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PaulR

Well Known Member
I'm trying to decide which grips to purchase for my 9A and have a question. The bulk of my flying will be either by myself or with my wife and she's not a pilot. I had orginally planned to put trim and PTT on the co-pilots stick along with my stick, but have been rethinking this since I've started wiring. I'm seriously considering only the PTT on the copilot stick and not having any trim controls other than those on the pilots stick. Is this a bad idea? I had thought about putting the Ray Allen rocker switches in the panel but really don't like that idea.

I'd love some opinions. ;)
 
I'm not even putting the Pax PTT on the stick. It will be in the panel infront of the pax. My wife's a nonpilot also and said I don't need or want controls on my side. most trips the stick will be out, so I'll be building a nice stick holder somewhere.;)
 
Leave the ptt off of the passengers stick. It just makes it more difficult to remove. More than likely your wife would prefer not to have the stick in her way. If you need a ptt sometimes for the passenger use one of those David Clark ptt that you put in line with the microphone.
 
On the other hand...

Some day you may want to take instruction in your plane, share time with another pilot buddy, or fly your own plane from the right seat. Install all the same switches on both sticks. Easier to do now than a year from now when you change your mind.

You can optionally put a switch on the panel to enable/disable the copilot switches. You can also optionally put a connector on the cable between the copilot stick and the fuselage wiring harness if you want the copilot stick to be removable.
 
I've got a lot of wires in my Ray Allen pilot stick, and didn't want to duplicate them on the right side. Four way trim, A/P disconnect, and radio tx swap. The original intent, was to make the right stick easily removable, but now it's staying permanent as far as I'm concerned. I do have the rocker trim switches and PTT on the right panel, IMO, they actually look good there.

L.Adamson -- RV6A
 
PaulR said:
I'm trying to decide which grips to purchase for my 9A and have a question. The bulk of my flying will be either by myself or with my wife and she's not a pilot. I had orginally planned to put trim and PTT on the co-pilots stick along with my stick, but have been rethinking this since I've started wiring. I'm seriously considering only the PTT on the copilot stick and not having any trim controls other than those on the pilots stick. Is this a bad idea? I had thought about putting the Ray Allen rocker switches in the panel but really don't like that idea.

I'd love some opinions. ;)
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Paul,

Decide what works best for you. I frequently remove the co-pilot joystick when hauling stuff, giving the dog a ride, etc. Also, the co-pilot stick serves double duty being fitted with the hardened steel "Bubble Buster" tip, so it is important to me the stick be quickly removable if expected to be potentially useful. Although the co-pilot does not have access to the 2 axis electric trim function, he or she can transmit via the PTT mounted on the side of the sill.

If I had it to do over, I would remotely install a co-pilot electric trim function similarly. Sure, I could still retrofit but would have much easier to do while building.

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I just ordered the Ray Allen G101 grips for my RV-9A. Did anyone have to cut the sticks off due to a height problem?
 
Quite a few people eventually reduce the length of their stick for flying comfort but you should not do this until you have flown the airplane for a few hours. The shorter the stick the more tendency you will have to over control the plane which can be a problem especially when you are new to the aircraft. Initially you may need to shorten the stick a bit to avoid getting hung up on the panel or throttle control but I would be very careful about how much you remove initially.
 
SmittysRV said:
I just ordered the Ray Allen G101 grips for my RV-9A. Did anyone have to cut the sticks off due to a height problem?
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I cut mine by however much the stick grips added, so they netted to the designed length. I figured Van knew what he was doing when he set the stick length initially.

Also, I didn't put PTT or any of that stuff on the passenger's side so the stick is easily removable. On most X/C's with my wife or non-flying buddies, they appreciate not being constrained by the stick. Even better, if I want to give an inprompteu flying lesson, the stick can be reinstalled in-flight in 30 seconds.
 
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SmittysRV said:
I just ordered the Ray Allen G101 grips for my RV-9A. Did anyone have to cut the sticks off due to a height problem?
Click to expand...

The main point, is to avoid any portion of the panel, throttle, etc, when the stick is moved in that direction, and your thumb is on top. When I converted to the G3 grips, I had to remove more of the original stick, just because of the stick design. But in the end, you still get the same length, leverage & feel. That's what's important, as there have been some pilots that are disappointed when the sticks are cut too low. However, it's good to know, that certain stick models will add length back..... if needed.

L.Adamson --- RV6A
 
To this point I have been minimalist, having only a simple PTT switch on both sticks. My wife flies, so it is important to have this on her side. For the passenger switch, I put a coiled cord (old computer cord) inside the stick with a molex-type 2-pin connector for easy removal when necessary. The coiled cord retracts the connector into the stick when removed. Maybe one day I'll get around to putting in a stick grip....

greg
 
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