Seat Pan Failure

[phenry]

I am having an real issue with the seat pan in my legacy tri-gear Waiex. Please see attached pictures.

The seat as torn around the elevator pushrod proactive cover.
An unused tab on the joystick yoke is contacting the underneath of the seat pan.
The pan is also contacting the bracing on the landing gear mounts.

I am wondering if this is a problem that others have encountered and if so what their solution was to fix the issue permanently.

I have considered several solutions:
1. Small doubler over the tear and ignore the other issues. (Not really satisfactory).
2. Install a more rigid pan doubler over the complete effected area. (Would add weight, make the already seat more so and probably not work that well).
3. Make a new seat and wait of it to happen again. (Not really satisfactory).
4. Repair whole of pan with a lighter doubler and raise pan at middle hinge to increase clearances.
5. Make new seat with previous option in design.

Anyway if anyone has been here please let me know what you did and how it worked out.

Seat tear

Yoke tab interferance

Seat contacting landing gaer

[Bryan Cotton]

Peter,
We had the issue with the trim tab on the sticks hitting the seat pan. We cut it off and did something else for the trim:


I riveted a tube onto the seat pan to give me a little extra clearance:

tube riveted on seat sling.jpg (38.52 KiB) Viewed 1449 times

On the part that tore, I made a doubler that went over the pushrod cover. I'll have to get a picture at the hangar tomorrow.

[Bryan Cotton]

Here is how I reinforced the seat sling where yours tore:

I bent up a piece of aluminum to nest on the elevator pushrod cover. It has a tab that extends forward and goes under the seat sling. There are 7 screws total retaining it.

Mine is a tailwheel configuration so I can't offer any advice on your maingear interference.

[phenry]

Bryan,
Thanks for the replies.
You have been very helpful.
I am going to make a whole new seat and raise it by 25mm. (see picture below)
I am going to grind off the tab like you have done.
I am also going to make a part to go over the Control Pushrod Cover as you have done. Will extend to act as a doubler and insert from underneath.
I might add, this is not what I had planned for the next few days.

Seat Fix.jpg (104.66 KiB) Viewed 1255 times