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Ideal Eye Height

pilot28906

Well Known Member
What is the ideal eye height for a RV-7. I have a booster with my seat cushions and am trying to decide if I should use them. Ideally how high should one sit in a side by side tail dragger?

Thanks,
 
As high as possible but still have a bit of head clearance below the canopy.

Agreed. My wife used to like a 4? wedge under her seat cushion for the visibility. One morning we hit some nasty turbulence crossing the Sierras. When her head hit the canopy and got a bloody knot I got her a 1.5? lift instead. 3-4? clearance works well.

Tight straps only helps so much when it gets real bumpy.
 
Agreed. My wife used to like a 4” wedge under her seat cushion for the visibility. One morning we hit some nasty turbulence crossing the Sierras. When her head hit the canopy and got a bloody knot I got her a 1.5” lift instead. 3-4” clearance works well.

Tight straps only helps so much when it gets real bumpy.

I prefer to be higher than a 4" gap but all of the RV's I fly (including my own) have 5 point harnesses.

A 5 point harness... properly adjusted, goes a long way to keeping you down tight in the seat. A 4 point harness allows a lot of vertical movement by comparison.

The crotch strap and lap belt do most of the work restricting vertical movement. The shoulder straps help a little but with the anchor point so far aft of the seat (other than the RV-4 and 8) they mostly just prevent fwd movement (which is also much improved with the crotch strap because it prevents the shoulder straps from pulling the lap belt upward).
 
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I've got the opposite problem, I am afraid I may be a little too close when I do fly my plane. At 6'4" even with the Almost a 14 mod all the way back, I am pretty close to the canopy with my headset on. I think I have an inch, maybe two.

5 point harness so hope I'll be good, otherwise the cushions (at least mine) may get thinned a bit.
 
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