Brief Description: Cyclic Boots and Cabin Floor Carpet
This was a job I wasn’t looking forward to because I figured that it would just be a complete pain in the ass due to the difficult working area. I was actually mostly wrong. It was a tight location, and I was concerned over how much movement I was going to have with the cyclics once installed, but as you can see, they came out beautifully.
Now, how the sausage is made: The boots are really nicely sewn (I think by Delane), and then glued to a sheet metal base. A second base needs to be made to go on the inside of the kick plate, or nut plates need to be installed on the kick panel itself. It makes more sense when you look at the photos.
I didn’t go crazy on the finish of the metal backing plates, but I did use a primer to protect the bare metal. These backing plates also give me a little movement so I can play with the range of motion of the cyclics if needed. I only needed the backing plates on the bottom because I installed nutplates for the op directly on the kick panel.
I think the finished product looks really great. The photos show the cabin floor carpet installed, but unfortunately I will need to remake them because the carpet hits the tail rotor pedals and limits their movement. I will need to look for someone who can fix this locally.
