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edweeks

Member
Ok, this question may be embarrassingly dumb but?.When you?re flying along and want to, say, get a bottle of water, or a camera, or a pack of gum etc. from the baggage area, what do you do? I mean, I?m not able to turn around and reach over and down into the baggage area. If I?m flying by myself, I just pile everything I might want onto the right seat. When I?m flying with my wife, I?ve been piling everything onto her. She?s getting a little tired of being first officer/storage shelf. Is there some trick that I?m missing? Am I the only guy who occasionally finds himself wanting something from the baggage area. Or do I just need to work on my flexibility? Yoga?
 
I think you've already answered your own question; just fly solo! More room for your stuff, your plane will perform better, you can do more aerobatics without any complaints, you'll have the freedom to scratch and adjust things as necessary, you can add gas to the plane while inflight, and no one will be looking at you like you're an idiot with that big dumb grin on your face! You may feel guilty at first, but that will soon pass. Good luck!
 
Partial solutions

I have the same problem, even solo. My aging shoulders won't take reaching back and down as required and not everything fits or belongs on the right seat.

Technique 1: have a cover for the baggage area such as comes with the interiors from Abby at FlightLine Interiors. I put charts there, for example.

Technique 2: have your wife unbuckle, turn 180, kneel on the seat and reach over.

Technique 3: turn on the autopilot, turn 180, kneel on the seat and reach over.

Technique 4: as in #1, planning ahead is needed, but pockets and such are good - forward of the seats of course.

and finally, take a look at Bison's stuff.
 
Pre-planning

captainron said:
I think you've already answered your own question; just fly solo!
Click to expand...

Hmm. I guess that tells us something about Captain Ron's social life. :rolleyes: I love having my honey in the right seat.

I try to address this problem mostly by pre-planning and staging. My plane has pockets in the interior down in the wheel well. That's where back-up charts, plates, flashlights, extra pens, and checklists live. In the pocket on the passenger/co-pilot's side carries the canopy breaking tool, barf bags, another flashlight, and stick-on shades. Water bottles, snacks, and charts I'm actively using sit in the area between the two seats. On cross-country trips, I have a bag with other potential emergency things like a hand radio, back-up hand GPS, airport directory, and yet more lights is staged immediately behind the center upright bar at the front of the luggage area. If there is other baggage, I make sure the emergency bag is wedged on top. I find I can reach into it with minor difficulty from my seat with the shoulder straps and sometimes seat belt loosened. (I'm expecting the autopilot to make that easier.) But, I have only dug into it a couple of times while in flight.
 
hevansrv7a said:
SNIP

Technique 2: have your wife unbuckle, turn 180, kneel on the seat and reach over.

Technique 3: turn on the autopilot, turn 180, kneel on the seat and reach over.
SNIP
Click to expand...


A parachute would be advised when doing this. This is very, very dangerous... if you bump the stick forward, you may go for a ride outside your plane. A lot of mobility can be had by loosening the shoulder straps and slipping them off the shoulders.
 
Louise Hose said:
Hmm. I guess that tells us something about Captain Ron's social life. :rolleyes: I love having my honey in the right seat.
Click to expand...

And that's the way I feel. My side by side is built with the full intention of having my wife go along for the cross countries. We've done all our trips together for 37 years, with the exception of a few business trips here and there. And that's the way I prefer it.

L.Adamson -- RV6A

edit: Okay...........she say's theres a few trips with the guys once and a while. Deer hunting, Lake Powell, etc. But I still like taking cross country trips with other people to enjoy all the mountain west scenery around here.
 
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L.Adamson said:
And that's the way I feel. My side by side is built with the full intention of having my wife go along for the cross countries. We've done all our trips together for 37 years, with the exception of a few business trips here and there. And that's the way I prefer it.

L.Adamson -- RV6A
Click to expand...

OK, on a serious note, there is an airport community close to where I live. A resident there had a homebuilt that apparently created heartburn for some of the residents there that knew the plane. He finally convinced his wife, who didn't want to fly, to go up for a ride. As a result, at the double funeral there were three very sad little orphans.
As a result, my wife and I who have two young kids, have decided to limit dual exposure in homebuilts, warplanes, and the like. After I finish building and reach some comfort level in the reliability of the RV-7/Mattituck, we may go up together occasionally. If she ever wants a ride in the T-28, I'll have someone else take her.
I feel confident in my flying, having well over 10,000 flight hours in lots of different stuff, but all those hours won't compensate for a major structural mishap, or other unknown that could lead to a very rapid and uncontrolled descent!
Ridicule my social life all you want, or, like others on here, have decided against having kids because it would affect their "RV Lifestyle", I don't care!

I try to keep most of my posts here on an amusing, or tongue-in-cheek basis.
Sorry this particular one isn't.
 
captainron said:
OK, on a serious note, there is an airport community close to where I live. A resident there had a homebuilt that apparently created heartburn for some of the residents there that knew the plane. He finally convinced his wife, who didn't want to fly, to go up for a ride. As a result, at the double funeral there were three very sad little orphans.
As a result, my wife and I who have two young kids, have decided to limit dual exposure in homebuilts, warplanes, and the like. After I finish building and reach some comfort level in the reliability of the RV-7/Mattituck, we may go up together occasionally. If she ever wants a ride in the T-28, I'll have someone else take her.
I feel confident in my flying, having well over 10,000 flight hours in lots of different stuff, but all those hours won't compensate for a major structural mishap, or other unknown that could lead to a very rapid and uncontrolled descent!
Ridicule my social life all you want, or, like others on here, have decided against having kids because it would affect their "RV Lifestyle", I don't care!

I try to keep most of my posts here on an amusing, or tongue-in-cheek basis.
Sorry this particular one isn't.
Click to expand...

We can see your point.........

As we had two friends (husband and wife) who clobbered a hill in darnkness just after takeoff in a 6A............from an airport community. Yet, they flew together quite regularly.

However, my youngest (out of five) is nearly 23 and married.

L.Adamson
 
captainron said:
I feel confident in my flying, having well over 10,000 flight hours in lots of different stuff, but all those hours won't compensate for a major structural mishap, or other unknown that could lead to a very rapid and uncontrolled descent!
Click to expand...

Taking this thread way off base; then I'd say that the Cirrus with it's ballistic chute, may be the way to go. In fact, it appears that numerous well known models will be equipped with a chute in the future. Many "old fogies", still scoff at the notion; however, it's proven that it can make the life and death difference. Therefore, the flying with spouse and uncontrolled descent equation is partially solved.

L.Adamson
 
Custom bag that hangs over spar...

Ed,

I've seen some (but don't have a picture that I can find) of a little flap of fabric that some people make that hangs over the spar between their kness - they attached between the two seat cushions. Provides dozens of little pockets and snaps and attach points that can be easily reached.

Perfect for water, sunscreen, iPod, sandwich, etc...

I found a like to something similar for a car HERE.

b,
dr




edweeks said:
Ok, this question may be embarrassingly dumb but….When you’re flying along and want to, say, get a bottle of water, or a camera, or a pack of gum etc. from the baggage area, what do you do? I mean, I’m not able to turn around and reach over and down into the baggage area. If I’m flying by myself, I just pile everything I might want onto the right seat. When I’m flying with my wife, I’ve been piling everything onto her. She’s getting a little tired of being first officer/storage shelf. Is there some trick that I’m missing? Am I the only guy who occasionally finds himself wanting something from the baggage area. Or do I just need to work on my flexibility? Yoga?
Click to expand...
 
captainron said:
OK, on a serious note, there is an airport community close to where I live. A resident there had a homebuilt that apparently created heartburn for some of the residents there that knew the plane. He finally convinced his wife, who didn't want to fly, to go up for a ride. As a result, at the double funeral there were three very sad little orphans.
As a result, my wife and I who have two young kids, have decided to limit dual exposure in homebuilts, warplanes, and the like. After I finish building and reach some comfort level in the reliability of the RV-7/Mattituck, we may go up together occasionally. If she ever wants a ride in the T-28, I'll have someone else take her.
I feel confident in my flying, having well over 10,000 flight hours in lots of different stuff, but all those hours won't compensate for a major structural mishap, or other unknown that could lead to a very rapid and uncontrolled descent!
Ridicule my social life all you want, or, like others on here, have decided against having kids because it would affect their "RV Lifestyle", I don't care!

I try to keep most of my posts here on an amusing, or tongue-in-cheek basis.
Sorry this particular one isn't.
Click to expand...

On the other hand, we've done a lot of motorcycle riding together too. Even when the kids were much younger. And then there were all those Archer flights when my now 23 year old daughter was quite young.

I don't know the real answer here, and will just have to call life a risk. I don't want to base my life solely on avoiding risk. I'm the kind of person who would head over some rather risky mountain areas for the beauty of the whole thing, while some of my commercial pilot friends, would prefer to not. As to climbing shear vertical cliffs, including an overnight stay, tethered to the rock,,,,,,it's not for me. That's where the risk stops.

L.Adamson
 
Shorten the Seatbacks

On my 6A it is almost impossible to reach in the back to pick up something off the floor. May be I am too short, but the height of seatbacks on my 6A seem to be the limiting factor. I do not use the seatback adjustments so I am planning to shorten the seatbacks on my 7A to around 25" which should put them at the height I can reach over them into the baggage compartment.

Just my $.02:D
 
L.Adamson said:
Taking this thread way off base; then I'd say that the Cirrus with it's ballistic chute, may be the way to go. In fact, it appears that numerous well known models will be equipped with a chute in the future. Many "old fogies", still scoff at the notion; however, it's proven that it can make the life and death difference. Therefore, the flying with spouse and uncontrolled descent equation is partially solved.

L.Adamson
Click to expand...
I believe you're right on the ballistic chute becoming more popular as a "last resort" safety measure. Hitting the ground a little broken and bruised is certainly preferable to not surviving at all. Many "old fogies" probably never get to prove that their old theories were right, but I'm sure that many do get to find out that they were wrong, albeit too late.

BTW, and not trying to be a smart ***, did they ever find Steve Fossett?
 
The Most Dangerous Thing About Flying is Driving to the Airport!!

What else can I say....All things in our lifestyle has a certain amount of risk involved..whether self imposed, or by the Grace of God (an illness).
My wife can't wait until I have the -9 finished this Spring. She hasn't flown since I sold the Mooney 4 years ago, and she won't fit in my one seat One Design aerobatic plane.
I did 12 Atlantic crossings with my Mooney, and my wife did 8 of those with me. Our young son at the time did a trip to Iceland for the week-end with us.
Wouldn't trade a minute of those trips for anything!!
On the "if I had it to do over again" topic, I would have made a hat shelf in the rear baggqage compartment bulkhead in the -9 similar to what I had in the Mooney. This was absolutley great for storing light items such as charts, approach plates. and any other item that you might need in flight, and not want to have to reach for on the baggage compartment floor.
This mod is not that difficult to do, except we have our Classic Interior ready to install, and I didn't think about the shelf in time...
Maybe next winter...
Regards
Jack
N99552
 
Getting back to accessing the baggage area...

It's tough, so some planning is necessary if flying solo.

More planning. Don't install the pax stick with a bolt. Leave it out so your FO can squirm around, get comfy, and do a 180 into the baggage area for you. No worries about an accidental nudge at a critical moment, either. Pile the seat high; no obstacles. Anyone who wants to fly can plug the stick into the socket. Leaving the stick loose also keeps it available to discipline the pilot should his enthusiasm for flight exceed the FO's pitch and bank limits.:p

John Siebold
Boise, ID
 
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