Lots of work this week on the front and rear seat design and layout. I had a couple of conversations with Luke Doughton at Classic Aero Designs, the upholstery shop that is doing the interior for the RV-8. I was saying that the metal armrests on the fuselage in both the front and back were just too low and too narrow. He suggested that I just get some foam and make some patterns and come up with a design that got the pads where I liked them and he had some suggestions on what to do and what not to do. I spent some time tonight following his advice and came up with some patterns that are just perfect! They hit the elbows in just the right spot, yet don't seem to interfere with the cockpit width too much. I drew up a couple of 3-D drawings and emailed them to Luke tonight. It will be interesting to see what he has to say.
An interesting aside is that they cut a piece of plastic the shape of the armrest and embed Rivnuts in the bottom. This way, you simply drill a couple of holes in the bottom of the metal armrest on the fuselage and screw the armrest pad right to the plane. Very cool!
