REFLECTOR: Seat screws

[Stockman, Bill]

My problem has been that the seat brackets actually twist  and that you eventually will bend and break the fiberglass seat pans if the seat hinges are well-attached.    Apparently my airplane has shrunk since I bought the kit in 1997, since the seats now react like the pilot gained over 40 lbs in 15 years . . . . . . . . . . which we all know is impossible.

I know that when I sit my muscularly-toned physique in the pilot's seat, it bends back quite a bit.   I've made several repairs, new seat hinges, etc. but the seat apparently is losing the war with my fat $%^&%.     I also have relatively large sitting height compared to my total height, which means I have to have the seat pan low and tilted to keep from hitting my head on the ceiling-this just makes the moment arm worse on the hinges.    The copilot seat which gets less use and is normally filled by my significantly lighter wife, has none of these issues.      My next fix will be to get new seat pans that I will reinforce and thicker heavy duty stainless steel hinges.   My wife believes it would be easier to just lose the weight.



Bill Stockman
Senior Associate
Dayton Aerospace, Inc.

937.426.4300  Office
937.369.4799  Cell
bill.stockman at daytonaero.com<mailto:bill.stockman at daytonaero.com>
www.daytonaero.com

From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On Behalf Of jerry at jlbent.com
Sent: Monday, January 09, 2012 1:59 PM
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Seat screws

Chris,

I don't know if everyone is seeing the same problem, but we certainly did on N44VF.  It is not weight as much as geometry of the brakes.  I seems that you end up with your shoulders providing a major part instead of your hips.  This put a big lever (the seat back) in the system.  The solution is easy.  Replace the puny 10-32 with 1/4-20 or 1/4-28.  I believe 1/4-20 are better in aluminum.  Once we did that, the bolts held up just fine.


Jerry Brainard
Jerry at JLBEnt.com


-------Original Message-------
From: Chris Barber
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: REFLECTOR: Seat screws
Sent: Jan 07 '12 4:45pm
I was wondering if others had had trouble with the seat hinge screws breaking and/or distorting. I have had to replace twisted and broken screws a few times now. Ok, while I am by no means a small man (5'10 at 200 lbs) I am not so big that I would think I would be stressing these parts.


One thought is that I have been standing on the brakes a lot doing engine run ups and testing, but still it seems odd.


I have now added extra screws by tapping out additional screw holes. I am close enough to hopefully successful flight that I wanted to address this gremlin.


I had the tech out to test my transponder and it has a problem so he took it to take a look (really nice and helpful guy for those in SE Texas). Next step, squawk party....


Chris
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