Van's Air Force
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Rear Seat Stick Bending
- Thread starter Wardo
- Start date
dedgemon
Well Known Member
Ummm. Why???
Tim Fitzpatrick
Active Member
Bent a bit
Wardo,
I bent mine just a little bit which keeps it from hitting the back of the front seat. I have a Ray Allen grip in the back. If you put a bigger grip on the rear stick you will need to bend it more or cut it off a bit shorter to keep it from hitting the front seat backing. Also if you put a large (read fat) person back there you may have to pull the stick anyway because you will not have full aft travel. I will be at Oshkosh in July if you want to take a look, although hopefully you will be there also in your flying RV-8. Best of luck, blue skies
Wardo,
I bent mine just a little bit which keeps it from hitting the back of the front seat. I have a Ray Allen grip in the back. If you put a bigger grip on the rear stick you will need to bend it more or cut it off a bit shorter to keep it from hitting the front seat backing. Also if you put a large (read fat) person back there you may have to pull the stick anyway because you will not have full aft travel. I will be at Oshkosh in July if you want to take a look, although hopefully you will be there also in your flying RV-8. Best of luck, blue skies
Tom Martin
Well Known Member
I believe it is a good thing to make the rear seat stick shorter then the front one. There is no way that you want the passenger in the back to have more leverage then you do. Also, consider not putting any wiring in the rear stick. Thus it becomes very easy to remove for that extra large passenger or times when you might want to but extra baggage in the back seat area.
rear stick woes
I had the same trouble a few years back and dispite measuring the pushrods multiple times I could'nt get it (the rear stick) to stop hitting the seatback. Called Vans and they had "never heard of the problem". I did notice in pics from the factory that there were suspicious paint scrapings on their seat backs as well. Cuting about 3/4 of an inch off solved the problem even with an infinity stick grip. In retrospect if the stick ends up in that position during flight you'll probably be in an outside loop!
Jeff Riblet
RV-8
I had the same trouble a few years back and dispite measuring the pushrods multiple times I could'nt get it (the rear stick) to stop hitting the seatback. Called Vans and they had "never heard of the problem". I did notice in pics from the factory that there were suspicious paint scrapings on their seat backs as well. Cuting about 3/4 of an inch off solved the problem even with an infinity stick grip. In retrospect if the stick ends up in that position during flight you'll probably be in an outside loop!
Jeff Riblet
RV-8
So, I just installed Classic Aero seats in QB RV8 N317DC for start of taxi tests. Rear stick with Infinity stick grip contacts back of front seat and prevents full forward travel of stick. Looks like the rear stick grip needs to come aft at least one inch. Looking for advice on how to bend the rear stick and final shape. Pictures?
Dave Casey
QB RV-8, RV-3
Dave Casey
QB RV-8, RV-3
I'll second Tom's comment - definitely consider shortening the rear stick. If you have a person in the back seat, the stick forces are going to be very low anyways - they won't need much!
