I received the foam cushions from Oregon Aero for the front seats. You’ll remember last year that we had to modify the pilot seat to accommodate my larger-than-average build (height, not weight, mind you). Once I put the foam on the seat bottom and seat back I discovered 3 problems.

1. I didn’t think about the height of the seat back. In this picture from last year notice where the top of the seat back is in relation to my neck. Can you say “neck injury”? I didn’t notice this before because I didn’t have any foam in the seat back at the time.
2. When I had them build the cushions I specified to keep the bottom foam as thin as possible (so I would have adequate headroom). It didn’t occur to me that the seat back cushion thickness would be a problem so I had them use the normal thickness. But because the seat bottom is angled so much, every inch of seat back cushion thickness moves me forward (and up). So I don’t have enough headroom again.
3. Because of the thicker seat back cushion moving me forward on the seat bottom, my thighs are not supported very well.

Fixing 2 and 3 are easy. I just tell the folks at Oregon Aero to make my seat back cushion like my seat bottom cushion… as thin as possible. That’ll give me headroom and thigh support. But fixing 1 isn’t going to be easy. I thought about an adjustable headrest (like are found in most cars). But then I discovered that the seat back has a “curve” to it. Around the shoulders, it curves to the front so that the back of your head is supported. But with me, the curve started around mid-back.

So I made the decision to modify the seat back to accommodate me. (I should have done the seat bottom too. But I can do that later).

Here’s the stock seatback.

And after the “cut”.

Wood sticks are glued in place to hold the two pieces the correct distance apart and keep them aligned.

A section of 1/4″ foam is placed between the two pieces and tooling wax is attached to the sides.

Then the foam is covered with a micro-slurry and the inside (front) of the seat back is covered with 3 layers of BID and 1 layer of Triax. Once dry, the seat back is flipped over and the same is done to the outside (back). I then mounted the seat in the plane with the seat bottom cushion and a piece of 1/2″ scrap foam in the back.

Here’s the result.

I sent the modified seat back to Oregon Aero so they could build up a taller and thinner cushion.