Brief Description: Passenger thigh support attachments
It's Crazy that this thigh support "Fuel pump housing" was one of the first things I built almost 2 years ago and now finally I'm able to install it. Kinda cool. So I decided that a hinge would make things MUCH easier than bolts and would look better as well. I used some left over aileron Hinge material and made 2 short 3.5" strips. I attached them using a threaded brass insert into the oak runners. I then screwed them into the support using 8-32 screws. I opted NOT to glass them in because I may need to remove the support down the road. This will be the "step" the passenger uses to get in and out of the plane so re-painting it will happen I'm sure. I then had to add 1/4" of Ply wood to the bottom of the other half of the hinge to make up for the floor dropping underneath. I then used 5 minute epoxy for a quick setup of the hardpoints. After cure I built up a dam of flox all around the hinge and layed up 3 plies of BID over the hinge and flox. Another thing I wanted to tackle was the small gap between the consoles and support. I opted to use 1/15" weather stripping around the outside edges of the support and it turned out absolutely fabulous. This also acts as a cushion between the support and consoles to protect them from scraping each other. nice touch :) Finally I added a small half-moon notch to the side that will need to be lifted up. Just enough for 1 finger. I will be adding a couple magnets to this edge as well so it will stay closed at all times