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Kupe's Zodiac 650B
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Date:  6-27-2014
Number of Hours:  2.00
Manual Reference:  6-B-18
Brief Description:  1. Removable Seat Backs

Following in the footsteps of Larry Winger, another Zodiac builder on these boards, I copied his design for removable seat backs. There's a lot going on just behind the seats in a zodiac (flap motor, flap actuator, aileron & balance cables, aileron stop, and eventually antenna leads, wiring from the wings, et al) so it's important to have a seat back that can be readily removed. Larry's design had three factors going for it that drew my attention: 1. Simple design, 2. light weight, and 3. easily removed. Here's how it works:

- Purchase some 5mm-thick luan from Home Depot (comes in a convenient 2' x 4' sheet) and cut it into two 465mm x 400mm pieces.
- Place each seat back into position to where the top edge just peeks over the top of the upper seat back frame.
- Scribe a pencil line across the top of the lower seat back into the back side of the wood.
- Take a Z-angle and open up the short edge of it to ~100 degrees (slightly more than 90 degrees).
- Attach the Z-angle to the seat back along the line you scribed. I added a strip of metal across the front as reinforcement for the Z-angle in back.
- Drill out a rivet line through the Z-angle and match drill it to the metal strip and luan.
- Rivet from the front through the metal strip, luan, and Z-angle and your done!

I'll paint them the same flat gray ("dove gray" as my interior material is called) as the rest of the cockpit when the weather is better

They fit quite snugly, but they're easy to pop free and pull out of the way. Thanks Larry Winger!
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Removable seatbacks after installation.

Removable seatbacks after installation.

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The back side with the Z-angle opened up to fit along the top of the lower seat back.

The back side with the Z-angle opened up to fit along the top of the lower seat back.

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Back side of pilot seat back.  The offset is to compensate for the flap motor (note the pencil scribe)

Back side of pilot seat back. The offset is to compensate for the flap motor (note the pencil scribe)

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