SGS 1-34 Seat:

Yesterday I was making a stab at doing a 5 hour duration flight in a 1-34. I was wearing a 303 back pack from Strong as the back cushion and used the bottom seat cushion. I had a lumbar pad in the chute and felt comfy for about 45 minutes after take off. At one hour I knew I was gonna be hurting if I made 5 hours. I made 3.5 hours and could have stayed up another 1.5 easily, the lift was awesome although the bottoms kept getting in the way. I was a hurting puppy most of last night and fortunately have a number of physician friends who came thru for me on a Saturday. I will live.

The seat pan seems to be the problem to me. The three different segments with the transition from one to the other do not seem to be compatible with the human back. I'm thinking I could put all the astronaut foam and support in there but would still have a problem. Any ideas? Has anyone found a truly comfy way to configure this type of seat:?

Walt

I feel your pain!
the confor foam (Astronaut foam) is the best thing since sliced bread.....I
won't fly without it!
I have several vertsions of these foams on my website
check them there under seat cushions and seat foam
tim
Please visit the Wings & Wheels website at www.wingsandwheels.com


"Walt Connelly" wrote in message
...

Yesterday I was making a stab at doing a 5 hour duration flight in a
1-34. I was wearing a 303 back pack from Strong as the back cushion and
used the bottom seat cushion. I had a lumbar pad in the chute and felt
comfy for about 45 minutes after take off. At one hour I knew I was
gonna be hurting if I made 5 hours. I made 3.5 hours and could have
stayed up another 1.5 easily, the lift was awesome although the bottoms
kept getting in the way. I was a hurting puppy most of last night and
fortunately have a number of physician friends who came thru for me on a
Saturday. I will live.

The seat pan seems to be the problem to me. The three different segments
with the transition from one to the other do not seem to be compatible
with the human back. I'm thinking I could put all the astronaut foam
and support in there but would still have a problem. Any ideas? Has
anyone found a truly comfy way to configure this type of seat:?

Walt




--
Walt Connelly

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On Feb 19, 5:14*pm, Walt Connelly Walt.Connelly.
wrote:
Yesterday I was making a stab at doing a 5 hour duration flight in a
1-34. *I was wearing a 303 back pack from Strong as the back cushion and
used the bottom seat cushion. *I had a lumbar pad in the chute and felt
comfy for about 45 minutes after take off. *At one hour I knew I was
gonna be hurting if I made 5 hours. I made 3.5 hours and could have
stayed up another 1.5 easily, the lift was awesome although the bottoms
kept getting in the way. *I was a hurting puppy most of last night and
fortunately have a number of physician friends who came thru for me on a
Saturday. *I will live.

The seat pan seems to be the problem to me. The three different segments
with the transition from one to the other do not seem to be compatible
with the human back. *I'm thinking I could put all the astronaut foam
and support in there but would still have a problem. *Any ideas? *Has
anyone found a truly comfy way to configure this type of seat:?

Walt

--
Walt Connelly

The problem I had in the 1-34 was that I couldn't raise the front of
the seat to distribute my weight around my bottom to the back of my
thighs evenly. So most of my weight was all right on my tail bone
(coccyx area). After a flight of an hour or two I was really
uncomfortable having to shift weight back and forth from "cheek" to
"cheek". Afterwards I would be sore for a few days. I found that a
dense wedge-shaped cushion for the seat pan helped tremendously. The
thin part towards the back and the thicker part towards the front.
That gave the seat pan a much more ergonomic shape following the curve
of my bottom. I believe I also used a thin cushion for my lower back,
but the wedge seat pan cushion was by far the most important. Once I
had that setup correctly, longer duration flights were really pretty
comfortable.

Being uncomfortable in the cockpit is a distraction you definitely
don't need. Schweizer obviously didn't put much emphasis on ergonomic
design when they built the 1-34. Just wait til you fly something with
pilot comfort as an integral part of the design. You'll love it! Even
something as old as my LS1f has an excellent seat design. The LS
cockpit might be small, but it's amazing how comfortable it is over
long flights.

On Feb 19, 11:54*pm, Westbender wrote:
On Feb 19, 5:14*pm, Walt Connelly Walt.Connelly.





wrote:
Yesterday I was making a stab at doing a 5 hour duration flight in a
1-34. *I was wearing a 303 back pack from Strong as the back cushion and
used the bottom seat cushion. *I had a lumbar pad in the chute and felt
comfy for about 45 minutes after take off. *At one hour I knew I was
gonna be hurting if I made 5 hours. I made 3.5 hours and could have
stayed up another 1.5 easily, the lift was awesome although the bottoms
kept getting in the way. *I was a hurting puppy most of last night and
fortunately have a number of physician friends who came thru for me on a
Saturday. *I will live.

The seat pan seems to be the problem to me. The three different segments
with the transition from one to the other do not seem to be compatible
with the human back. *I'm thinking I could put all the astronaut foam
and support in there but would still have a problem. *Any ideas? *Has
anyone found a truly comfy way to configure this type of seat:?

Walt

--
Walt Connelly

The problem I had in the 1-34 was that I couldn't raise the front of
the seat to distribute my weight around my bottom to the back of my
thighs evenly. So most of my weight was all right on my tail bone
(coccyx area). After a flight of an hour or two I was really
uncomfortable having to shift weight back and forth from "cheek" to
"cheek". Afterwards I would be sore for a few days. I found that a
dense wedge-shaped cushion for the seat pan helped tremendously. The
thin part towards the back and the thicker part towards the front.
That gave the seat pan a much more ergonomic shape following the curve
of my bottom. I believe I also used a thin cushion for my lower back,
but the wedge seat pan cushion was by far the most important. Once I
had that setup correctly, longer duration flights were really pretty
comfortable.

Being uncomfortable in the cockpit is a distraction you definitely
don't need. Schweizer obviously didn't put much emphasis on ergonomic
design when they built the 1-34. Just wait til you fly something with
pilot comfort as an integral part of the design. You'll love it! Even
something as old as my LS1f has an excellent seat design. The LS
cockpit might be small, but it's amazing how comfortable it is over
long flights.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


Walt,

The 1-34 is a great glider...way under rated. I fly the 1-34 a
lot....did my gold badge, and distance diamonds etc...and some flights
near 8 hours....By making some minor set up changes I could sleep all
night in it!

You're right about the FRONT of the seat pan... If you look under
there, you should see two little "legs" made out of phenolic blocks.
These legs lift the leading edge of the seat pan maybe 1/2" or so.
Maybe these are missing..not even in there at all.

What I did was to fabricate some longer legs from some hardwood
(maple) so that the leading edge of the seat pan is lifted way
up....like two inches, maybe three....(the more the better within
reason)..

Before I made these legs, I used to simply jam in some wood crossways
under the leading edge of the seat to raise that leading edge of the
seat pan. But I worried that it might slip out during flight and jam
the stick.

The idea is with the leading edge of the seat pan elevated, you can
set the seat back to recline, and the weight load of your body is
taken by the underside of the thighs.....weight is taken away from the
tail bone and ass.....

I also use a large lumbar pad....either between me and the parachute,
or between the parachute and the seat....often I fly without
parachute...Arching the back with the lumbar will also transfer load
to the underside of the thighs and away from the ass..

The seat pan is curved like a half moon.....this does not fit my
back.....I like an arch in my back....with the lumbar padding.

Be sure to carefully set the headreast....not too far forward, not too
far back.....having just slight support available for the head will
relax everything else....

Learn how to change the rudder pedal setting during flight.....I like
the rudders one notch closer during tow and the intiial part of the
flight, then I move the rudder pedals one notch forward and recline
slightly more for most of the flight...but change the setting
sometimes just to "stretch" or add load to my feet and relax the
back....


For cold weather, get a section of dense, almost shag carpet.
Fabricate this carpet to go from the leading edge of the seat, to
forward beyond the runnder pedals.....it should wrap upwards on each
side of the fuselage. Its a little tricky to fit this in without
conflict with the rudders and seat adjust cable and release cable, but
can be done. It is a night and day difference in warmth when you
don't have your legs touching the super cold aluminum fuselage skin.

Hope some of these ideas will help!

Cookie

Hi Walt,

I can relate. Being quite tall, I've had many very uncomfortable glider
flights. Perhaps that is why I sell CONFOR foam. It has been a very
popular item. I use it in my glider and on my office chairs.
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/e-a-r.htm

I wish I could speak to your particular glider layout, but I'm not sure I
understand the exact configuration. Feel free to call me to discuss it.

Best Regards,

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.

"Walt Connelly" wrote in message
...

Yesterday I was making a stab at doing a 5 hour duration flight in a
1-34. I was wearing a 303 back pack from Strong as the back cushion and
used the bottom seat cushion. I had a lumbar pad in the chute and felt
comfy for about 45 minutes after take off. At one hour I knew I was
gonna be hurting if I made 5 hours. I made 3.5 hours and could have
stayed up another 1.5 easily, the lift was awesome although the bottoms
kept getting in the way. I was a hurting puppy most of last night and
fortunately have a number of physician friends who came thru for me on a
Saturday. I will live.

The seat pan seems to be the problem to me. The three different segments
with the transition from one to the other do not seem to be compatible
with the human back. I'm thinking I could put all the astronaut foam
and support in there but would still have a problem. Any ideas? Has
anyone found a truly comfy way to configure this type of seat:?

Walt




--
Walt Connelly

Not that I have anything against the special foam....but...

The secret is to get the SHAPE of the seat to fit your body.....again
on the 1-34 the deal is to get the weight supported by your legs...
back side of the thighs.... and not have weight on your tail bone or
butt. The secret is to get the leading edge of the seat "up".

By now the "factory" cushions are like 40 years old, and are either
long gone or in really bad shape. Correctly shaped cushions will help
a lot too.

Experiment "on the ground" with various seat positions, rudder
positions and cushions until your are really comfortable.

Once you set things shaped to fit, THEN add a layer of "space man
foam" and you'll be really ready for a 12 hour flight, or a nap in the
cockpit.

Cookie

I have to agree on getting the shape right, In installed a PIk20 copy
of a seatpan in my HP16. I could easily fly 3 hours sometimes before
the seat started to get uncomfortable and I was sitting directly on
the fiberglass seat pan. I added 1" Space Foam(sytle) to it and 6-7
hours is now easily doable.

Brian

On Feb 20, 1:08*pm, "
wrote:
Not that I have anything against the special foam....but...

The secret is to get the SHAPE of the seat to fit your body.....again
on the 1-34 the deal is to get the weight supported by your legs...
back side of the thighs.... and not have weight on your tail bone or
butt. *The secret is to get the leading edge of the seat "up".

By now the "factory" cushions are like 40 years old, and are either
long gone or in really bad shape. *Correctly shaped cushions will help
a lot too.

Experiment "on the ground" with various seat positions, rudder
positions and cushions until your are really comfortable.

Once you set things shaped to fit, THEN add a layer of "space man
foam" and you'll be really ready for a 12 hour flight, or a nap in the
cockpit.

Cookie

Exactly right!

Thanks for all the replies and advice. I will try to adjust the leading edge of the seat pan and go for some comfor or space foam. I might take the lumbar pad out of my chute for a while to see if that makes a difference. I think it was part of the problem causing a weight shift.

Walt

I have a "long" type of parachute. Where does the space foam go?
Between me and the chute or between the chute and the fiberglass seat
pan?

Thanks for the clarification.