Original Posted By: Tim Willis
Tim;I see a number of "challenges" to making the changes you have in mind. Immediately what comes to mind with raising the seat 5"... take a look at this picture and see where that puts your head and face if you raise the seat (I'm about 5'-9"): http://www.flysquirrel.net/piets/Pb030026.jpgThen look at this picture relative to the cutouts in the passenger's seat back for your feet: http://www.flysquirrel.net/piets/Pb030016.jpg which is about the most you can cut away without changing the seat back framing significantly.As far as changing the geometry of the "cowling" ahead of the pilot, there are problems with interference between the instruments and the aileron control cables, as you can see in this picture:http://www.flysquirrel.net/piets/Pb030024.jpg , which is a photo taken looking up under the instrument panel and the crossed aileron control cables are the "X" at the bottom of the photo. If you push the instruments back more than a few inches, you need to carefully consider which instruments will be where those cables cross, because they can't be readily moved.It's all doable, but none of it will be too simple to do with an existing airframe. There is some load-carrying geometry in the floor crossmembers relative to the landing gear attach points and the cabane attach points that you need to respect, but a lot of the other stuff is just a matter of figuring out what else has to be moved to do what you want, then try it. Given the extensive nature of what you're trying to do, it's almost better to use your existing airframe as a test-fitting fixture and build something completely new from there.Oscar ZunigaSan Antonio, TXmailto: taildrags(at)hotmail.comwebsite at http://www.flysquirrel.net________________________________________________________________________________Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 07:19:14 -0800 (PST)
