engineerofsorts
Well Known Member
My cute/favorite, but under-tall pilot wife got to climb into the unfinished RV-12 cockpit and make airplane noises. The main concern she has had was the long reach to the rudder pedals. We put the upholstery in, with the seat back set in the forward piano hinge point, added about four inches of back padding, and it still looks like at least a few inches of rudder pedal extension is needed. I haven't got the rudder cables installed yet, so its difficult to tell just how much forward movement the rudder pedals have--i.e. when pushing full-right or full-left rudder, what is the clearance between the rudder pedal and the firewall? Any kind soul care to measure their sole-to-firewall minimum distance for me? I suspect, after ELSA inspection, I could add more piano hinge points to move the seat further up, but that appears to have its limits--it moves the bottom seat upholstery forward and at some point would also decrease the full back stick-to-bellybutton distance to negative values, along with giving a more-reclined seat back.
I'm working on an easy-to-snap-on/off rudder extension, so that, combined with seat adjustment/padding, we can accommodate the 6'-plus and the 5'3"-minus pilot.
I'm working on an easy-to-snap-on/off rudder extension, so that, combined with seat adjustment/padding, we can accommodate the 6'-plus and the 5'3"-minus pilot.