There are plenty of design ideas for homebuilt seats. The canvas stretched over a steel frame or the basket weave aluminum straps are fine examples of light weight, effective seats. This is not a thread about those. Those seats are rudimentary at best, a medieval torture device the rest of the time. I'm also not talking about throwing a bunch of money at an established vendor so they can glue together a bunch of random blocks of space age foam and making it "livable"... Im talking about actual design principles used to create a shape that both supports and comforts your body for the long haul. Im talking about something you can sit in for 5 or 6 hours without contemplating suicide at the end of the flight.
I flew the RV -8 home from a nice weekend getaway with my bride today and could not help but notice how bad the seats were, despite ample padding depth and foam from one of the well known vendors. The Rocket has a better cockpit geometry which places it a cut above the -8 right out of the gate, but I'd still like to really get the seats right. I plan on having 5 hour legs with it, so I want to be able to use it. Despite minimal padding, the seats in my Corvette are just about perfect for my proportions and I have no issue spending all day driving that car. There has to be some design fundamentals regarding comfortable seats, right? Or is it all a black art? Seems like you glider guys have the whole minimilist packaging/comfort thing figured out, so what's the secret?
I flew the RV -8 home from a nice weekend getaway with my bride today and could not help but notice how bad the seats were, despite ample padding depth and foam from one of the well known vendors. The Rocket has a better cockpit geometry which places it a cut above the -8 right out of the gate, but I'd still like to really get the seats right. I plan on having 5 hour legs with it, so I want to be able to use it. Despite minimal padding, the seats in my Corvette are just about perfect for my proportions and I have no issue spending all day driving that car. There has to be some design fundamentals regarding comfortable seats, right? Or is it all a black art? Seems like you glider guys have the whole minimilist packaging/comfort thing figured out, so what's the secret?
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