Readin John's post on the super 70, and bein in a redo myself, the window wt difference caught my attention. So, I am curious what year Cessna changed the structure of their window frames and went from steel to Aluminum. 6lbs/window frame seems like a lot, but if that is so, I would call that significant, and I will be lookin for some alum. frames.

Called my upholsterer to start talking about redoin my seats. I am thinking my seat frames are steel. He says some are aluminum, so.are early Cessna seats steel frames and later ones aluminum, and if they changed, when?

Thanks Gary

Gary,

Some PARTS of late model seats are aluminum......really thick, heavy aluminum. As in found on the articulating seats, which are heavy as all get out.

So, you spent $60 K on that thing yet?

MTV

Hey Mike
Na, closer to $50K. That includes prop, baggage door, insulation,180 gear, dbl pucks, 26" GY's. My avionics will probly be $4-5K. I think I can stay under $60K as long as I stay away from paint.
Gary

This got my curiosity going to. The front seat in my 53 appears to be complete and original and it weights 16 lbs. I also have a couple 170 seats that I stripped all springs and covering off of then bead blasted primed and covered the seat bottom and back with heavy poly fiber, these weigh 6 lbs. I couldn't imagine some nice cushions would be more then a couple pounds. I don't think the newer aluminum articulating seats would be lighter. I too will be keeping an eye out for aluminum window frames, 6 lbs that's a gallon of gas.

Paul

6 lbs that's a gallon of gas.

I was thinkin more lie 3 qts. of Margs

The late model articulating seats are much heavier than those old non articulating seats. I've forgotten the numbers, but I knew a guy who was trying to maximize his legal useful in a 206 amphib. He pulled the articulating seats out, and installed a pair of the older style fixed seats, and saved a lot of weight by doing that.

Using Ceconite in place of those miserable bed springs on the seat bottom/back is a great idea. I may do that on my Cub seat.

MTV

I'd love to get my hands on some of the aluminum window frames as well.

We did Ceconite on all 6 206 seats a few years back. It was much more comfortable than the springs. An unexpected side effect though was how much higher you sit. Between the fabric instead of springs and the nice new cushions, we had to actually move the radio stack down in order to be able to see the audio panel from the pilots seat for 5'10" me.

mtv wrote:Gary,

Some PARTS of late model seats are aluminum......really thick, heavy aluminum. As in found on the articulating seats, which are heavy as all get out.

MTV

I have the newer style "infinitely" adjustable pilot seat in my '57 180 and during my restoration I noticed a crack in the lower seat mainframe that had been inadequately repaired. I wanted it done correctly so took it to a local shop that specializes in aircraft welding and found out that the frames of my seat are actually magnesium not aluminum as I had thought. Just putting this out there as aluminum and magnesium are not interchangeable for welding purposes.

By the way, magnesium is $$ and fairly difficult to find in most locales. I ended up finding .125 sheet on Amazon of all places and had gussets laser cut for my welder. And yes, the articulating seats are heavy but I love mine and wouldn't trade it. Copilot seat is the recliner using the pneumatic spring and weighs half as much.

I hated the articulating seats.....they are maintenance hogs. I missed moe than one trip because of the roll pins in them failing. I can't recall the number of times I wanted to dope slap some A-Hole passenger who put all their weight against the very top of the seat, so they could sort out their undies.....and destroying the roll pins in the pax seat. Grrr.

I like the basic seats. If you want comfort, install some con for foam.

MTV

mtv wrote:I hated the articulating seats.....they are maintenance hogs. I missed moe than one trip because of the roll pins in them failing. I

MTV

If you let them get too much play you will have problems... Or if you have A-hole passenger. I typically fly with people I like so I don't run that risk. Pretty simple to let them know what's up and not to put too much stress on the back. I haven't seen a cessna seat yet that won't succumb to abuse from passengers putting all their weight against the backrest.

I rebuilt my seats using bolts and reamed to the next size bigger so the seat is solid. Much nicer than the original seats in this bird... I like mine.

Gary, Rob- Did you guys ever locate aluminum window frames for your 170's?
-DP

denalipilot wrote:Gary, Rob- Did you guys ever locate aluminum window frames for your 170's?
-DP

I still have the steel window frames. I never tried very hard to find aluminum ones though.