6.3.2 Front Seat Assembly

This entry is part 37 of 42 in the series 06 - Fuselage

The seats consist of a pan (the part you sit on), a seatback and a hinge. The front seats use a new adjustable hinge which lets you change the angle of the seatback. The rear seats have a fixed angle.

Here are the three parts for one of the front seats. There’s also a rail (not pictured) that the seats mount to which allows you to slide the seat front-to-rear.

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Now the this adjustable hinge is new and it doesn’t fit to the seat pan very well.

 Here’s the approximate position of the hinge on the seat pan.

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 But the hinge is wider than the seat pan.

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Notice the space between one the hinge arms and the seat pan? If I were to screw it in place the hinge would bind.

 The gap is exactly 1/8″. And I just happen to have some extra 1/8″ stock laying around so I made a pair of spacers.

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 I used structural adhesive to bond these to the sides of the seat pan. Then I marked the holes, drilled and tapped them.

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 The seatbacks have been redesigned to work with the new hinge so no modifications were needed there. It was simply a matter of drilling and tapping the holes. Then I put everything together.

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Next I had to mount the finished seats to the rails. Four holes are drilled in the seat pan that go through to the rails. Once I located and drilled the holes, then I started thinking about how to attach the pan to the rail. I could use bolts and nuts, but then I wouldn’t be able to remove the pan from the rail once it had foam and upholstery. And I’ve spent enough time fussing on my current plane about stupid engineers who design things without thinking about someone needing to take it apart later.

So here’s what I did. I cut some 1/2″ aluminum into 1.5″ squares.

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Then I cut an opening in the top (inside) layer and dug out the foam to make a recess.

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Then I put the aluminum hardpoint in the recess with structural adhesive.

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And then cover the hardpoints with a layer of BID. Once it cures, drill and tap the holes.

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Now the seat can be removed from the rails.

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