were not cheap, but I feel they were a good value for what I got.

In looking at the seats you show, they look pretty bulky. The cockpit is not that big and with those seats, it may get a bit tight in there. With the sloped seat hole, you will need some serious modifications with those seats.

Maybe look at some boat seats. They are much cheaper and the bumps you hit in choppy water are every bit as hard as rough air. There are some real good seat design plans to make your own.

It is real money we are all spending and if you can find a way to save some and be satisfied with your choice, go for it. That is why we build rather than buy!

practice seat found
 

The chair....



The price....



Yea, it's missing a wheel, but I don't need no stinking wheels. Gonna give it a try. Who knows?!

As for the particulars of meeting standards - I'm not concerned. I'm already going to be flying an airplane that doesn't meet the "standards" hence the "special" airworthiness certificate.

Weight - we'll see.

Fire - I believe that if the fire is small enough, the fire extinguisher will put it out, if it's too big for the extinguisher - I'm a goner anyhow.

Accident - I haven't seen any data that would indicate that the pilot or passenger of a plane survived the crash because the seats were of a particular standard. That data my exsist.

Fit - I will modify it to fit and use boat foam under main seating.

This is all an experiment at this point. My goal is to have them look like they were made for the plane.

..... again, we'll see.

Go for it Mike. If you need any dimensions of my seats, let me know. I tend to agree with you about the fire issues. Have fun - that's what it is about.

Robert,

Totally agree with everything you are saying. Just pointing out some possible ramifications of mounting an office chair in your high performance aircraft. :D

What cha gonna do bout the split where the stick goes?

I've gone through three "leather" office chairs at home. Every one has been made from "top grain" leather, which is just the top, cosmetic layer of the leather bonded to something else underneath. Every chair has died in about two years, as the leather starts to split near the stitching and eventually rips somewhere.

I'm very fond of my Classic Aero leather seats, and have no regrets about the cost.

Resale
 

Those $8 seats will probably affect the value of yor plane by more, perhaps multiple times, then the cost difference of two seats designed, fabricated and intended for RVs