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Opinion on pedal placement

sbalmos

sbalmos

Well Known Member
I need some opinion or insight on where best to place my rudder pedals. I know my seats and interior will increase the sitting height, compared to just sitting on the floor seat pans and making airplane noises. But I seriously doubt it would move me forward any in seating position.

For reference, I am 6'0, with a 32" inseam for leg length. Below is a picture of where my knees land, basically at the forward edge of the center bulkhead.

IMAG0257.jpg


At the forward-most position of the rudder pedals, with the minimum distance back from the firewall of 3", the pedals are clearly too far forward for my toes to hit.

IMAG0255.jpg


The final picture is after moving the pedals back to where my toes basically barely touch.

IMAG0256.jpg


But this looks almost too far aft? If I moved the pedals completely aft to what might be a comfortable position, I think the bearing blocks would be right up against the forward vertical bulkheads.

Opinions? Too far aft, too far forward, where should I try and position them next? And yes, I'll be drilling a number of bolt holes for various bearing block positions. I just want to try and find a close to comfortable position now first.
 
lean back

Scott, I adjusted mine so I am leaning back as far as possible because after some time I felt it was more comfortable. This resulted in pedals mid position, lower seat hinge in middle position and back rest full aft. My inseam = 32 inch. My seat cushions are very thick so keep that in mind. You are welcome to test fit mine. Steve
 
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You need to test it with cushions. That changes everything. Borrow a set and try it again. I'm 6'1" & I'm uncomfortable without the "Almost a -14" mod. I think pedals full forward would be best for me.
 
Seat cushions really change the geometry, A BUNCH!

I am only 5'10" with a 32" inseam and I have the rudder pedals as far forward as possible. I have the bottom of my seat back in the front-most position, and the back rest cut down to allow as much of a reclined angle as possible. It fits me perfectly.

I think it has to do a lot with your natural driving position, I like to drive "leaned back." If you like the more upright seating when you drive I would position the rudder pedals at the mid-point.
 
I'm 6'1" no idea about my inseam, but I have the rudder pedals in the middle position.

Don't forget the seat back will actually move you forward a lot.

Cheers
 
I'm 6'2" with a 35" inseam. I have the pedals all the way forward and this works fine with my long legs. On long flights I can stretch out my legs towards the center tunnel if needed, but I'm usually just resting my feet on the pedals.

The plans have you drill 3 different locations for adjustability, but changing this would require new rudder pedal links. Not hard to do, but certainly would be a hassle to move them later. I didn't make the rudder cable linkages until late in final assembly. By then you should have seat cushions to sit on and really fine tune the position. My advice is to drill the 3 positions and later determine the best one for your legs and then create the rudder links to fit the chosen position.
 
I found the rudder cable lengths had more to do with the pedal positions than the mounting holes. The mounting holes just changed the angle of the pedals slightly. I chose the farthest set of holes as I have a tendency to ride the brakes too much in most of the aircraft I have flown.
 
I'm the same size with the same inseam and I put them full forward.

It looks like your peddles are at different angles, which could be a problem. My solution was to jig up the rudder bars on my work bench and clamp the two rudders together so they were side-by-side. Then I put a long piece of pencil sized dowel horizontally in front of each rudder pedal and forward of the two vertical supports. When the peddles lined up, I drilled the brake master cylinders to them.

(Not to worry, replacement peddle parts aren't that expensive. I had to buy new ones when I found out mine weren't lining up.)

And I keep an old pillow case in back so when I have muddy and/or wet shoes I have something to put them in before getting in the plane. I then fly in my socks until shut down, where I toss my shoe bag out of the plane before getting out.
 
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Fair enough, I'll wait until I have some cushions in the spring or so. I was planning on drilling multiple sets of holes anyway like the plan says - back hole becomes the front hole of the next position, etc. Maybe a set of holes in-between, depending on distance from a neighboring hole. Thanks all.
 
middle brace

I did the side holes and then did the middle brace as I moved the side blocks to the various holes but the center block is a different length so the last hole in the center block that is the front hole and the first hole that was the back hole are too close together. just a heads up to watch this before drilling your center brace
 
spring return holes

also, now is the time to add spring centering return holes if you want that to keep the rudder centered. I added the holes at build and now I plan to install them to prevent the rudder from banging against the stops in the wind.
 
I'm 6'0" with 32" inseam and my pedals are all the way forward ... And I still wish I had more legroom. As others said, you can't judge when sitting in the plane until you have all the seat cushions in place ... Including the wedges if you use them.
 
lots...almost too many variables

Scott, I'm not a builder, but here's my rudder pedal observations.

yeah, wear your usual shoes...the heels bring the ball of your foot up a bit.
You probably want to test FULL rudder deflection, WHEN BELTED IN TIGHTLY!
any fitting without belts can't be very meaningful.
Even sitting on most seats for an hour will warm and compress the foam, changing the geometry a fair bit.
Halfway thru a long x-country, you've changed cheeks and adjusted your posture a few dozen times. When it comes time to land in a crosswind, where will your feet be now?
If you change your pedals position fore n' aft much, you need to adjust the links to the cables so you have proper travel, as others have said.

I found I like the seat at max recline, which means the bottom hinge at most forward. ( gives max headroom as well)
still, even pushing halfway on the pedal was a stretch, so I plan to add the pedal extensions.
Bonus; keeps pressure off the brakes until you really mean it.
 
Note: the center bearing block does not have the same bolt pattern as the end bearing blocks. If you use the end blocks to move a full bolt hole for each move the center support bracket will end up with a figure 8 hole.
 
Engineering change order

In the 15 years that this kit has been manufactured it blows me away that the issue that Bert addresses still exists, either that or both Bert and I are missing something. Does nobody in Van's know how to write an engineering change order? On the outboard blocks (F-6116) the hole spacing is 3 1/4" and on the center block the hole spacing is only 3", thus, when you drill the side blocks to the F-719 fwd skin stiffener in the manner they suggest in the manual, you will have holes that don't line up on the F-6118 rudder pedal brace when you go to drill the most furthest aft set. Really frustrating. In hindsight I wish I had drilled the F-6116 side bearing block with 3" spacing between the holes (perhaps allowing an additional fraction due to the outward splay of the side skins at that point - yet to be calculated). I'm just going to leave the aft most position undrilled for now on the F-6118 brace and just hope some vertically challenged individual never wants to fly my aircraft.

2zye9ly.jpg
 
Just as a follow-up from my aggravated rant above, I contacted Van's tech support and spoke with Sterling about the issue. He said that these two center holes close together on the F-6118 bracket (the aft hole on the forward position and the forward hole on the aft position) were acceptable and a common occurrence. My holes were exactly 1/16" apart, from edge to edge. Not ideal, but apparently acceptable, and I guess to the benefit of any vertically challenged individual that wants to fly my aeroplane in the future.
Tom.
 
I'll offer my own, different approach to the pedal placement. I am short statured, with an inseam of 28". Even so, I wanted tall friends to be comfortable in the passenger seat so I moved the rudder pedals as far forward as possible while still allowing full rudder pedal movement with application of full brakes. I then adjusted my seat to the forward most position and added pedal spacers on the rudder pedals and brakes on the pilot side. Works well and tall passengers are comfortable.
 
jjconstant said:
I'll offer my own, different approach to the pedal placement. I am short statured, with an inseam of 28". Even so, I wanted tall friends to be comfortable in the passenger seat so I moved the rudder pedals as far forward as possible while still allowing full rudder pedal movement with application of full brakes. I then adjusted my seat to the forward most position and added pedal spacers on the rudder pedals and brakes on the pilot side. Works well and tall passengers are comfortable.
Click to expand...

No a bad plan if it works for you, but it can be less than ideal for many people.

There is one other item that comes into play that is not movable.... the control stick.
If the rudder pedals are far fwd, and the seat is moved fwd to compensate, some people can become uncomfortably close to the control stick when it is full aft as in a landing flare. The closer to the stick you are, the more awkward the pull on the stick also.
 
In the proper seating position, the bottom of your foot will not be 90* to the floor. Your rudder pedals should not be 90* to the floor.

The brake pedals should be parallel to each other, and have a little more tilt than the weldment so you won't drag the brakes as you operate the rudder.

The Warrior had a very good foot angle to pedal feel. I matched that feel to my 6A.


BTW.... my passengers just have to adapt....:eek:
 
rvbuilder2002 said:
No a bad plan if it works for you, but it can be less than ideal for many people.

There is one other item that comes into play that is not movable.... the control stick.
If the rudder pedals are far fwd, and the seat is moved fwd to compensate, some people can become uncomfortably close to the control stick when it is full aft as in a landing flare. The closer to the stick you are, the more awkward the pull on the stick also.
Click to expand...

The other item that seems to come into play is the design of commercially available seat bottom cushions.

As the seat back is moved forward the cushion cutout for the stick starts to restrict rearward movement.
 
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