Christopher said,

I have always wanted to be able to get in and out of our aircraft without having to step on the pilots seat. Yes I know if you do some gymnastics you can do it. My question is this. Does anyone know of a modification that will let the pilots seat go further back to allow easier access? Also, what about the height issue? I am tired of hitting my head in turbulence. Electric seats like in a car? Thanks in advance for the feedback.   re: height, since I struggled with this myself I can report there are several factors. The seats sit right on top of both spars so there's very little to be done in terms of lowering the seat. One thing to think about there is that if there are vertical G's in a crash, the only energy absorption you are going to get is from deforming whatever is between your butt and the spars.     (I don't know what Lancair is talking about when they say they have a 20G seat.  Does that mean that after they remove your body from the wreckage the seat may still be intact?)   Anyway, so here are some factors. a) you have to really pay attention to foam thickness when you put the seat together. b) Jim Griffen used to build a dropped seat pan.  This allowed you to get some foam underneath the center of the seat but you are still limited by the buildup on the sides of the seat to clear the seat rails, bolt on a layup of carbon etc. c) Some builders have pre-contoured the pan itself and then put a very thin layer of foam over that.    I don't see that this would buy you a whole lot in a IVP unless you eliminated the seat rails completely. d) On a IVP the common interferenc point with your head is the front of the door frame.   Therefore, if you are tall and have long enough legs, getting yourself back a little further can help.  The wedge of foam at the bottom of the seat back tends to hold you forward.  So you think about economizing there.   as far as getting the whole seat further back for loading, I suppose it's possible but I don't know if it's very useful to get the front of the seat further back than the front of the front spar and it pretty much already does that.   electric seat assemblies are generally far thicker (vertically) than you could ever fit in a IVP.

----- Original Message -----

From: Chris Alberti

To: lml@lancaironline.net

Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 6:07 PM

Subject: [LML] 4P Seats

I have always wanted to be able to get in and out of our aircraft without having to step on the pilots seat. Yes I know if you do some gymnastics you can do it. My question is this. Does anyone know of a modification that will let the pilots seat go further back to allow easier access? Also, what about the height issue? I am tired of hitting my head in turbulence. Electric seats like in a car? Thanks in advance for the feedback. Fly Safe, Christopher J. Alberti President/CEO Starlite Aviation Technologies LLC 1963 S. 39th Drive Yuma, Arizona 85364 Phone: 928-581-2383 Fax: 928-329-6488 Email: starliteaviation@yahoo.com Web Site: www.starliteat.com This message contains confidential information only for the use of the addressee(s). If you are not the addressee, or the person responsible for delivering it to the addressee, you are hereby notified that reading, disseminating, distributing or copying this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message by mistake, please notify us, by replying to the sender, and delete the original message immediately thereafter.