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Height adjustable front seats

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psvalentine

Active Member
Any information on height adjustable front seats would be greatly appreciated.
Not forward/aft. But up and down.
I don't want to use cushions anymore.
 
psvalentine said:
Any information on height adjustable front seats would be greatly appreciated.
Not forward/aft. But up and down.
I don't want to use cushions anymore.
Click to expand...

Looked like a pretty involved modification. Let me know if you come up with a reasonable mod, as my wife is in the height challenged category and would some day like to have the same view that I do out the front window. I would be thinking about changing the angle, therefore as the seat goes forward it gets taller. Most with a short torso also have short legs. Then again I am 6' tall and am only on the 4th notch back from the forward most position so that may not work so well.
 
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A number of years ago a local pilot used a seat adjustment mechanism (the lifting part) out of a Cadillac in his Spitfire replica. He used it to raise up a few inches for better ground visibility when taxiing. It worked great. I have no drawings or photos to offer, unfortunately. If I were looking for the same functionality, i'd be looking for an automotive part as well.
 
Hum----

interesting problem as I too am vertically challenged. Do a retrofit on RV10 seal rails may net be so bad, but the 7/9/14 seat system would be a challenge. I had a crazy thought :eek: to retro a set of 10 rails into my 7A fuselage. It never got past the thought stage. But certainly with all the smart people we have on VAF, it can be done. HUM=the seats in my MKZ move up and down, and (when it works) seat heaters!! Im sure there is something about locking the seat into position after adjustment that would be imperative.

HUM-----

Tom
 
The 10 seat is an energy absorbing frame design so no up/down modifications. I’m on the tall side so when Oregon Aero did my seat cushions I had a cushion cut an inch thinner, then covered. Just decide the height you need and get your seat bottom customized for the height you need. Oregon Aero can make the seat foam to order. They can probably match the color of fabric you already have too.
 
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togaflyer said:
The 10 seat is an energy absorbing frame design so no up/down modifications. I’m on the tall side so when Oregon Aero did my seat cushions I had a cushion cut an inch thinner, then covered. Just decide the height you need and get your seat bottom customized for the height you need. Oregon Aero can make the seat foam to order. They can probably match the color of fabric you already have too.
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That can be a bit problematic for the passenger seat on a 10. If I made a cushion thick enough for my wife, Pretty sure that my 6'1" son wouldn't be able to sit in it without hitting the roof. Different story on the 6. I just made a thick booster cushion for her but it pulls out easily for taller passengers.
 
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psvalentine said:
Any information on height adjustable front seats would be greatly appreciated.
Not forward/aft. But up and down.
I don't want to use cushions anymore.
Click to expand...

Probably not much help here, but my Mooney has height adjustable seats. It looks to be a simple mechanism. Perhaps that design could be used? Of course when I look at the parts manual it looks very complicated... But it might give you an idea anyway?

(I am wondering if these fully articulating Mooney seats could be used in my RV-10 as is. (I happen to have 2 sets of seats for my Mooney...) I will investigate when the time comes. I have not started on the fuselage yet)


http://mooney.free.fr/Manuels M20J/M20J/Mooney M20J Illustrated Parts Catalog.pdf

Page 320 and 321 shows the height adjustable seats.....
 
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this is one of the things that bug me about the VANS designs I've looked at.
There sure is beauty in simplicity, but I just imagine that fixed seat like this are 100%....or maybe 99.9% a compromise.
Sure you can customize and get it maybe even nearly perfect for you the builder...but that doesn't do anybody else much good...random passengers, pilot friends borrowing the plane, the maintenance guy that needs to taxi or test fly it, etc.... Recently watching a flightchops video doing some aerobatic work with an instructor and they were talking about how neither of them could get full rudder deflection! Strikes me as nearly unbelievable that this is considered a good idea!
IMO seats should adjust fore and aft + up and down + incline forward and back a bit.
 
Hmm, Some Thots

Not much structure around the seat bottoms on most of the RVs to attach an adjustable seat to. Adding structure is gonna add weight so count the cost. In the past, I’d admired the angled seat rail design in the Piper Tomahawk where somebody figured out that if a person was sliding the seat forward it was probably because they were short and might want to sit higher, too. Not an exact compromise to fit everybody but it seemed a smart design to me. The Cessna Skycatcher has a kind of nifty rudder pedal adjuster and if’n I recollect rightly, the seat doesn’t move fore and aft. Some military airplanes are like that, too. A large percentage of people need about the same spacing between stick or yoke and the seat not moving is not a big problem, but then rudder pedals absolutely need to be able to adjust fore and aft. I’ve eyeballed our RV-6 and wondered if a decent adjustable seat could be designed. Every mod I visualized was both too heavy and too complex, and just keeping pillows around looked more attractive.
 
JDeanda said:
In the past, I’d admired the angled seat rail design in the Piper Tomahawk where somebody figured out that if a person was sliding the seat forward it was probably because they were short and might want to sit higher, too. Not an exact compromise to fit everybody but it seemed a smart design to me.
Click to expand...

This is exactly how the 10 seats work. Slide forward go up. Slide back go down.
It’s not by a huge amount but noticeable. I’d be confident it was done with this exact issue in mind.
I imagine that if this was inadequate you could likely machine up some tapered spacers to make the angle more noticeable. Longer screws bolts etc.
 
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