What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

pedal extensions

Yes

I know Van's sells the pedal extensions....was wondering if anyone has fabricated their own.

Search the forum for my appends (engineerofsorts) . I fabricated some snap-on rudder pedal extensions from UHMW plastic. From the pictures, I haven't figured out exactly how the Van's version, which are all metal, are installed or operate.
 
Last edited:
I made a couple of sets out of timber, bungee cord and some leftover rudder pedal parts that I had (scrapped parts, I hasten to add). I'll take a photo next time I'm down at the hangar, but have a look in the modifications thread for some other ideas.
 
I bought a pair from Rob. Top quality workmanship, easy on off, highly recommended.

I bought a pair from Rob too and agree they are great. Here are a few pics of his first series but he has refined them since these pics to a better product.

IMAG0227.jpg

IMAG0224.jpg
 
does anyone know the particulars re: Vicky Cruise's fatality? I understand it was the result of rudder pedal extensions. If using these, it might be worth checking into.
 
does anyone know the particulars re: Vicky Cruise's fatality? I understand it was the result of rudder pedal extensions. If using these, it might be worth checking into.

Vicky Cruse's accident report from the 2009 World Aerobatic Championship's can be read here:

AAIB Report N540BW

It may have been caused by a rudder pedal extension failure - or possibly something else.

Certainly, the aircraft was flying and operated in a manner far removed from the way an RV-12 is operated.

That said, it is imperative any modification to a control is such that cannot fail or cause the operation of the control to fail.

We made some (bolted on) rudder pedal extensions for our RV-12 which are covered in various places in this forum.

Including here:

Rudder Pedal Extensions
 
That said, it is imperative any modification to a control is such that cannot fail or cause the operation of the control to fail.

I very much agree.
That was a primary design goal for the optional Vans extensions.
Secondary goals were that the could be quickly removed or installed without any tools and that they were light enough that you wouldn't think twice about having them always with you in the plane (never know when you might want to have them available). I think all of those goals were met.
 
A few metrics and a few (more) thoughts on rudder pedal extensions

I'm about 6'0", while my pilot wife is 5'2"-ish. The more important metric is the buns-to-heel distance: Sitting on the floor with your back and buns against the wall, the distance from the wall to the bottom of your heal seems like a good measure of the need for rudder pedal extension. For me, this is about 48", while my wife is at about 38". For me, I'm comfortable as-is with the seat back in either of the two hinge positions. For my wife, she has both the rudder pedal extensions, which add about 2.6 inches (on top of the approximately 1" already there with the black UHMW blocks that are standard on the rudder pedals) to the rudder pedal and 3.1 inches to the brake pedals. With the seat back hinge in the forward position, she still needs about a 5" thick pad added to the seat back cushion. (An added seat back cushion can be purchased from Abby at Flightline Interiors--tailored to the needed thickness and matching the original fabric).

The problem with too-thick an added seat-back cushion, or adding too many additional seat back hinge points is that you reach a point where the belly-button-to-full-aft-stick distance goes negative. My wife's circumference is considerably smaller than her height, so this hasn't been a problem. Just adding more forward hinge points poses the above belly button-aft stick problem, but added to it, moving the metal seat back forward also moves the seat bottom pad forward, possibly causing a stick-to-pad interference before the belly button-to-stick problem occurs. Furthermore, the seat back becomes more reclined as the hinge moves forward.

The other minor problem with my extension design is that, with the extension of the rudder pedal, when the brake pedal is pressed, the aft end of the rudder pedal will also rotate upward. My wife hasn't issued any complaints about the effect, and is should be minor since the brakes don't move very much. I can't tell from the pictures of Van's extensions, but I do see some hinges in the picture, so I'm wondering if that design incorporates some mechanical magic to keep this elevation from occurring when braking.

I keep forgetting to weight my UHMW-based extensions, but undoubtedly they are heavier that Van's aluminum versions. The added extensions and seat back pad probably add three or four pounds to the weight. UPDATE: I weighed the UHMW extensions, the total for the pair just under 1.7 pounds.

For reference, perhaps Scott can give us some measurement of how much extension Van's pedals give. I for one am glad the Van's has recognized that there are short pilots that want to fly RV-12s.

The safety of adding anything to primary flight controls is well noted. Looking at the pics in the FAA investigation noted above, it looks like that aircraft's extensions were quite a mechanical contraption. I was very concerned when designing extensions that they could fall off in flight and jam the rudder controls. As the design evolved however, I found that, with the UHMW milled to wrap half-way around the rudder pedal, brake pedal, and the pipe connecting them, along with the spring clip firmly holding them on, they just don't want to come off without a firm pull directly aft. I'm still paranoid, so I included velcro straps to further hold the rudder pedal portion to the extension. The pedals are the same width as the existing weldments, so I see no side-to-side interference, and there is no added material on the forward side of the pedals (except the thickness of the velcro safety strap, so it doesn't limit the full travel of the rudder.. It appears that Van's followed the same philosophy on their extensions, and made the whole works lighter with aluminum.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top