Jim's XL build D-25

[Poorman2]

Sam, Thanks for the reply. In the pictures it does look better than it does in person. The surface rust dosen't bother me. It is the pitting, mostly at the rear of the fuselage. Please understand, I am not cutting the individual down that I bought it from. He did not build it. The cross braces from station one to station 2 are 1/2 inch instead of 5/8. Because the fuselage is narrower, he installed the stubs for the rudder pedal at an angle to clear the diaginal in the foot well. The cabane tubes at station three meet above the other tubes. It is not supported by the other tubes. Maybe I am obsessing over the little things, after all it is a slow airplane. I would just feel better if it was built to the plans. I'm still glad I bought the kit. Sorry for hijaking your thread Jim.  Randy Q.

[Jlwright]

Thanks Sam for your thoughts. I didn't know at the time it was the kit Doug bought but if it was I was pretty sure there would not have been anything wrong with the kit.

[Jlwright]

Little more progress today. Finished making the seat and clecoed it to the fuselage

[Bob S.]

LOOKS to me like you MAY have put it too high/tight... I know I had to add a few inches to my seat to make it lower, just off the control stick... Make sure to use screws to fasten it to the cross bars.... with washers on each side of the strap.  My head was hitting the long. tube and would have hit the bottom of the wing if it were on!

Bob Severance

[Jlwright]

Boy I hope not. I spent all day making that thing. I made it to print. The long strips are 36 inches long. I intentionally raised the front seat mount tube an inch because of my height or lack of. That should have made the seat have even more drop in the seat area. I sat I. It and have lots of head room but I seem to sit pretty far forward. Had I made it to print I would have sat even more forward as the seat would have been tighter.  I guess I'll fly it this way to start and then make whatever changes are necessary to make it comfortable.

[Sam Buchanan]

Boy I hope not. I spent all day making that thing. I made it to print. The long strips are 36 inches long. I intentionally raised the front seat mount tube an inch because of my height or lack of. That should have made the seat have even more drop in the seat area. I sat I. It and have lots of head room but I seem to sit pretty far forward. Had I made it to print I would have sat even more forward as the seat would have been tighter.  I guess I'll fly it this way to start and then make whatever changes are necessary to make it comfortable.

Jim, one advantage of the simple seat is that it is easy to make another one if needed for a better fit.

I too was concerned about the free-form shape of the sling seat pushing me too far forward. The brace I included in my seat solved that issue and resulted in a bucket seat that fits my bucket quite nicely.





The additional structure forces the seat to retain a chair-like shape.

[CHARLES DEBOER]

Jim, one advantage of the simple seat is that it is easy to make another one if needed for a better fit. I too was concerned about the free-form shape of the sling seat pushing me too far forward. The brace I included in my seat solved that issue and resulted in a bucket seat that fits my bucket quite nicely. The additional structure forces the seat to retain a chair-like shape.


Sam, did you weld some tabs to station #3 to fasten the seat bar?

[Jlwright]

One more question Sam,  was this a second attempt with longer strips or did you make your strips 36 inches long per print. 
Thanks

[Sam Buchanan]

No tabs at station three, the seat is attached with bolts per the plans.

The seat was built with 36" strips per the plans. Well....sorta per the plans. I didn't have a 36" shear so the strips are joined at the brace. The brace cables are secured with the seat belt anchor bolts. Notice upper left corner of this photo taken during initial fitup:

[scottiniowa]

Jim, it is a different length and width. The tubes don't come together at a center point. It has some rust pitting. He substituted 1/2 in place of 5/8 in several places. I just feel better building it myself.

Coming from my industrial design background... but also knowing there are all kinds of people in this world.  I still can't believe there are those that somehow or in someway decide this is OK to do...  And then to dig deeper, how do they determined their way is better?   (substitute or move stations) 

Just the other day a fellow tried to convince a group that if he hand pulled 3000 rivets, he would be building a better aircraft than if it had been built with an air operated rivet puller.
When we asked if he took in fatigue factor, or the inability to duplicate 3000 hand pulls like he could with a air operated puller, he said quickly "but mine is HAND built"  So we asked further, what kind of rivets did he use?   Didn't have a clue, but was pretty sure but not positive that they were stainless or something...  Lost his audience after that...  Some you can't help.

cheers

[Jlwright]

Speaking of making changes Sam, I like the extra gusset you added for the seat belt bracket to attach to. That takes the twist out of the belt. 
I looked for 30 minutes in my plans for the detail on that bracket before it dawned on me that it was a mod. 

Scott, I hope those rivets came with the kit for his plane and not Home Depot aluminum pop rivets.

[Bob S.]

Pfft... Home Depot Rivets??  I used all pull rivets from Harbor Freight...What's wrong with the ones from Home Depot???

[Jlwright]

Nothing if you are using them on a Legal Eagle seat. Maybe not so good on an RV12 or Zenith.

[rockiedog2]

I believe Leonard calls for bolts in the seat straps now stead of pop rivets

[rockiedog2]

I first built my seat per the LEU plans and it didn't even come close to fitting me. the thing took some time to build so I abandoned that (cause it looked like guesswork to redo it) and welded a half inch tube down low between the sta 3 uprights and alternated the vert and horizontal strips to that. that allowed control of the seat shape and also spread the load on the fasteners among more fasteners. I did use pop rivets cause that was the callout at the time but used Avex 4s(ACS) which are by most estimates as good as bolts. I haven't had any probs with that arrangement but if doing it again I might consider using washers under the avex4 shop head (on the pulled side). if don't wanta do that then just add some rivets in the bottom strips where all the weight is. like double em up 2 side by side on each end. or better yet use bolts/washers like Leonard calls out.
this has been done in a number of diff ways and to my knowledge no probs have been reported. the one thing that bothers me about the various ways is using hardware store pop rivets of any type. personal opinion...you do it your way