Chapter 24 step 4 - Armrests
2009-04-12 (1 hour): I decided to do something a little different than the plans for my arm rests. Others have complained about not having access to the hidden area here for maintenance purposes, so I decided to make a removable access panel (as others have done). To do this, I prepared the right-side top arm rest surface to fit around the stick and map pocket. I then 5-minute epoxied two small lips onto it. The first is at a 90-degree angle, and sits between the stick and instrument panel. This will support a vertical filler panel that goes from the arm rest down to the thigh support. The second is at a 45-degree angle from the stick back to the seat. This will eventually be sanded away, but for now forms a lip against which I did a BID layup. My plan is to sand away this section, then install quarter-turn fasteners on it to support an access panel. I'll put a matching lip along the fuselage wall to support the bottom of the panel.
Today I just made the right side because I want to fit it together and see how it works before I do the left to match.
04-16-2009 (1 hour): I now have the second layer of BID on the right side arm rest, and I was pleased enough with how it turned out that I started the left side as well. I did remove the foam under the lips I had made on the right side, so there's now a 3-BID lip for the fasteners. There's plenty of clearance around the torque tube.
2009-05-14 (2.00 hours): Added nut plates. I suppose I could have done this as part of the previous layup, but it was just easier to do it as a separate step. Today I floxed on nut plates along the arm rest edges to hold the side plates. I also put a 1 BID ply on top of them to keep them in place. Job done.
2011-09-11 (1.00 hours): Pilot's side installed. This has been hanging around for a while, never a priority - and it still really isn't, but I had some extra epoxy tonight and couldn't think of anything else to do with it so I made up some BID tapes and installed the pilot's side arm rest. (The copilot's was installed long ago.)
It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but the arm rest isn't all one piece. It has an angled inside edge that stops about 2" down from the arm rest, with nut plates behind it. The nut plates are used to attach a trim piece. It only took an hour or two longer to fabricate it this way, and this makes it MUCH easier to service the controls underneath the surface because basically the entire side of the arm rest comes off. It's still plenty sturdy - the lip the trim piece attaches to is 4-BID and it makes the arm rest extremely stiff - and the trim piece will provide additional support once it's installed.
2023-07-12 (3 hours - PK build). A deviation from plans is a nice custom touch that costs time - but I'm glad to see the nut plates! Working on the lower skirting boards for the pilot and co-pilot, the first step was templates. I used foam board, cycling back and forth to the plane. The control stick throws are significant and I now need to discard and re-make the control stick covers to fit the new trim pieces. I also ordered the fabric I will use as covering - yellow vinyl in back and an upholstery fabric in front. $51 for the two remnants from fabric guru. This was another chance to pull out my Singer 6800C.... it was all about using the right non-stick foot and a super sharp leather needle. Add the right thread and it's more than half way to a solution.
2023-07-15 (6 hrs). For rear arm rest, per plans a 3" and 3.5" wide length of foam joined with micro. To have it removable, both 2 BID outer and 1 BID inner extened to form a lip of BID where the arm rest contacts the side wall, with G10/micarta inserts. 5 click bond studs on each side of fuse, slightly below the level of the top of the CS mini-bulkhead. BID drilled for the click bond stud, and outer face of arm rest drilled for access. Attached photo shows one arm rest curing the inner BID layer, the other pre-glassing. For front arm rest, made a lower skirting board, which will be drilled to match the nutplates in the installed arm rest. One bit of good news - the record heat lets the epoxy cure fast, allowing me to do 2 layups a day. And I again found that my 'tropical weight' epoxy outperforms anything from West Systems. Raka "#900 Medium Resin" + "#350 Non-Blushing Hardener".
2023-08-04. The hardest parts to fit were the upper fairings of the back seats. The angles are hard to fit, then hard to cover - see the photo with all the small bits trimmed from the original too-large parts. For the rear arm rests I added "No Step" patches. Also, in the front I added pockets, embroidered with a nicely detailed honey bee. (Never stop working!) Below the pockets are oval circles - those will be cut open for the seatbelts. I'm glad to have these done and stored away. I'll get the inspections done and then reinstall all these fairings.