Seat Cushion Recommendations?

[kmisegades]

C170 Friends,

I am planning some longer trips in my 1952 C-170 this summer. The plane is great, but the old seats kill my derrier and back after about an hour.

Since the plane is certificated, swapping seats means a big investment.
Therefore I am looking for seat cushions with good lumbar and shoulder
support. I don't need to sit much higher in the plane, just more comfortably.

Can y'all make any recomendations? I know about Oregon Aero cushions but hope to find something as good for less money.

Many thanks in advance.

Kent Misegades
1952 C-170B
Cox Field, Apex, NC

[GAHorn]

Kent, it is no violation of regs to have your seat cushion re-cut for a better fit. You can have any upholstery shop make the change, and if you're so-talented, you can even do it yourself. (It's a FAR 43, Appdx A Preventive Maintenance action, which can be performed by the owner-pilot.) You may not even have to make any changes to the seat fabric!
Foam seat-cushion material can be sliced with a sharp electric carving knife. Pieces of foam can be glued to existing cushions with 3M brand 1300L adhesive or aersol adhesive.

Here's a suggestion. Take some seat cushion foam (available at most aircraft upholstery suppliers and many automotive suppliers and ordinary fabric shops) and cut two long "logs" with a tri-angular cross section...say about 4" on the side by 24" long. Lay them beneath each thigh at the left/right edges of your seat while sitting in the plane, and see how that feels.
Take another section, the width of your seat-back, about 4" thick and about 10" tall, and cut it into the shape of a "D"...for a lumbar-support cushion, and place it behind your lower back.
How does that all feel?

When you get it like you want it....but I suggest you make it about 1/2" thicker than you think, ...because with time it will compress underneath the seat-fabric...you can remove the seat-cover-fabric and glue those new foam cushions to the existing cushion....(or you can cut out room in the existing cushions for the shape-change as you deem fit)...then replace the seat cover...and ... Voila!

[kmisegades]

Gahorn,

This is great. I have some memory foam at home and will start carving soon.

Many thanks!

Kent

[GAHorn]

I'm not sure how satisfying "memory" foam is.... after a while it "remembers" you're sitting there and may not offer the long-term support you want thru a flight. But....you'll know better than I...

After a bit of thought, I'm not certain that a tri-angular cross section is what you'll want on the thigh-support. You might find a "D" shaped long log to be better in that location as well... it will likely have a better finished appearance underneath the fabric. (or maybe a "d" or "P"shape...with the long part extending beneath you completely?)

[MeeksDigital]

i've got tempur foam or memory foam or whatever you want to call it in N5LP and the seats are by far the most comfortable of any aircraft i've flown. after 8 hour days of flying i don't really feel fatigued or sore in any way, so thats pretty nice. only "drawback" .... if you're flying in cold weather they're hard as a rock until your body heats the foam up. thank god for california sunshine!

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

About 10 years ago I flew my Cub to Sun N Fun from PA. 19.5 flight hours in 3 days.

My butt was as sore as I can ever remember it and I swore I'd never wear another head set.

I limped immediately over t the Oregon Aero booth and explained my situation. The man at the booth thought for a minute and went behind his counter and pulled out a block of their memory foam meant for a seat cushion they sold. He guaranteed me that if I sat on his foam on top of my Cub seat and upgraded my headset with his products I'd have no problem.

14.5 hours in two days home and I didn't want to quit flying. I eventually replaced the seat foam with the foam I'd bought and ended up using the upgraded headsets professionally every day for the next 5 years and over 4000 hours. I still have them today but they are backups.

All of my head sets and helmet are upgraded with Oregon Aero's memory foam products and I highly recommend them. Of course memory foam can be had other places.

Yes the only draw back is the head set or seat is hard for about 30 seconds till your body heat softens them up. The plus side is the head set will keep your ears warm after that. They aren't any hotter in the summer than any other head set or seat.

Any upgrade I did to any of my aircraft seats or lawn tractor for that matter will include the use of memory foam.

[bentley]

Just a $02 worth FYI. I have both work planes retro fitted with Oregon Aero seat rebuilds as well as flight helmet liners. As stated above on cold mornings the seats are stone for about 60 seconds then great. Routine 5 hour flights are then tolerable. When the 170 is ready for new seats I am going to try to go that route for sure.

R

[jrenwick]

Kent,

This is an echo of what Trevor and Bruce said, but here's my experience. In 2001 a friend and I made a 10-day trip in my Cub from Minneapolis, following the Mississippi to New Orleans, around the gulf coast to Sun-n-Fun, and home again. The seat cushions were intolerable for that length of flight. Two years later we two flew the Cub to Anchorage, but first I had a local upholsterer fill the seats with Temper Foam (http://www.seatfoam.com/). It cost about $100 per seat plus labor, but the results were amazing -- we had no discomfort with the seats for the whole Alaska trip.

The product is a 3" thick cushion built up of three 1" layers: the bottom one is the firmest, middle medium, and top the least firm. It feels like a very hard seat until you sit on it and it takes the shape of your butt. It's firmer in winter, but because it quickly conforms to your shape, the comfort is the same year-round. Four years later they feel just the same. I can recommend this without reservation.

Best Regards,

John