Baggage area DIY

[Bryan Cotton]

With some cross country ahead of us, it was time to make a baggage area. I decided to make it sort of trapezoid shaped, like the shape of the formers and side rails. Here is the paper pattern. After I made the trapezoid, I made 4 rectangular walls 10" deep. I taped these onto the trapezoid, and then traced out the pattern on the fabric. I then marked out the horizontal part where the velcro would go. Also, for the corners of the baggage area, I put an extra 1" margin to sew the corners together.

Here it is cut out. I sewed up most of the velcro while it was still flat. It is a lot easier that way. Besides the velcro that would be mounting the baggage area to the aircraft, I put a couple of strips on the front of the baggage area to hold stuff there later. Initially I did not have a floor, except fabric, and it was more like a duffle bag effect. I didn't like that.

Here it is after sewing. I also made a pattern using posterboard for a closeout of the triangular section. You can see I also have my floor in place. It is foam posterboard and is velcroed in place. Sticky velcro on the foam board, and I sewed the velcro onto the fabric.

Bottom part in place and you can see there is a strip of velcro sewn in for the top closeout.

Here is the top closeout in place. It helps keep the seatbelts from getting twisted up. I haven't flown with it yet but I think it looks good.

[Bryan Cotton]

I thought I would split up the post a little in case it crashed while I was typing or something.

Here I have started putting junk in. I made a little tool pouch. It has a couple of screwdrivers, a lightweight set of motorcycle toolkit pliers, a spare pitot tube, valve stem extenders, and my dipstick remover. The tool pouch has velcro to stick to the front of the baggage area.

I have been using decalin to scavenge the lead. I have a little 12oz bottle marked in half oz increments, which is how much you add for 5 gallons of 100LL. I put some velcro on it so it would stay upright in the baggage area.

I bought 4 sheets of the foam board thinking I'd build up a 2-layer thing that would match the trapezoid shape. One sheet was not big enough to cover the wide dimension at the front of the baggage area. I decided to try a rectangle that fit into the back corners. That actually seemed good enough, so I sewed in some velcro to stick it in place. Now I have a pretty flat floor. If I was doing this over, I would have made the square floor to match the aft width and sewn in the velcro while the fabric was still flat. It's a lot easier.

The fabric is lightweight ripstop nylon. I bought 3 yards and could have gotten by with less than 2.
https://www.joann.com/rip-stop-nylon/7250426.html

Here is the foam board I bought.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Pen-Gear-Whi ... hbdg=L1102

I think I spent about $30 total. Weight of the finished baggage area is 1 lb.

[Weatherpilot]

Very nice. Thank you for sharing.

Greg.

[T41pilot]

I did the sides and bottom with .025 during the build. The back is done with blue insulation foam braced on the back side to side in the middle with a piece of small aluminum angle. The foam is glued in place with RTV in case I ever want to take it apart again some day. Everything is covered with indoor/outdoor carpet. The carpet was thin and didn't weigh much. I had to make a raised tunnel on the floor to clear the elevator pushrod. It is removable for inspections.

[Bryan Cotton]

Thanks Greg H!
Gregg K, that looks great.

[Bryan Cotton]

I had my seat out to do some maintenance and took this picture of my baggage area.