Floor Fwd of Rudder Pedals

[Archer39J]

Is anyone putting flooring forward of the rudder pedals? It seems most photos I can find have that area open but I see tabs welded there seemingly meant to secure a floor panel. What passes through there that would need accommodation, brakes for one I believe?

[Mark Goldberg]

Bob designed the floor panel there to end before the firewall. It is super easy to make another little panel to fill that gap if you wish. The 90 degree bend is supposed to keep pencils etc. from rolling forward and down into the fuselage belly. Mark

[Archer39J]

Bob designed the floor panel there to end before the firewall. It is super easy to make another little panel to fill that gap if you wish. The 90 degree bend is supposed to keep pencils etc. from rolling forward and down into the fuselage belly. Mark

Ah, thanks Mark. I think I'll shoot for one continuous panel since both are on the same plane.

[Mark Goldberg]

It is awfully easy to make a little panel and stick the aft end of it under the other one. No one will ever see it or notice that they are two parts. Just suggesting you utilize what you got with the kit. MG

[Archer39J]

Oh yeah if I were sticking with aluminum I for sure would do that. I'm using 1/4" sandwich panel though so I get to make them all custom.

[Flygirl1]

We replaced the aluminum flooring under our feet with wood. Used two pieces of the lightest we could find and form fit them around everything including the break lines in the front. We did not like the "feel" of the thin aluminum in that spot. I also needed to lift the area under my heels so I could reach the toe breaks. I put cut pieces of the aluminum stringer under the floor and on top of the tab and attached with screws and nut plates on the tabs. These were just in the front half which made it angled high to low, which worked perfectly for my feet. ;-) This is on the Patrol though, just sayin.

[Battson]

Once all the brakes, pedals, brake lines, and everything else down there is hooked up, that little area forward of the factory floorboard is probably 50% holes at least. You could fill the other half in with floorboard if you wanted to. There will always be some holes there which you cannot close up, so you'll want some way of keeping small parts which get dropping from rolling into the cracks and jamming your controls.

You'll need to look carefully at how things move and what size to make the holes, so it all fits. You'll also need to consider what all that extra work will accomplish, given there still needs to be a lot of holes. It's mostly an aesthetic choice?

There are some photos of how other builds did it, which look quite tidy.

You would also want to consider how you would disassemble that area if you need to access any give part. You don't want to be pulling controls out too often, it's a big job.

One thing I have learned the hard way, you can never predict what will happen in future and which part of the aircraft you might need access too.

We used the factory floorboards and put marine carpet over top (very light and tough), then I put a small stainless steel wear plate down for the pilot's heels to slide upon. You want that metal wear plate if you have carpet.

[Archer39J]

Aesthetics and sound, the panel I have is an excellent sound absorber, well compared to AL sheet at least. I'll leave an AL flange about where it is just aft of the pedals to catch things. Figure I'll access that area from below via a removable tunnel, at least I understand that's what some folks do.

I like the marine carpet I've looked at so far, and I also think some AL wear pads are in order. I have some .015" Home Depot sheet I think should work well, I was going to cut up the floor boards that came with the kit for that but I don't think the pads need to be that thick.

[Ed.Meyer]

We did not cover that area of the floor letting the lip in the kit floor board suffice. Hard to even notice the opening. We used pickup bed liner rolled on to cover the aluminum floor boards and, so far, liking it.

[22LD]

I created a small floor piece for forward of the "pencil lip."

[Archer39J]

That looks great, thanks for sharing!

[bergy]

One of the guys in my EAA chapter's last meeting had some floorboards to show us. He had just fabricated them for a friend that flies an old T-Craft. He made them out of carbon-fiber and Kevlar. They were stiffened by laminating a few strips of foam longitudinally between the layers. Looked pretty, seemed really strong, and was not very heavy. He said that just the cost of materials added up, making it not an inexpensive project