Hello,

We have '59 C-182B. Recently I was trying to close the door (the door latch is behind the seat and is a bit awkward) and as I turned to do so, the seatback jerked backward to about a 30-45 degree recline angle and wouldn't stay upright any longer. I weigh 240 lbs and I'm not sure if I damaged the seat or if there is some kind of adjustment that can be reconfigured. The seat has always folded all the way forward to allow access to the backseats, but would stop its aft motion in the upright position, approximately 90 degrees to the floor. Any tips appreciated.

Thanks.

Check the seatbelts. They can get caught in the recliner mechanism. Perhaps closing the door pulled on a seatbelt that disengaged the pawl. Please post a picture of the latch mechanism. Maybe there’s something else we can identify for you.

Seat, seat from forward underside looking aft, looking aft and left at seat frame.....looks like my fat butt might've cracked the frame? Unfortunate; it seems symmetric on both sides. Maybe there is corrosion on the seat frame contributing. Maybe I will tell myself that

Don’t be too hard on yourself. All that extra traction helps when you’re trying to push the airplane back into the hangar. . If I don’t possess traction equal to yours, it may be more.

It’s all about not arching your back the wrong way when you’re ingressing and egressing. The seats are built for weight carrying and crashworthiness only. Another factor is if your rear seat passengers grab and pull on the seat back to extricate themselves from their seats at the end of a flight.

This can be repaired by a qualified aerospace welding company, but it may be more expedient and no more expensive to start shopping the used parts market.

Thanks! I will avoid contorting the way I did to reach the door latch in the future. Having another 6'+ individual in the right seat is probably what brought about the debacle. Amazing I've racked up 600 or 700 hours in cessnas at heavier weights than I am currently without doing this. Probably has something to do with seat/door latch improvements on the 70's models.

Now taking recommendations on a source for replacement cessna pilot seats

You could take the seat over to Atlee Dodge, and see if Steve Kracke can weld it. Upholstery would have to be removed/replaced.

That is ONE of the weak points of Cessna adjustable seats. As noted earlier, rear seat passengers are really wont to grab the top of the seat back and haul their lard butts out of those back seats......and do this kind of damage. This is especially so in tailwheel airplanes, where it's an uphill struggle to get out of the rear seats. Usually the damage is to the roll pins, though, not the frame. I suspect this seat was previously cracked and you just put it over the edge, so to speak. When I was flying 185s for a living, this was something that I lectured back seaters on. The other REALLY damaging behaviour is when a front seater gets in, then pushes real hard with his/her feet and against the top of the seat back to adjust their undies for the upcoming flight. There's a LOT of leverage in that process. That was the quickest way to get yelled at by me in one of these things.

Which is to say, I'd also check the other seat while you're at it, could be similar damage that just hasn't completely failed on that seat. In meantime, if you want to fly, switch the front seats. AFTER you check that one for damage, of course.

And, consider what would happen if this were to occur during the takeoff run, for example.....not quite as bad as having the whole seat slide back on the tracks, but.....not good in any case.

If you damage the upholstery in your search for damage, there's an outfit in Anchorage that advertises on here that can likely fix you up.

Good luck, and welcome to old airplane ownership.

MTV

Thanks again!

Found a decent replacement at a nearby salvage yard for $350. It matches perfectly! Plus I found a $200 kx-170b to replace our old kx-170a.

I’d still take the original seat frame to a welder and get it repaired. Can’t hurt to have a spare.

MTV

mtv wrote:I’d still take the original seat frame to a welder and get it repaired. Can’t hurt to have a spare.

MTV

Thank you, I will take it by Atlee Dodge and see if it is economically feasible to repair. As you said, I have a feeling the old seat had been patched up many times before.

Even though the "new" seat is a salvage, it feels many times over more secure and sturdy, the rollers are easily twice as smooth. It is probably more square and less bent than the original was (even before the recent breakage).

Narwhal747 wrote:….Even though the "new" seat is a salvage, it feels many times over more secure and sturdy, the rollers are easily twice as smooth. It is probably more square and less bent than the original was (even before the recent breakage).

It's amazing how much improvement can be had from a new set of McFarlane seat rollers.
About $95 per seat, seems spendy for what you get, but in my case the results were worth it.