Someone should make some seat skins...

[captain_john]

...that fit the Vans seat cushions!

You know, just order up some skins in your flavor material and color. They arrive at your door, zip the Vans cushions in and VIOLA! Instant seats!

What is so hard about that!?!

CJ

[cjensen]

That is one heck of a wonderful idea that I think most builders have thought! I know I have!

Here's another question...are the Van's seats comfortable?

[captain_john]

Well, I can tell you that my @$$ goes numb in the back of the -4 on a long flight! I think it is due to the angle and lack of cushion. Either that or I am thinking too hard!



I am really expecting the -7 to be more comfortable due to the many possible positions the seats can be arranged in.

I will be looking VERY closely at interiors this summer!

I am thinking of making my own side panels out of the pink Celotex foam and covering them with fabric or leather. I like the leather only because it will make the dog hair easy to pick up!

The interior part brings me back to my custom van days!

CJ

[jim_geo]

Kind of like quick build seats .

[svanarts]

Well, I can tell you that my @$$ goes numb in the back of the -4 on a long flight! I think it is due to the angle and lack of cushion. Either that or I am thinking too hard!

And the back seat is more comfortable than the front in my opinion. When I flew the -4 to OSH my butt needed a day to recover. This time I'm bringing one of those little donuts you sit on when you get a 'rhoid. Don't know if it will help or not. Worth a try. Anything to put that tailbone fire out!

[JohnR]

Scott, see if you can find someone to borow an airhawk seat cushion from. They have been at Osh the last two years but I'm not sure how well they are being accepted. Their main market is in the motorcycle world. When we went to Alaska on the bikes we did 9,000 miles in 15 days in relative comfort. Without them I think it would have been real bad. They are also used in wheelchairs for those who cannot move around to prevent hot spots. You can adjust the air pressure in them as needed.

I highly recommend them! I think they run about $90. I could ship you one to try on the trip if you can't find one to borrow and don't want to buy one until you try it. You would just need to send it back when you got home. We use them pretty often. Let me know if you want to try one.

[captain_john]

Jim, QB seats indeed!

All, regarding the cushions...

Headroom becomes the issue. I love my Lightspeeds, but when I use the cushion in the back of the -4... fuggetaboudit! Not enough headroom, and I am not even 6' tall!

CJ

[cjensen]

Jim, QB seats indeed!

All, regarding the cushions...

Headroom becomes the issue. I love my Lightspeeds, but when I use the cushion in the back of the -4... fuggetaboudit! Not enough headroom, and I am not even 6' tall!

CJ

You need to get some Halo's!! I LOVE mine, and will never purchase another standard headset!

I'm still on the fence (surprise, surprise... ) on doing my own interior. Flightline Interiors has some nice looking interior work for a good price...

[captain_john]

I talked to Annie from Flightline today! She is sending me some sample swatches, the aileron boots and one square yard of soundproofing for the firewall.

She says it will cost $950 to do my Vans cushions, install the heaters and enclose them in leather.

Hmmmm, sounds expensive...

Oh well, it's only money!

CJ

[cjensen]

Yep, I've talked to Abby [edit] several times. Got the aileron boots too! I plan on a cloth interior simply because of weight, and I'm not a big fan of leather seats. They do look and smell nice, but I don't like sitting on them. I do plan on seat heaters though! Still $950 is less than the comperable Sportsman package from Classic Aero for leather...

[painless]

I just so happen to be in the middle of installing my interior in N782P. I went with Abby (Not Annie) from Flightline Interiors. WONDERFUL gal to work with. She helped me out with getting things squared away for my 6A, as she is most familiar with the -7/9.

First of all, I have the Van's seat cushions. Understand that I have no comparison to draw from, but to me, they are quite comfortable....at least for the 1-2hr flights I have done. The thing that gets me, tho, is that Van's touts them as fitting the 6/6A, 7/7A, 9/9A. Trouble is, the wingspar for the 7/9 is quite a bit wider for to aft than that in a 6, so the seat bottoms stuck way out past the spar when installed. What Abby did for me, at no extra charge I might add, as to shorten the seatback cushion so that the seat bottom could be slid all the way back to the seat back support. Usually it is the other way around. The bottom seat cushion will still stick out too far if the seat back is positioned at its forward most location, but my legs are too long to worry about that.

Second, all the insert cushions you use to adjust how high the seat bottom cushion is don't fit well at all, again because they were designed for a 7/9. These are all things for my 6/6A brothers and sisters to consider. I have heard that Oregon Aero cushions are really nice. Might want to check that out.

Regarding material choice, I went with a faux-leather product that Abby sells with cloth inserts for the seat cushions, faux-leather armrests and control stick boots. Not that much more expensive than cloth and that little bit of leather-like trim makes things look great.

CJ......Please check the fire-retardant properties of anything you use as insulation etc in your interior. That pink foam idea sorta scares me. I am using an insulation that I got from Wicks that is 1/4 inch thick for areas forward of the spar. The interior kit that Abby sells has real nice insulated panels that are installed above and below the armrests, so that area is covered.

Some of the interiors you see at OSH will just blow you away. REALLY top quality/materials. To me, though, what you get from Abby at Flightline Interiors is pretty darn nice, and plenty fancy for this cheesehead........

[Bob Barrett]

My wife has sewen the covers for my cushions that I ordered from Van. The cushions are of good quality and I am putting them in an RV-6A. The seat cushions except for the wedge are designed to be cut to fit your aircraft. Since the seat back spacing can vary from airplane to airplane even if you are just talking about a six, seven, or nine you will find some variation. I also set my rudder bars so that hopefully they will accomadte myself at 5'7" or my son-in-l.aw who is 6'4" or his growing sons. My oldest grandson is 14 and wears size 13 shoes and is about 5'8" last week. We used aircraft upholstry for the seats and my wife is going to make some side panel and arm restcovers when I get it flying.

[Wicked Stick]

I talked to Annie from Flightline today! She is sending me some sample swatches, the aileron boots and one square yard of soundproofing for the firewall.

She says it will cost $950 to do my Vans cushions, install the heaters and enclose them in leather.

Hmmmm, sounds expensive...

Oh well, it's only money!

CJ

Thought you were going to consider the local lady ?

How long of a backlog does Abby have right now ?

[svanarts]

Jim, QB seats indeed!

All, regarding the cushions...

Headroom becomes the issue. I love my Lightspeeds, but when I use the cushion in the back of the -4... fuggetaboudit! Not enough headroom, and I am not even 6' tall!

CJ

I'm "short of stature". Not an issue.

[svanarts]

Scott, see if you can find someone to borow an airhawk seat cushion from. They have been at Osh the last two years but I'm not sure how well they are being accepted. Their main market is in the motorcycle world. When we went to Alaska on the bikes we did 9,000 miles in 15 days in relative comfort. Without them I think it would have been real bad. They are also used in wheelchairs for those who cannot move around to prevent hot spots. You can adjust the air pressure in them as needed.

I highly recommend them! I think they run about $90. I could ship you one to try on the trip if you can't find one to borrow and don't want to buy one until you try it. You would just need to send it back when you got home. We use them pretty often. Let me know if you want to try one.

It's starting to look like I'm going to fly commercial. Just over $200 round-trip from the west coast. Can't touch that price in my RV-4.

I'll have to try to find them at Osh and see if I can go for a test sit. The local trips are just fine but after about 2 hours that seat gets REALLY uncomfortable.

[captain_john]

Jeff, Thank you! I couldn't make out her name, she said it so quickly.

Dave, I wanted to give Abby some due diligence. It is convenient to have someone like Abby do the whole kit and kaboodle. Given what all are saying about the uniqueness from model to model, she has already been down that road. Could save me a few headaches.

Dunno still.

CJ

[captain_john]

CJ......Please check the fire-retardant properties of anything you use as insulation etc in your interior. That pink foam idea sorta scares me. I am using an insulation that I got from Wicks that is 1/4 inch thick for areas forward of the spar. The interior kit that Abby sells has real nice insulated panels that are installed above and below the armrests, so that area is covered.

Jeff...

YAH!!! The stuff torches up HUGE!!!

I had some scraps at school of the blue stuff and the pink stuff. Lemme just say fuggetaboudit!

Hmmm, mebbe I will go with Abby's interior panels too!?!

CJ