Have you looked at the Sonex? ( www.sonex-ltd.com ) With the center stick
it can be flown from the center with one foot on the far left rudder pedal
and the other on the far right. The designer even mentions this in the
informational video. It can also be built with two sticks, but the center
stick is common just for the reason you mentioned, flying in the center when
solo.


--Mitch


Mitch Hines
Alon A-2 Aircoupe
N6369V


Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical
and insignificant, if not utterly impossible.

- Simon Newcomb, 1902



"Jay" wrote in message
om...
Trading off tandem vs side by side seating I came upon an idea I
wanted to run by the group. The mission my aircraft needs to perform
is mostly a single place weekend out and back kind of mission, with an
occasional 2 person XC trip. I'd been homing on the tandem seat
config because I like the fighter plane style symetric seating. But
my spouse doesn't like the idea of having to look at the back of my
head for 4 hours on trips and prefers the side by side configuration.
But I don't want to sit scrunched on one side of the aircraft year
round with the canopy next the side of my head because twice a year
she wants to have a seat beside me. And of course you have the
left/right unbalance. But then after a ride in a Zenith I had an
idea:

Zenith planes use single stick between the 2 passengers, either person
can use to fly. If the seat was bench style, I could sit in the
middle when flying solo, and push the 2 outside rudder pedals of the 2
pairs (or move cables to the 2 middle ones). You don't really need a
bucket seat in an airplane as you do in a car because most forces are
normal to the plane defined by the wings and thrust vector. It would
just be a nice roomy single seater at that point. Anyone seen
anything like this before?