Category Archives: Seats

Completing the rear seat

Hours: 4
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After a bit of a hiatus, back to building.

With the help of my other half, we completed the bottom part of the rear seats and put it all together to finish it. This was truly one of those tasks where 4 hands can finish it all in half the time.

Clecoing the ribs
My helper in action

With everything clecoed together and fitted, time for some rivets.

All clecoed in place
Riveted the bottom half

Once that was all riveted together, we combined the bottom and top bench with the hinge.

Clecoing the bottom and top halves together
Riveting the top seat back to the bench from the back.

One piece of note here as the instructions don’t quite call out what orientation the hinge should be put in place. I did a lot of test fitting to get the ideal hinge-fit for this.

Based on my testing, here’s what I did:
I riveted the top bench from the back as seen in the above picture. And the bottom bench from the front to back, in order for the bench to be able to fold forward completely without interference like this:

Riveted the bottom of the bench from front to back in order for the seat back to be able to fold down without interfering with rivets.

And here’s the happy completed picture:

Completed rear passenger bench

Assembling the rear seat

Hours: 2
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With the front seats almost complete apart from the lock pin mechanism, time to assemble the rear seat.

First order of business was to remove the protective plastic and do some inspecting and deburring of the edges and holes.

Laying out the ribs
Ribs deburred

With that out of the way, time to assemble the main rib structure.

Lining up the rib structure of the seats
Backside of the seats with ribs clecoed

On the bottom rib there was a minor misalignment of the rib. The rib extended a little bit beyond the skin, but the holes were all drilled fine.

bottom rib extended a bit too far

So I trimmed off the small part that extended too far.

Sanded it down to finish up with the skin

And on to more ribs to make it a really solid seat.

Complete rib structure clecoed to the back

The last part was to put on the front skin and make sure everything lines up. When I first clecoed it on some of the ribs didn’t align, so I unclecoed the skin again, then centered it and clecoed it again and everything fit well.

Both sides of the skin clecoed in place

Next step will be to rivet it all together.

More front seat construction

Hours: 4
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With one front seat assembled, time to complete the other one.

I got an AN3-6A bolt from a friend while waiting to get a replacement from TAF, so I was able to put together the seat locking mechanism for the seat.

Completely assembled seat locking mechanism, ready to rivet

EDIT: after reading the Sling 4 instruction manual, I now believe the cable goes on the other side, so I’ll move it down before I close it up and rivet it in.

Now having figured out the complete assembly, I also assembled the mechanism for the second seat, but unfortunately, the steel cable assembly for the second seat is too long, so I put in an order for a replacement.

Second seat locking mechanism put together, but unfortunately the cable on this one is much too long.

So one mechanism assembly completed, the other on hold.

Then I completed assembling the second seat itself. When I built the other seat I noticed that I was missing some screws for the hinges and put in an order to get the missing screws, but I also remembered that I got some various metric screws from boltdepot a while back and luckily I had some countersunk M4x12 screws . Ialso found that there’s a typo in the instruction manual, which says they are M4x10, but the part number is HW-CAS-412-X-X-0 and they are actually M4x12. So I was able to put together the side hinges with those.

Riveting the headrest
Riveting the seat hinge

Now I just need some upholstery to make them a bit more comfortable to sit on. I ordered the upholstery a few weeks ago, so they should arrive in a few weeks hopefully.

Building a Front Seat

Hours: 3
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It’s time to replace the now empty box of parts in the Garage with another full one. I moved on to the Fuselage box to get started with the interior of the Fuselage assembly. First order of business was finding all the parts for the seats.

After a bit of digging I found all the parts for the seats based on the inventory checklist in the box.

Laying out parts for the seat assembly

Once I had all parts in order, I started laying out the headrest based on the manual.

Ribs for the headrest
Ribs for the headrest clecoed

Then I clecoed it all onto the seat back and started riveting from the seatback.

Riveting the front of the headrest

Following the backside, riveting the front side of the headrest.

Headrest riveted

With the headrest completed, time to make it look like a seat. I checked out the detail diagrams for the hinges and put everything together. The holes of the hinges needed a tiny bit of enlarging which I did using a simple hand deburring tool.

Seat hinges needed minimal enlarging to fit the linkage

Once I had the side hinges completed, I cleoed and riveted the bottom hinge of the seat in place.

Riveting the bottom seat hinge
Riveted the bottom seat hinge

Almost looks like a seat:

Seat almost completed

Assembling the bolt mechanism

The only thing left is the bolt mechanism that allows the seat to lock in place inside the Fuselage.

Laying out the bolting mechanism

Unfortunately, this is where I found out I was missing something. The bolt that allows the pulley to pull the cable wasn’t quite long enough. It should be a AN3-6A bolt, but as it turns out, it’s a 5A bolt, so it’s missing the mark by just a hair.

That bolt is unfortunately only -5 long

Also I only got one bolt, set of washers and screws for the hinges, which (if it was the right length) is only enough to complete one seat, so I put in an order for the few parts and will give them a call in Torrance to see if they can send they few screws so I can complete the seats.

Here’s a picture of test fitting the mechanism with the slightly too short bolt:

Half assembled mechanism to see how it functions.