After much consternation and deliberation I finally bit the bullet and dove in to the "Almost and RV14" seat mod on my RV7. I watched the video Allen made and found it intriguing and had to agree that more room in my cockpit would be a good thing. I did feel that I was too upright in my airplane and too close to the panel (I'm 6'1"/225 lbs.) The mod seemed to be well thought out and engineered so I felt confident that tearing out a structural bulkhead and replacing with a stainless steel bar would result in a safe modification.
I went ahead and ordered the kit, it was in stock so I received it in 3 days. The parts were labeled "RV9" so I called to confirm that the kit would also work in a -7. I got a very prompt reply to my voicemail and was assured that the parts were correct for a -9 and -7.
In essence the kit was installed as Allan demonstrated with a few minor issues. The "simple" removal of the stock seatback bulkhead is a bit more involved than a few rivets on the top and side. In reality, on a completed aircraft there are several rivets that need to be removed and many are tough to get to.
There are about 15 rivets on each end that you get to deal with. I couldn't get to many of the manufactured heads so I removed the shop heads with creative dremel usage. It took about 1-1/2 hours to remove the old bulkhead and another hour to fit the new one. Once the old parts are taken out the process is simple as shown on the video. All I can add on the installation is that the center/forward bracket needed a little trimming along with the side flap drive covers to allow the new center cap screw holes to line up with the existing nutplates.
Also the left and right decorative covers need some relief cut in to allow for a rivet from the longeron that prevents the cover from sitting in the vertex of the longeron. Alternatively you could remove the offending rivet and put a new rivet through the canopy rail/longeron/cover. Since the covers are cosmetic and the hanger was really hot and humid that day I elected to go the relief route and press on. I painted the aluminum parts to match the interior and polished the stainless and am pleased with the appearance. I am not a big fan of the feel of the seat backs against the steel crossbrace so I installed some bumpers on the forward face of the crossbrace. (Plastic #8 screw covers from the aviation aisle at Home Depot. Three per side. Not shown in the picture.)
Finally got a chance to fly yesterday and am very pleased with my new airplane. Visibility over the nose while taxiing obviously suffers a bit but that is a small price to pay for the extra room in the cockpit. I do have to lean forward to get to the map box on the far right side of the panel but everything else is still within easy reach. Sight picture on landing is slightly different but I don't anticipate any problems getting used to it. If I did decide that I didn't want a full 4" aft on the seatback it would be very simple to fab a bracket for the seatback that would put the seatback in whatever position I needed. In short, I am glad I did it. I'm sure this modification will make longer trips much more pleasant.
I went ahead and ordered the kit, it was in stock so I received it in 3 days. The parts were labeled "RV9" so I called to confirm that the kit would also work in a -7. I got a very prompt reply to my voicemail and was assured that the parts were correct for a -9 and -7.
In essence the kit was installed as Allan demonstrated with a few minor issues. The "simple" removal of the stock seatback bulkhead is a bit more involved than a few rivets on the top and side. In reality, on a completed aircraft there are several rivets that need to be removed and many are tough to get to.
There are about 15 rivets on each end that you get to deal with. I couldn't get to many of the manufactured heads so I removed the shop heads with creative dremel usage. It took about 1-1/2 hours to remove the old bulkhead and another hour to fit the new one. Once the old parts are taken out the process is simple as shown on the video. All I can add on the installation is that the center/forward bracket needed a little trimming along with the side flap drive covers to allow the new center cap screw holes to line up with the existing nutplates.
Also the left and right decorative covers need some relief cut in to allow for a rivet from the longeron that prevents the cover from sitting in the vertex of the longeron. Alternatively you could remove the offending rivet and put a new rivet through the canopy rail/longeron/cover. Since the covers are cosmetic and the hanger was really hot and humid that day I elected to go the relief route and press on. I painted the aluminum parts to match the interior and polished the stainless and am pleased with the appearance. I am not a big fan of the feel of the seat backs against the steel crossbrace so I installed some bumpers on the forward face of the crossbrace. (Plastic #8 screw covers from the aviation aisle at Home Depot. Three per side. Not shown in the picture.)
Finally got a chance to fly yesterday and am very pleased with my new airplane. Visibility over the nose while taxiing obviously suffers a bit but that is a small price to pay for the extra room in the cockpit. I do have to lean forward to get to the map box on the far right side of the panel but everything else is still within easy reach. Sight picture on landing is slightly different but I don't anticipate any problems getting used to it. If I did decide that I didn't want a full 4" aft on the seatback it would be very simple to fab a bracket for the seatback that would put the seatback in whatever position I needed. In short, I am glad I did it. I'm sure this modification will make longer trips much more pleasant.