Show Off Your Upholstery

[MotReklaw]

That's what I was trying to point out in the picture of the seat bottom I posted, John. When you distribute some of that pressure to the back of your thighs you lesson the amount on your tailbone.

I am a two hour max occupant in a small plane.

[HighWing]

As I was flying off the hours at Lincoln one of the guys - retired UAL captain - recognized the seat fabric and the conversation turned to fire retardant as that fabric obviously was. Should this be an issue?
Lowell

[ken nougaret]

i was wondering about the fire resistant issue as well. i went to a local automotive stereo shop that does auto interiors. they said there are certain fabrics they can order that they can request to be sprayed with a fire retardent. i visited them on the weekend and they said they would have to call their manufacturers to find out which ones will do it. so i'll be checking back with them sometime on a week day.
i know as experimentals we're not required to stick by the fire resistant rules, but i figure it's not a bad idea.
ken

[MotReklaw]

You can 'roll yer own.' I would have to look up how it's done, but a lady showed me how to do it several years ago. She ran a Part 141 school and was pretty up on her regs. It's a mixture of several locally obtained ingredients.

I think leather is naturally fire resistant isn't it?

[dholly]

Good info on seat construction and comfort at: http://www.oregonaero.com/seat-syste...tures-benefits

[jtpitkin06]

The tests for certified aircraft fabrics and cushions are pretty simple. The basic test is a 3 inch by 12 inch sample held in a frame vertically. A flame is applied at the bottom for 12 seconds and then removed. The fabric must not burn more than 8 inches and must self extinguish.

Our non-certified aircraft can use any material; but it’s not a bad idea to check how your prospective fabric choice might behave in a fire. Some of the fabrics I thought were really nice turned out to be huge fire hazards. One product looked like a good floor covering. It is sold as a drip mat for garage floors or as a tool box drawer liner. It’s a nice charcoal gray color, light weight and looks like indoor/outdoor carpeting. Plus, it cheap! So I bought some at the auto parts and cut a strip for burn testing. Once lit it burned and dripped like a roadside flare. Not good for my airplane. Well, at least I have a lot of tool box liner material.



The quantity of material required to do a Ktfox is so small that getting certified fabric is not very expensive.

You can make a fire retardant at home by mixing 3 tablespoons of borax in a cup of boiling water. Soak your material and let it dry. The borax only works if you keep the material dry. If it gets wet the fire retardant washes off. Also, the mix works only with fabrics that char. It does not work on polyester fabrics as the fabric melts and drips away from the borax.

I did find a company http://www.dfwairparts.com/aircraft-upholstery

that sells remnant fabrics and leather from corporate jet installations. There is no FAA certification with it, but it is already treated with fire retardant and it’s perfect for homebuilts. The stock changes every week, so check back if you don’t see something you like. Search on Ebay for “aircraft upholstery”.

John

[War Eagle]

I looked for pictures that I had that would show off the upholstery and found that I didn't really stage any pictures to show that off. However, I did find some pictures showing some of the upholstery so I am attaching here.

I used certified material every where in the plane because I didn't want to have the chance of choosing something that would offgas bad things or that would support a flame in case of a fie of some kind.

I had my seats custom made using the thermal memory foam. I used three different desities in my seat cushions and two different densities in my seat backs.

I didn't have a head room issue so I wanted to have maximum cushion in the seat and raised the sides a little to help hold you in the seat. I also had a cut out made in the seats to facilitate moving the stick to the full aft position without running into any seat interference.

The fiberglass seat shell is covered with the same material as the console and the dash so as to provide a coordination of color with the seat cushions. It is a more course material than what is on the seats.

The seats are covered with very fine grained material that looks like brushed leather (but it's not real leather).

[Esser]

Looks good John

[chefwarthog]

Now John those are cozy seats that you have!!!

There seem to have 2'' thick cushions?

You have a professional looking Upholstery!!!

Eric

[War Eagle]

The cushions are 2" on the backs and 3" on the seats.

With the thermal foam they form up around you to make a nice body fitting form.