Interior Construction
Interior Construction |
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Date: December 2002 |
Chapter: 19.0 Interior |
Section: Fuselage |
Not yet complete.
Not yet complete.
Currently taking bids on the seats, consequently we've
begun work on the LCD display mounts for the seatbacks. We will be
installing a DVD system for the rear seat passengers.
We ended up going with Oregon Aero for our upholstery, and picked some nice grays for the interior color. This theme will be matched throughout the cabin. They custom cut and shaped their multi-density temper foam into our preferred shape and performed custom stitch work for the leather pattern, and embossed the Velocity logo into the middle of the upper seatback. They do excellent work, and are extremely sensitive to meeting the customer's expectations. We highly recommend them.
Seat-Back LCD Display Cutout
Seatback with Display box in place
Display Box (formed around blue foam DVD template)
Display in place
Display in place with upholstery cover
Display in Place with Upholstery
Testing the seats
Embossed Logo
Seat Profile
Seats Paired Up - Note the Screen in Seatback of Front Seat
Still Playing Around
All Seats in
"Get In!"
View from the Back
Both Screens Visible from back seat
We've decided on Oregon Aero to do our upholstery and temper foam the seats. They were nice enough to offer to ship us their "standard Velocity" foam package at no charge to see if that would meet our need, or allow us to give them input for our seats. We'll ship them the seats for custom foam fitting and leather upholstery, and they'll install the seat heaters as well. Great folks.
Seat Foam Front
Seat Pan Foam
Seat Back Foam
Seat with Foam and Uphostery
Not yet complete.
We will not install a Loran antenna or receiver.
Not yet complete.
Not yet complete.
OK, so it's not a headliner, but it's close. Here we stole an idea from the factory, where they'd installed a small bar to hang the headsets from. Pretty slick if you ask me.
Headset Hangar
Not yet complete.
Not yet complete.
In addition to side paneling, a false bulkhead needs to be made for the rear of the aircraft. This will hide the mechanical systems and structures from view in the cabin. Also, unlike the retract version, we should not need access to anything behind the bulkhead in flight (although a push-pull cable has been installed to the fuel shut-off valve). The lower portion of the bulkhead will also form the baggage platform, so it needs to be fairly sturdy.
Whale-Tail Template
Whale-Tail Bulkhead Fitting
Luggage Shelf
We've purchased automotive seat belts in a matching gray color for our interior. We've also mounted the hardpoints to mount them to. In the front the shoulder hardpoint is in the rollover beam, and then the lower hardpoints mount to the keel and side of the fuselage, respectively. In the rear, the lower hardpoints are similarly mounted, but the shoulder belt hardpoint mounts to the angled portion of the spar reinforcing box. Each of these is drilled and tapped for a 7/16" bolt.
Front Inside Belt Mount
Front Outside Belt Mount
Front Shoulder Belt Mount
Rear Outside Belt Mounts
Rear Shoulder Belt Mount
Front Seats and Belts installed!
Rear seat belts installed
I'm not sure what other folks do for their glare shields, and the directions in the manual are pretty skimpy. What I've decided to do is this, I'll brace the back (it tends to droop) with two aluminum plates that mount to the fuselage just in front of the windscreen, and add to angle brackets on the back of the instrument panel to hold the front end of the glare shield in place. This involves the usual recessing of AL hard points into the fuselage and glare shield, and drilling and tapping both.
Two Fore Glare Shield Mounting Plates from Nose
Two Fore Glare Shield Mounting Plates from Cabin
Instrument Panel Angle Brace
Instrument Panel Angle Brace
The glare shield will also have a set of luminescent panels installed to add some flooding light to the instrument panel in soft green (similar to the Timex Indiglo), and for map reading. These will be recessed into the glare shield so that they are not obvious, and they'll have a dimmer so that you can adjust them for the right amount of lighting.
Glare Shield Lighting Installation - line is instrument panel depth
Installed Glare Shield Lighting
The glare shield will also house a defogger for the pilot side of the windscreen that the bilge blower will power. There will be a separate diverter valve that allows the warm air to be diverted from the floor heat vents to the defogger.
Defogger plenum and Deflector
Defogger Plenum Mounted
Final Panel and Glareshield
The door cover panels are pre-molded by the factory. There's a hump where the door handle comes through, but figuring out where exactly was a bit challenging, so I ended up needing to close up my first hole a bit. Also, stealing an idea from my buddy Andy, I used left-over foam with a light BID covering to form the standoffs it'll be screwed to.
Finding the door lever opening location
Making the cover stand-offs
The instruction on the rear cover panel are pretty sparse, to say the least, basically saying that there should be one. I've decided to go with a "luggage shelf" directly on top of the fuel sump. On top of the whale-tail that has the end of the tube and bell-crank arrangement for the aileron controls, I've glassed and extension that raises up enough to house our 10 disc CD/DVD changer and the ELT beacon box. This shelf is supported outboard by two "beams" that hold the shelf above the sump. These beams are 4" 3/8" dyvinicel foam with BID laid up on both sides laid flat, with a further 3/8" x 1" support glassed underneath on edge to try to combat any sagging of the support. The shelf it's self is 3/8" foam board with TRIAX reinforcing on both sides. This shelf ended up being 10" deep and 4' wide. You can see more about the luggage shelf above.
From here, I made poster board mock-ups of the space vertically up to the roof from the shelf, with a slanted portion outboard of the fuel vent lines to end just aft of the back of the rear windows. This was then fabbed from the 3/8" foam board, and then supports made for it. First, a TRIAX lip was added to the aft side of the shelf to keep the vertical wall from sliding aft, then lips were added to the two outboard sections to 'capture' the rear of the center section. Then I taped the outboard two sections vertically and glassed supports behind them onto the roof-top NACA scoops and onto duct tape, that will act as a flange to keep the top from moving rearward. Then I did the same with the center section. This created the base of the vertical supports, though I may add some additional bracing later, since on climb-out this wall will take the majority of the luggage weight, and I don't want any of the mechanicals or the ELT antenna to be damaged.
Making the Templates for the Rear Bulkhead
Forming the Luggage Shelf Rear Lip
Forming the Lips on the Outboard Panels
Fitting the Center Panel
Rear Panel Rough-Fitted
~ End of Chapter ~