Opinion on pedal placement

[sbalmos]

I need some opinion or insight on where best to place my rudder pedals. I know my seats and interior will increase the sitting height, compared to just sitting on the floor seat pans and making airplane noises. But I seriously doubt it would move me forward any in seating position.

For reference, I am 6'0, with a 32" inseam for leg length. Below is a picture of where my knees land, basically at the forward edge of the center bulkhead.



At the forward-most position of the rudder pedals, with the minimum distance back from the firewall of 3", the pedals are clearly too far forward for my toes to hit.



The final picture is after moving the pedals back to where my toes basically barely touch.



But this looks almost too far aft? If I moved the pedals completely aft to what might be a comfortable position, I think the bearing blocks would be right up against the forward vertical bulkheads.

Opinions? Too far aft, too far forward, where should I try and position them next? And yes, I'll be drilling a number of bolt holes for various bearing block positions. I just want to try and find a close to comfortable position now first.

[Steve Melton]

Scott, I adjusted mine so I am leaning back as far as possible because after some time I felt it was more comfortable. This resulted in pedals mid position, lower seat hinge in middle position and back rest full aft. My inseam = 32 inch. My seat cushions are very thick so keep that in mind. You are welcome to test fit mine. Steve

[Jesse]

You need to test it with cushions. That changes everything. Borrow a set and try it again. I'm 6'1" & I'm uncomfortable without the "Almost a -14" mod. I think pedals full forward would be best for me.

[crabandy]

Seat cushions really change the geometry, A BUNCH!

I am only 5'10" with a 32" inseam and I have the rudder pedals as far forward as possible. I have the bottom of my seat back in the front-most position, and the back rest cut down to allow as much of a reclined angle as possible. It fits me perfectly.

I think it has to do a lot with your natural driving position, I like to drive "leaned back." If you like the more upright seating when you drive I would position the rudder pedals at the mid-point.

[eddieseve]

I'm 6'1" no idea about my inseam, but I have the rudder pedals in the middle position.

Don't forget the seat back will actually move you forward a lot.

Cheers

[bruceh]

I'm 6'2" with a 35" inseam. I have the pedals all the way forward and this works fine with my long legs. On long flights I can stretch out my legs towards the center tunnel if needed, but I'm usually just resting my feet on the pedals.

The plans have you drill 3 different locations for adjustability, but changing this would require new rudder pedal links. Not hard to do, but certainly would be a hassle to move them later. I didn't make the rudder cable linkages until late in final assembly. By then you should have seat cushions to sit on and really fine tune the position. My advice is to drill the 3 positions and later determine the best one for your legs and then create the rudder links to fit the chosen position.

[MikeyDale]

I found the rudder cable lengths had more to do with the pedal positions than the mounting holes. The mounting holes just changed the angle of the pedals slightly. I chose the farthest set of holes as I have a tendency to ride the brakes too much in most of the aircraft I have flown.

[Mycool]

The first thing you need to do is to put some shoes on!!!

For crying out loud.

[N941WR]

I'm the same size with the same inseam and I put them full forward.

It looks like your peddles are at different angles, which could be a problem. My solution was to jig up the rudder bars on my work bench and clamp the two rudders together so they were side-by-side. Then I put a long piece of pencil sized dowel horizontally in front of each rudder pedal and forward of the two vertical supports. When the peddles lined up, I drilled the brake master cylinders to them.

(Not to worry, replacement peddle parts aren't that expensive. I had to buy new ones when I found out mine weren't lining up.)

And I keep an old pillow case in back so when I have muddy and/or wet shoes I have something to put them in before getting in the plane. I then fly in my socks until shut down, where I toss my shoe bag out of the plane before getting out.

[sbalmos]

Fair enough, I'll wait until I have some cushions in the spring or so. I was planning on drilling multiple sets of holes anyway like the plan says - back hole becomes the front hole of the next position, etc. Maybe a set of holes in-between, depending on distance from a neighboring hole. Thanks all.