Thorp Air Command - T18.net

Nice folks. I bought tempur-foam from them for my seats. Time will tell how they work out, unless I die of old age first.

Lately I'm hearing a few negatives about the memory foam, though. Great for warm climes, not so great for the great white North. I knew they were hard when cold, but now I'm hearing that they tend to crack when they are hard (and brittle).

So far it's hear-say. Any stories from cold weather dwellers?

d

A person with enough glutemous compressive force to induce thermally assisted stress cracking in a material with such a low modulus of elasticity and high poisson's ratio even at 1 degree above absolute zero, need not be inducing those same forces on ANY aircraft....

_________________
Fraser MacPhee
N926WM
Serial #279-1
Angel Fire, NM (KAXX)

When I had my seats done at a local seat shop I requested high density foam . Not cheap , but after 3 years they are holding up great . My pax even comment on how comfortable the seat is . Don't skimp on the foam or the seat material . You will be spending a lot of time getting to know it !

RB

I've had the original NASA-developed Temper Foam for 23 years - there are/were other brands (Sun Foam?) that were similar, but supposedly different & less expensive. Temper Foam was the original material developed for the "Astronauts couch". It is hard as a rock when cold, but your butt soon warms it up. It was pretty cold when I went flying a few days ago... I sit about an inch higher in the cockpit until it warms up. I haven't noticed any cracking, Dick.

_________________
John Evens
Arvada, Colorado
T-18 N71JE (sold)
Kitfox 7 SS N27JE

JR : "Cracking ?" That kind of "Cracking" we don't want to see ! Larry the Cable Guy is all I can handle ! OH MY !

RB

Temper Foam here too John, Frase and Rich, good stuff. My seats are built up so I have a clear shot over the nose when the tail is on the tarmac, they are comfortable. The wife likes them also, flying a couple hour leg is no trouble and they keep their shape very well, I guess its the only part of my Bird that I had to have done, the upholstery on the seats, wasn't about to try that. I believe it cost me $300.00 to have em done, and I believe Gloria spent 100 bucks on material at the apolstery shop. It was money well spent, Temper Foam, Good stuff in my opinion. Dan

I used 3 inch high density foam in the seat bottom and it gives me GREAT over the nose visibility when taxing ! Has kept its shape and density after several years of stepping on it to get into and out of the cockpit ! The seats were built with Velcro attached to the seat covers should I need to replace the foam . Boom !

RB

I have a set of finished seats for 66WT. I put them in and sat in the cockpit earlier this week to see how much head room I would have. I'm not sure I could get away with any thicker foam in the set of seats for 218TH. My concern would be the headset hitting the canopy. I'm not tall by any 'measure' , but have a longer torso than legs. The other idea would be to use a headset that doesn't have a head band.

I have QT Halos that I really like. But, I do find that I switch back and forth between the Halos and the Lightspeed Zulus. I find the noise cancellation of the Halos to be the same as the Zulus if you insert the ear plugs properly.

Hi All, I'm adapting the seat pans for 218TH so that they fold. I'm trying to source the tube hinges. Next stop is West Marine to see what they have. Any suggestions?

Terry

Yeah. For the time being, Classic Sport.
Cubes

So it rained all weekend a week ago so I decided it was time to retire my old, ratty seats. We just happen to have some medium density foam and some red vinyl laying around so Renee and I made a run on the local upholstery supply shop for backing foam and we found some silver “velvet” and we were set. We’ve never done upholstery but after a few u tube videos we figured we could give it a try.
Here is a before and after shot.

_________________
http://www.dixiefriedfabrication.com/

Good job Lou !!! That looks pretty darn good!!! Are they still comfy.........Dan

Gee, that looks real nice, Lou!

_________________
John Evens
Arvada, Colorado
T-18 N71JE (sold)
Kitfox 7 SS N27JE

Thanks guys.
I wanted to customize the foam so that is part of the reason we did it ourselves. It took two trips to the hanger for testing. We sit about an inch higher, head room is sparse but it does get our legs off “the knob” on the tunnel. The back has minimal padding all over but does have a lot of lumbar support and I am liking that.
We gave her a test this past Sunday and flew out to Phoenix for lunch with my pa. two hours out, one point five back. Everything is working good so far but just that inch difference in sitting position does take some getting used to.

_________________
http://www.dixiefriedfabrication.com/