No handles etc. are necessary
I have flown several young eagles, small and large - some that can barely see over the canopy rail and others that are well over 6' tall - male and female. None of them had any problem what so ever getting in and out of my RV-6A. I am 70 years old and getting in and out of the sliding canopy RV-6A is no problem for my wife and I. I did two things that are related to the process but not essential.
First, protection of your seat. I bought a small rug from Home Depot and cut it to cover the seat with a notch for the stick. I just used it that way at first but it shead particles off of the back and edges. I cut a piece of cloth to cover the bottom of the rug and a piece to go around the edge. I sewed these in place and it has been perfect ever since. I put the rug in the seat and the passenger steps directly on it to get in and out of the plane. Young Eagles just sit on it but I pull it out from under my wife before she sits down completely and arfter she raises up I put it under her to get out. Very simple - even a little special sometimes.
Second, protection of the arms. The support points to work your way up off of the seat are the cross bar behind the seatbacks and the canopy rail. We found ourselves getting small cuts on our inboard arms while getting out of the plane. It happens when the forearm contacts the sheetmetal of the seatback. My solution for that was to mount a piece of 1/16"x1/2"x1/2" aluminum angle across the gap at the top of the seatbacks. The angle is mounted with a #8 flathead screw at each end and a platenut on the two seatbacks. The angle is countersunk to accept the screw heads. The angle between the seatbacks is padded and upholstered. The padding is a wide piece of flat foam cut to the width to be padded between the seats. You have seen these rolled up pastery cakes or rolls I'm sure and that is what the foam looks like wrapped around the center of the angle. On side is sprayed with 3M Super 77 upholstery adhesive and when it becomes tacky, press one end to the angle and wrap it around so the foam sticks to the previous layer. To upholster it requires three pieces of upholstery, one for each end cap and one for the exterior wrap. The end caps look like fat asterisks so you can fold the edges over the exterior surface without doubling up the cloth. Make cut outs fot the angle in the center of each end cap, spray on some super 77, when tacky press them in place and fold over the tabs. For the main surface cut a piece of upholstery that is 1.5" wider and longer than the foam surface. Cut off the corners so that the edges can be folded over and produce a rectangle of the size necessary to cover the pad without overlapping at the corners. Spray Super 77 on the backside edges of the cloth and when tacky fold the edges in to adhear to itself (finishing the edges). Then spray the cloth inside surface and when tacky apply it to the outer surface of the foam. Finally, take a needle and thread and sew the main surface to the end caps and itself. No more cuts and no maintenance required since implemented.
Bob Axsom
