odd thought - single seat 7?

I'm still in the "which should I build?" phase, but was daydreaming last night on a long drive home and wondered about the ability to take a -7 model and customize the cockpit as a single seater. A seat in the middle with 2 large areas to your left and right. If you needed to carry a passenger then pull the large area covers on each side and slide the seat over and toss the other seat in. The idea might be that if your SO wants to fly with you then you can "quickly" (whatever that relative term ends up being) adapt the plane.

Obviously the issue(s) would be controls, both stick and rudder -- and as a guy who has never seen a set of plans I have no idea whether this might be feasable. Perhaps some means of mounting the rudder pedals on a sliding plate/platform that could be slid from the left side to the middle and pinned in in place (but what happens to the passenger side pedals??). Seems like there would be some viable way of moving the stick to the middle (he pontificates without any info on this at all...)

Does this idea hold any possibility at all? Just throwing it out there for discussion. In single seat mode I like the idea of having the extra room to my left and right, but I think the idea of a passenger along side vs behind appeals to me more.

Definitely possible, but about as easy making the thing into a helicopter.

Controls

Why not remove the left stick and use the right stick as a side stick? I have no idea how you would do the rudder pedals though.

Actually, I thought that Van's had already done that. THey called it the RV-8!

Definitely possible, but about as easy making the thing into a helicopter.

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ha!

Actually, I thought that Van's had already done that. They called it the RV-8!

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Think of this idea as an "RV8 for widebodies"...

Why not remove the left stick and use the right stick as a side stick?

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Thats a good call, if this idea flew (heh heh) you could actually leave both sticks in and fly it 2 handed, or either from the left or the right side. maybe some sort of bar inbetween both the left and right stick sockets that has a socket of its own to allow you to place the stick in the middle.

I have no idea how you would do the rudder pedals though.

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I'd think this would be the hard one to resolve safely.

If you are large enough to need this kind of room, you should be able to reach the outside rudder pedals. That's the way it's done in the single place t-crafts.
Mel...DAR

flaps?

Not sure where you'd put the flap handle... it could be kind of, um, inconvenient and uncomfortable in the current location in the center of the seats.

You'd most likely need to eliminate the section that holds the electric flap motor and relocate a manual handle to the side.

Mel said:

If you are large enough to need this kind of room, you should be able to reach the outside rudder pedals. That's the way it's done in the single place t-crafts.
Mel...DAR

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i'm not a man of large carriage... yet. 6'3, 230. I just like the idea of all that possible room when solo. besides, its fun to talk about.

FLAP HANDLE!

Rudder pedals- No Problem. Just cross your legs-Left is still left & right is still right.

I think this ranks in there with my telescoping wings idea. Wings that get longer the slower you fly. Interesting but ultimately an idea that's going nowhere.

Two-hand controls

If you're willing to tank this project on, it sholdn't be that much harder to sit in tmiddle with your feet on the middle rudder pedals and teach yourself to use reversed control action. And you can put one hand on each stick and have dual side-sticks...the first of a kind for sure!