T

tullow

Member
Hello to all and belated New Year wishes,
After a quick look around through the threads I haven't found an answer to the following question;
How do you manage to climb in and exit your nicely upholstered RV7 tip-up (or similar) without leaving dirt all over your seats ( and subsequently on the seat of your pants) I fly from a grass strip and at this time of the year it gets quite "mucky"

Any ideas will be much appreciated

Mike

RV7 tip-up
Paris France
 
Two cheap hand towels, one on each seat. With a little practice, you can step on the towel, slide into position (almost) and pull the towel from under your (personal) seat. Oh, and you should wash the towels occasionally....

greg
 
Greg Arehart said:
Two cheap hand towels, one on each seat. With a little practice, you can step on the towel, slide into position (almost) and pull the towel from under your (personal) seat. Oh, and you should wash the towels occasionally....
greg
Click to expand...
When Becki Orndorff did my seat cushions, she supplied me with these towels.
 
I went to Wal-Mart and found a couple of nice matching towels. I just sit on them without pulling them out. Occasionally take them out and shake the grass off them. If you get nice enough towels, most folks think it's part of the upholstery and not a towel.:)
 
Clean

tullow said:
Hello to all and belated New Year wishes,
After a quick look around through the threads I haven't found an answer to the following question;
How do you manage to climb in and exit your nicely upholstered RV7 tip-up (or similar) without leaving dirt all over your seats ( and subsequently on the seat of your pants) I fly from a grass strip and at this time of the year it gets quite "mucky"

Any ideas will be much appreciated

Mike

RV7 tip-up
Paris France
Click to expand...

My wife got matching towels and had our N# embroidered on them. Nice touch!:D
 
Many thanks for your answers and as usual, simple elegant solutions.
I'll be out this afternoon to the supermarket to buy my matching set of hand towels.
Great to have so much experience and information available at the click of a mouse.

Mike Greene
 
With the seats and carpet I ordered from Classic Aero I got these pieces to sit in the seat when you get in.

283-LRG.jpg
 
Maybe velcro a towel to the underside of the seat cushion, along the front edge. Then you can flip it onto the seat for stepping on when getting in and out, and as you slide down into your seat you can flip it into the space under your legs. A towel short enough to just protect the seat pan should be short enough that it couldn't slide down into the rudder pedals and cause problems, and the velcro allows you to remove it for washing.

Just a suggestion, I haven't implimented a solution on my -6 yet... I'm still waiting for a weather window to fly it back.

-Rob
 
I've only had one ride in a side by side RV and sat in them at OSH. Stepping on the seat is one of my pet peeves and, if one is careful, it's possible to get in and out without stepping on the seat.
 
Don't have a picture, but on our -9A we used some leatherette we had lying around. Cut the material to the same shape as our Classic Air seat bottoms.
Prefer these to towels as they don't bunch up like a towel will do
They can be cut to fit around the stick, and it will hold it's shape.
Yu can get colors to match your interior too
Regards
Jack
N99552
160 hours
 
I used to worry a lot about this, but I step on the seat every time I get in my plane and after 675 hours, the seats just don't show any dirt.

Of course, I operate out of paved fields and try and wipe off my shoes before I climb in, but I don't take any heroic measures to keep my shoes clean.
 
I haven't been back on the forum for a few days so I would like to thank those who have replied since my last visit. I'll probably go for the appropriately coloured small towel velcroed to the forward edge of the seat cushion, which seems like the easiest solution.
Once again thanks to you all

Mike Greene

Flying RV7 at LFPX

France
 
clean seats

...after agonizing about this, I've installed a hatch in the floor, and pull myself up from below, just like in a B-25! :) seats stay immaculate!

...but seriously, I velcro'd a slice of carpet between the seats, and try to step there, then on the gear tower, then slide my butt off the seatback into position. ( 'course won't work for guys with a console.)
 
No stepping on seats and no towels !!!!

I haven?t finished my plane yet, so I do not have any experience, but it must be possible to step inside, without stepping on the Seats!!??
The right wing will be installed in a couple of weeks, I will try the entry- and exit procedure at the same time. In the worst case, I will have to put ?something? between the seats to step on, no way there is going to be any stepping on the seats and certainly there is not going to be any ?towels? floating about in the meticulously designed interior. Can?t stand rubbish!

Regards, Tonny.
 
Good Luck!

Pilottonny said:
I haven?t finished my plane yet, so I do not have any experience, but it must be possible to step inside, without stepping on the Seats!!??
The right wing will be installed in a couple of weeks, I will try the entry- and exit procedure at the same time. In the worst case, I will have to put ?something? between the seats to step on, no way there is going to be any stepping on the seats and certainly there is not going to be any ?towels? floating about in the meticulously designed interior. Can?t stand rubbish!

Regards, Tonny.
Click to expand...

Unless you are very long legged, you risk injury to yourself. You can build up something between the seats, but that is a stretch too, and it was not designed to support the psi of a foot print. If you are dead set on this, be sure to put some handles on the roll bar to support yourself. I personally dont care for them but others feel they are a must have.
I carry a towel and it fits into my flight bag, so not sure I understand the rubbish concern, although I usually just throw it back into the baggage area.
 
Pilottonny said:
no way there is going to be any stepping on the seats and certainly there is not going to be any “towels” floating about in the meticulously designed interior. Can’t stand rubbish![/FONT]

Regards, Tonny.
Click to expand...

Tonny, give us an update after you have flown the plane for a hundred hours or so. ;)

The seats in my RV-6 (B.J. Lauritson fabric) have been stepped on hundreds of times and still look great. I carry a small rubber floor mat to put in the seat but haven't used it more than a couple of times.
 
Take off your shoes

Do like Mom said and take off your shoes. I've got a 9A slider. Climb up on the wing. Remove your shoes/boots/sandals. Put them in the baggage area before you board the plane.
I used to keep a pair of moccasins propped against the rudder pedals for winter use. Ol' Gordon Baxter used to fly his Mooney that way. Very comfortable.
I've gotten quite lax now that the plane and the $1300 seats have over 300 hours on them, though. And passengers kinda look at you funny when you ask them to remove their shoes. Shades of commercial air travel. Then there's the cheesefoot problem.
WalMart sells nice dark gray/silver handtowels for about $4 each. I still do the barefoot thing in the summer, tho.
 
In response to Pilottonny's post:

It is indeed possible to get in and out of a tip-up without ever stepping on the seats. My wife and I have been doing it over the last 19 years (3000hrs) in out of our RV6 and 7A. She is 5'-1" and I am 5'-8" and we both are in our 60's and in good but not superb shape. The drill is as follows: Step on the wing facing forward, move the inboard leg over the sill and drape it over the front edge of the seat, sit down on the longeron with your butt as far back against the rollbar as possible, supprt yourself with the inboard hand on the top of the adacent seat, pull in the outboard leg and drape it over the front edge of the seat, now using the support of both hands with the outboard one on the longeron next to your hip and the inboard one on the adjacent seat back slide down into the seat. Getting out is the same in reverse beginning by placing one hand on the longeron and the other on the adjacent seat back then standing up with the aid of your legs until you can slide your butt back on to the longeron. Sounds complicated but happens in a couple of seconds and takes some practice. I have tried it in a slider, it is more difficult because there is less space between the canopy and the windshield bow and the track ontop of the longeron is painful to sit on.

Martin Sutter
building and flying RV's since 1988
 
YEP!

Martin and I do it the same way. Except that I've only been doing it for 17 years.
On the other hand, for inexperienced passengers, it's easier to have them step in the seat. Never been a problem.
 
I use two approaches

My airplane is a slider so I don't know how difficult it is to get in and out of a tip-up. I bought a small rug, cut a "U" in it to clear the stick and sewed a border on it to keep it from fraying. I put that in the passenger seat. My wife steps on it, then the floor, I reach in and pull out the rug, she sits down and I put the rug in the baggage compartment. The nice thing about the rug is it holds its shape and can be positioned nicely with one edge. If someone else is going up with me I just let them sit on the rug (I don't have the mud problem you have to deal with). On my side I step directly on the floor and sit down with no stepping on the seat.

Bob Axsom
 
the Ercoupe solution

Not quite RV, but similar...

I owned a Forney F-1 Ercoupe for a couple of years, and what the previous owner did when he put in a new leather interior was to sew in a flap of leather into the front of the seat.

Basically it consisted of a rectangle of the same color leather sewed into the lower front part of the seat, drapping freely down to the floor. Pulled up and over the seat, it covered the seat itself as you stepped down onto the seat and the backside of this leather, then you pulled it down and out of the way as you sat down...It also blended in nicely since it was the same color leather as the seat.

Takes more to explain, but you probably get the idea, and it worked quite nicely and kept the seats clean.

Ryan
(putting a deposit down on a -3!)
 
Hello again,
I agree with Martin and Mel when they say that it's possible to climb in without stepping on the seats - I've been doing this since I first flew in August by stepping down between the seats (just forward of the flap actuator housing) and then swinging in the outboard leg,then sliding my backside down the seat back and my legs forward onto the floor.
I am short- legged (5,5ft ) but relatively supple so its not a problem, but now that I've flown off my initial test hours I'll soon be able to take some family and friends along to share the" Vans Grin". Some of these friends are neither supple or lightweight so I'm sure they'll have to step on the seats while climbing in or out of the plane.
The stowable towel/mat/cloth would seem to be the simplest way to go and the resulting untidy cockpit is a small"price " to pay for sharing the pleasure of flying in such a great plane.
Best regards

Mike

Flying RV7
 
Not too similar.

MedFlightDoc said:
Not quite RV, but similar...
I owned a Forney F-1 Ercoupe for a couple of years, and what the previous owner did when he put in a new leather interior was to sew in a flap of leather into the front of the seat.
Basically it consisted of a rectangle of the same color leather sewed into the lower front part of the seat, drapping freely down to the floor. Pulled up and over the seat, it covered the seat itself as you stepped down onto the seat and the backside of this leather, then you pulled it down and out of the way as you sat down...It also blended in nicely since it was the same color leather as the seat.
Takes more to explain, but you probably get the idea, and it worked quite nicely and kept the seats clean.
Ryan
(putting a deposit down on a -3!)
Click to expand...
The Ercoupe doesn't have a "stick" in the forward edge of the seat either.
 
Steve said:
Do like Mom said and take off your shoes. .
Click to expand...

BLASPHEMY! Having to take my shoes off for commercial service is one of my main reasons for starting my own (2 seat) airline.

Refuse to do that in the RV ;-)
 
I used to enter without stepping on the seats, but decided it was putting a fairly focused load on the floor. I now just step on the seats. They are leather and are unaffected anyway. Much easier. The worst time of the year for hauling grime in is during the winter, when the shoes are caked with snow and grime. I wear those little cotton gloves (yellow fuzzy things) to sweep the shoe bottoms off as I step up on the plane.
 
I use 2 hand towels as others have stated.
No big deal.
I step on them on entry, slide down into the seat, then roll up the towel and place on the side between the seat back and arm rest. They are always out of the way and are easily accessable while entering or exiting.

Occasionally, I cheat and not use, but my leather seats are very forgiving.
 
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