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Cockpit Mockup

 As some of you may know, I've been toying with the idea of widening the Junior Ace from the original 33-1/8" to something more comfortable. To help explore this idea and decide exactly how big "more comfortable" is, I built a mockup of the fuselage structure from pvc pipe. The sides are mirror images of one another and follow the bends of the stock fuselage exactly. The cross-tubes are just zip-tied on so that the sides can be moved to any width. The seat was knocked together quickly from some scrap and duplicates the shape and size of the stock seat.

PVC cockpit mockup
I set the mockup to the stock width and Cheyenne and I both sat in it. It was very tight and left little room for manipulating a control stick. My knees just clear the cross tube at the top of the fuselage when my feet are where the rudder pedals will be.

I then set the width to 36,38, and I think 40 inches consecutively. 36 was much more comfortable but still felt a little tight; getting in and out with another person in the seat could be difficult. At 38 it was about as comfortable as it was going to get. Much wider and it starts to feel loose; like you have room to rattle around without much added comfort.

And so, I decided that I would try to build a fuselage with a 38" wide cockpit.

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