Nachricht geschrieben von Eric Tauch
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This surprised me, as from all that I had read, the cabin at 44 in width
is supposed to be bigger than most. (...) I do not remember feeling this
way on my first Cessna 172 flight lesson
(...) The seat width seemed fine, but the shoulder width was not good (for
me anyway).
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Eric,
I felt the same. I flew a lot of a/c, from gliders via powered gliders,
C150, C172, PA18, P28, PA32, Mooney (only to mention a few, and "only" sat
in a few more), but in no other a/c I had this feeling of beeing pushed to
the right...
I'm also still in the phase of doing my researches on homebuilts, so I try
to sit in as many as I can and I already posed a question on this matter to
this mailing list with detailed information of my "sizes" when 'm sitting
on the floor. Some owners seem to be taller than me with wider shoulders
and still feel comfortable, as they say... But the ONLY important thing is
that you or me, respective the owner feels comfortable. Maybe if you have
built this plane, you WILL feel comfortable in it, just like as you'll love
your child even if it has broken your chinese dishes ;-)
I heard about a completed Europa in southern Germany or Austria that is
waiting in a hangar for someone who likes to buy it, because the builder
decided to build an ALPHA (because of the larger cockpit) after he has
flewn one.
So I test-sat an ALPHA: It was so much better at the shoulders, but I would
have to modify the lower edge of the instrument panel to make it fit for
me....
Nothing is perfect, but you can be sure of that you cannot expect the
comfort you'll find in a C172 in any modern, fast, lightweight and economic
design. As a PPL student, you'll learn that
F rho * c * A * v2
is the formula that enables you to fly. Rho as the density is given, F as
the force (coming from something providing nearly 100 hp within the limits
of the noise abatement restrictions) also is given. The only thing you can
"play" with is the portion of c * A * v2. This game is named "aircraft
design" ;-). And if you want to be fast ( good on fuel good range), you
have to be lightweight (reduces c) and small (reduces A). Unfortunately
velocity comes in with the power of 2, so you have to be VERY lightweight
and VERY small ....
I know this doesn't help you in any way because your physics are also given
;-), but I want to make you understand that every thing on earth has a
backdraw and this is the price you have to pay for the advantage that tall
men with strong shoulders are more attractive to women ;-)
Now, what did we learn? Build a homebuilt that is too small for you, buy
expensive pilots sunglasses, a white silk scarf and a leather jacket and
fly only to the nearest airfield (or even only roll the plane out of the
hangar) and walk to the bar ...
Regards,
Jens
PS: To those who didn't understand the ironics and the jokes: I also spend
my whole live sitting at the bar, wearing expensive ..... and would never
make jokes on people behaving like this!
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