Seat Cushion Thickness?

[rex ervin]

What is the recommended thickness for the front and back seat cushions: seat cushions and seat back cushions?
I am 5'9" and discovered that 3" seat thickness is too much and 2" seat back thickness seems fine. That was with foam cushions used by an auto upholstery shop (not very soft).

Thanks, Rex Ervin

[Battson]

I used 4" cushions up front, soft foam atop firmer foam - but we don't have a headliner - just straight throught to the skylight, and your head fits easily between the cross-bars if you want to go higher. Once you squish into the cushion, it's more like 2" of lift, so I am getting another 4" squab made up, for those times when I really need to see over the nose. Our plane's nose is also 3" longer than normal.

[Battson]

Oh - and same thicknesses in the back seats too. The seat-backs are all about 2". We also have some shaping to our seats (subtle shaping) to give them a bucket-seat shape.

[Mark Goldberg]

Hi Rex. There is no one size fits all for the seat cushions. The cushions are one of the main ways that you customize your sitting position where you want it and feel most comfortable. I used 3 inches of temperfoam on the bottom and 2" on the back. I suggest you play with it until you figure out a combination of seat position and foam thickness so it is comfortable to reach the rudder pedals, the stick, and mess with your radios. I like sitting up as high as possible in a taildragger. Mark

[Enewton57]

I recommend some lumbar support in the lower back. I used 3" bottoms and 2" backs with a small amount of lumbar support built in to the back of the seat.

[jaredyates]

Rex, here are some pictures of how we did the thickness and lumbar support. My wife did most of the carving work.

http://jaredyates.com/bearhawk/?s=seat+cushion

Now that I have the back seat in and the covering on the fuselage, I can tell you that I don't have headset clearance in the back seat. I'm 6'1" and long-legged. In the front seats I'm in the same boat as Jonathan and have plenty of room because of the skylight. I recently got to go for a ride in Bob's 4-place prototype, which has similar thickness front seat cushions to mine, but has fabric on the cabin roof. I found that I had clearance, though when my seatbelt wasn't very tight I did bump my head on it during a few of the mountain-wave bumps that we flew through. If you don't already have your covering in place, I'd suggest putting contact paper or something similar where you intend to have covering, and be sure to wear a headset since that will demand an extra inch or two.