I'm not far enough along in the build to have an answer to this, but I'm assuming there is accommodation in the plans to fix the rudder pedals in a position comfortable for the pilot. I'm on the short side, and my wife is even shorter, still, I'd like for her to be able to reach the rudder pedals. How much adjustment is there, and are the rudder pedals designed to be adjustable? Are we just going to have to deal with seatback angles and cushions?
Van's Air Force
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Adjustable Rudder Pedals
- Thread starter asw20c
- Start date
Tom Martin
Well Known Member
There are three positions for the rudder pedals. Six bolts hold the units in place and need to be unbolted to change positions. Not hard to do but not something you would want to do on a regular basis.
I'm a tall guy and I have the seat right back and the rudder bar in the forward position. Even with the passanger seat in the forward position most others struggle to reach the pedals comfortably. Shorter people will want the rudder bar all the way back and the seat forward.
In my case it is easy enough to change the seat position for shorter pilots that I may want to fly my plane, but I will look at some sort of pedal extension that can easily be added to either side. I imagine that someone on VAF has already tackled this problem. Any ideas would be welcome.
In my case it is easy enough to change the seat position for shorter pilots that I may want to fly my plane, but I will look at some sort of pedal extension that can easily be added to either side. I imagine that someone on VAF has already tackled this problem. Any ideas would be welcome.
Crude but effective
I'm almost 6'2". Due to sharing the plane with 2 ladies, 5'2" and 5'3", I was forced to mount the rudder pedals in the aft position. This works for me pretty well and feels fine. I use the seats in the full aft position. Personally I wish Van's would have given us just 1" more aft on the seat tilt. The plane is comfortable enough as-is until I put on the parachute...then I could use 1" more back room...and that's after pulling my seat cushion out to use the chute. So the plane is none too big, even though it's much bigger than the other 2 seaters.
That said, it's also none too small. For the ladies at the above listed heights, there was no way even at full forward seat hinge position to get everything they needed. They can't realistically add a hinge row to move the seat back further forward because the stick would then be too close. But the kit-included flip-up seat back tilt thing isn't enough for them to sit upright enough to get the seating position they require. So we have 4" hard foam (like swimming noodles) rectangles (hollowed out) that we stuff behind the seat for them to hold the seat forward.
Then came the rudder pedals. In both the RV-10 and the RV-14, they couldn't reach the pedals when sitting full forward. Actually, in the RV-10 I don't have the pedals mounted in the aft position, but even if it were, they wouldn't reach. To overcome this limitation, I added full 3" wide blocks over the rudder pedals. I have 2 links here. I should probably re-write the RV-14 page to show the finished product on the RV-14.
RV14/RV10 Pedal Block Attach:
http://www.myrv14.com/N14YT/20160907/index.html
RV10 Pedal Block Photo
http://www.myrv10.com/N104CD/upgrades/20090503/index.html
The pedal design is different between the RV-10 and RV-14. The RV-10 required 2 bolts to hold them in. The RV-14 requires 1. I can get better pictures soon if you need.
Basically it goes like this:
The pedal block is cut nearly full width to the pedal. On my RV-10 pedals on the lower portion I added some moulding trim as the push place to bump it out so that they would know where to push to get rudder only. On the RV-14 I used 1" dowel cut in 1/2 as half-round. The pedals hang lower than the stock pedals, so I cut out a slot on the back side to leave clearance over the bottom pedal bars. So the block only attaches to the pedal. The way I originally built them in the RV-10 I had large carriage bolts from the front with large flat washers on back and a nut. It was a pain to take them on and off because I had to get behind them with a wrench.
On the current pedals, I bought some long black capscrews from Fastenal, countersunk a hole in the front of the pedal for them, and put a washer in the hole. I bought 6" or 9" long hex T-handle wrenches to install them, and riveted plates to the back of the pedals that hold stainless steel Tee nuts. That way you can just stick the bolt in, crank on it with the t-wrench, and have them on and off in about 2 minutes or so, with minimal work.
The RV-14 required less pedal height than the RV-10. The women complain if their feet have to be fully lifted 2 or 3 inches off the floor to be able to push the rudder, so I cut them low enough that they can reach the rudder with heels on the floor. The top edge basically aligns with the top of the pedal. One nice consequence of this is that if they push the bottom of the pedal, it's equal or lower than the bar they'd push on the bare pedal...which helps keep the brakes from being pushed unintentionally. To do the brakes it's the usual lift the feet up and push with the toes. Nothing fancy, nothing non-intuitive. They've worked real well in the RV-10 for many years, and I put them in the -14 last fall and they work great there too.
Additional features are that I used dowels to keep the pedals in position. On the RV-10 pedals this required large dowels...3 or 4 of them. On the RV-14 I used I think maybe 5/16 or 3/8" dowels, I can't remember which, and ran them through the pedal holes. Due to the 2 layer design on the RV-14 pedal it's a tight fit for those positioning dowels. These both keep the pedals from mis-aligning and rocking if you don't get the bolts tight, and they help hold the pedal while you bolt them on. I consider it a safety necessity because if you had misaligned pedals you could potentially have issues with the brakes not functioning properly. With the dowels everything will stay aligned and work great.
Another thing I did is just randomly and sloppily bore out holes on the back to reduce weight. I didn't spend a lot of time on these blocks and it will show when you see them. I could reduce the weight pretty far. Wood is friendly to work with, and I could not think of an easy way to duplicate it with aluminum. I wouldn't even want to bother with fiberglass. Sure, you could do them prettier, but these have worked real well.
With the RV-14 design only requiring one Tee Nut, it's very quick to install a pair. 2 quick bolts and you're done. I built 2 pair for each plane so that the ladies can fly at the same time.
If you're under probably 5'7" or so, you're likely going to need a solution for the pedals and perhaps the seats. Abby also sells seat bottom cushions that are either full size or shortened versions. To avoid stick interference and not have extra seat pads hanging off the front of the seat area, I'd recommend anyone who has primary pilots of shorter height to just get the shorter cushions. They work fine for me at 6'2" as well...the only difference is your thighs will be about 2" less supported at the very front of the cushion...no big deal. For the seat back tilt, I would have liked to not have to use foam, but it worked real well, and is real light. I find no use for the flip-up type because if I made them longer as required, I'd have to strengthen them. So the foam blocks work real well. In fact, originally we just bought a big 3" or 4" swimming pool noodle, the biggest we could find, and cut it in 2 and stuffed them back there. I just went with some rectangle foam later to be able to do it in Black color and make them unable to move out of position.
I'll see about doing some better pics this week.
I'm almost 6'2". Due to sharing the plane with 2 ladies, 5'2" and 5'3", I was forced to mount the rudder pedals in the aft position. This works for me pretty well and feels fine. I use the seats in the full aft position. Personally I wish Van's would have given us just 1" more aft on the seat tilt. The plane is comfortable enough as-is until I put on the parachute...then I could use 1" more back room...and that's after pulling my seat cushion out to use the chute. So the plane is none too big, even though it's much bigger than the other 2 seaters.
That said, it's also none too small. For the ladies at the above listed heights, there was no way even at full forward seat hinge position to get everything they needed. They can't realistically add a hinge row to move the seat back further forward because the stick would then be too close. But the kit-included flip-up seat back tilt thing isn't enough for them to sit upright enough to get the seating position they require. So we have 4" hard foam (like swimming noodles) rectangles (hollowed out) that we stuff behind the seat for them to hold the seat forward.
Then came the rudder pedals. In both the RV-10 and the RV-14, they couldn't reach the pedals when sitting full forward. Actually, in the RV-10 I don't have the pedals mounted in the aft position, but even if it were, they wouldn't reach. To overcome this limitation, I added full 3" wide blocks over the rudder pedals. I have 2 links here. I should probably re-write the RV-14 page to show the finished product on the RV-14.
RV14/RV10 Pedal Block Attach:
http://www.myrv14.com/N14YT/20160907/index.html
RV10 Pedal Block Photo
http://www.myrv10.com/N104CD/upgrades/20090503/index.html
The pedal design is different between the RV-10 and RV-14. The RV-10 required 2 bolts to hold them in. The RV-14 requires 1. I can get better pictures soon if you need.
Basically it goes like this:
The pedal block is cut nearly full width to the pedal. On my RV-10 pedals on the lower portion I added some moulding trim as the push place to bump it out so that they would know where to push to get rudder only. On the RV-14 I used 1" dowel cut in 1/2 as half-round. The pedals hang lower than the stock pedals, so I cut out a slot on the back side to leave clearance over the bottom pedal bars. So the block only attaches to the pedal. The way I originally built them in the RV-10 I had large carriage bolts from the front with large flat washers on back and a nut. It was a pain to take them on and off because I had to get behind them with a wrench.
On the current pedals, I bought some long black capscrews from Fastenal, countersunk a hole in the front of the pedal for them, and put a washer in the hole. I bought 6" or 9" long hex T-handle wrenches to install them, and riveted plates to the back of the pedals that hold stainless steel Tee nuts. That way you can just stick the bolt in, crank on it with the t-wrench, and have them on and off in about 2 minutes or so, with minimal work.
The RV-14 required less pedal height than the RV-10. The women complain if their feet have to be fully lifted 2 or 3 inches off the floor to be able to push the rudder, so I cut them low enough that they can reach the rudder with heels on the floor. The top edge basically aligns with the top of the pedal. One nice consequence of this is that if they push the bottom of the pedal, it's equal or lower than the bar they'd push on the bare pedal...which helps keep the brakes from being pushed unintentionally. To do the brakes it's the usual lift the feet up and push with the toes. Nothing fancy, nothing non-intuitive. They've worked real well in the RV-10 for many years, and I put them in the -14 last fall and they work great there too.
Additional features are that I used dowels to keep the pedals in position. On the RV-10 pedals this required large dowels...3 or 4 of them. On the RV-14 I used I think maybe 5/16 or 3/8" dowels, I can't remember which, and ran them through the pedal holes. Due to the 2 layer design on the RV-14 pedal it's a tight fit for those positioning dowels. These both keep the pedals from mis-aligning and rocking if you don't get the bolts tight, and they help hold the pedal while you bolt them on. I consider it a safety necessity because if you had misaligned pedals you could potentially have issues with the brakes not functioning properly. With the dowels everything will stay aligned and work great.
Another thing I did is just randomly and sloppily bore out holes on the back to reduce weight. I didn't spend a lot of time on these blocks and it will show when you see them. I could reduce the weight pretty far. Wood is friendly to work with, and I could not think of an easy way to duplicate it with aluminum. I wouldn't even want to bother with fiberglass. Sure, you could do them prettier, but these have worked real well.
With the RV-14 design only requiring one Tee Nut, it's very quick to install a pair. 2 quick bolts and you're done. I built 2 pair for each plane so that the ladies can fly at the same time.
If you're under probably 5'7" or so, you're likely going to need a solution for the pedals and perhaps the seats. Abby also sells seat bottom cushions that are either full size or shortened versions. To avoid stick interference and not have extra seat pads hanging off the front of the seat area, I'd recommend anyone who has primary pilots of shorter height to just get the shorter cushions. They work fine for me at 6'2" as well...the only difference is your thighs will be about 2" less supported at the very front of the cushion...no big deal. For the seat back tilt, I would have liked to not have to use foam, but it worked real well, and is real light. I find no use for the flip-up type because if I made them longer as required, I'd have to strengthen them. So the foam blocks work real well. In fact, originally we just bought a big 3" or 4" swimming pool noodle, the biggest we could find, and cut it in 2 and stuffed them back there. I just went with some rectangle foam later to be able to do it in Black color and make them unable to move out of position.
I'll see about doing some better pics this week.
I did get some better pics and added a bit more to the info on how I did the rudder blocks. Here's the link:
http://www.myrv14.com/N14YT/mods/rudder_pedals/index.html
http://www.myrv14.com/N14YT/mods/rudder_pedals/index.html
