Electric seat back adjuster.

I finished up the design and building of the electric seat back adjuster to compliment the almost rv-14 mod i did to my tailwheel rv6. The seat mod worked too good and it was difficult to see over the nose for taxi, takeoff and landing when leaned all the way back. I designed this system to easily remove the seat for maintenance and to be infinitely adjustable. Run the seat foward and pull the two pins. The seat comes out while the motors stay in the plane. This way i can lean up to see to taxi and lean way back to cruise long distance. I am 6’1” and 250lbs and these two mods turn my rv6 into a very roomy cockpit and really help my bad lower back. The electric seat back adjuster added 5lbs. I ordered two 2” linear actuators with brackets from windy nation on ebay and bought the aluminum strip at lowes. I wired the system to a momentary on and center off switch just like a flap switch. I had to modify the brackets on the seat slightly to clear the corrugation on the seat back.

Youtube video. https://youtu.be/T6QmN3YntCc

My thinking for that same problem was always to install electric actuation into the seat bottom rather than the back , hinged at the front or maybe from the back. allowing a couple inches of heads up for taxi and or landing, Especially for shorter pilots. I like your seat back adjuster nice installation job. I might just add that one to my project to do list . Great job thanks for the idea. Dennis R

Nice work

Sweeet. Adding both of your mods to my list.

Simply marvelous to work out a solution to your problem. The engineer in me starts thinking about "optimization" possibilities, but your magical power seat looks like it works. I like. Good on you for getting with it!

at 6'4" I'll likely never need this in my 7 but I love it! Nice work!!!

Clever! I like the capability!

The old “Heavy Glider” used to have electric seats, and you used a different position for, uh “take-off” than you did for landing. So if you had to abort and go back for an immediate landing, you had to motor your seat up quite a ways so you had good eye position for the flare. But....the seat motors were powered by the AC buses, which also fed the engine controllers, and a spike - such as from starting or stopping a seat motor - could glitch the controller and shut down an engine. So you had a specific time window to adjust the seats - not to early, not to late.....

Memories - and the things that stick in our minds!

Now in your case - what happens if one actuator fails to move? There I go again - always worrying about failure cases.....

Paul

Ironflight said:

Now in your case - what happens if one actuator fails to move? There I go again - always worrying about failure cases.....

Paul

Click to expand...

Once an engineer, always an engineer Before you know it, Paul's going to have you doing an FTA on this setup LOL!

Ironflight said:

Clever! I like the capability!

The old ?Heavy Glider? used to have electric seats, and you used a different position for, uh ?take-off? than you did for landing. So if you had to abort and go back for an immediate landing, you had to motor your seat up quite a ways so you had good eye position for the flare. But....the seat motors were powered by the AC buses, which also fed the engine controllers, and a spike - such as from starting or stopping a seat motor - could glitch the controller and shut down an engine. So you had a specific time window to adjust the seats - not to early, not to late.....

Memories - and the things that stick in our minds!

Now in your case - what happens if one actuator fails to move? There I go again - always worrying about failure cases.....

Paul

Click to expand...

I have flown it with the seat in both extreme positions. If an actuator fails, leave them alone and go land as normal. It just takes a lot more effort to see over the nose to taxi back to the hangar.