Hi Netters, one thing you guys should be aware off is that in case of a crash a carbon fiber seat is the last thing I want to be sitting on! While carbon fiber is pretty strong, it has the nasty habit in case of failuer of crumbling and shattering into small, sharp pieces that can embedd themselves nicely in the flesh of you bottoms. It will take a surgeon forever to take these pieces out, if he/she is able to find them all!!!
Many of the carbon fiber aircraft built today are actually made from glass/kevlar around the cockpit. Glass fiber as well as kevlar fiber keep their integrity to a much larger degree when the structure fails. The resin may break apart, but the fibers stay together much better than compared to carbon fiber. The reason for this behaviour is that carbon fiber cannot take any load perpendicular to the fiber. You only need to take a strand (or roving) of carbon fiber and make a knot into it and then pull on the ends. It will break without any effort, because it is loaded perpendicular to the fiber direction. As nice as these seats look, do yourself a favour and think about it twice. Just my famous two c's. Wolfgang -----Original Message----- From: krnet-boun...@mylist.net [mailto:krnet-boun...@mylist.net]On Behalf Of Dan Heath Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2004 6:07 AM To: kr...@mylist.net Subject: Re: KR> Carbon Seat Dean, We made passenger and pilot seats separate. One of ours weighs only slightly less than your whole seat. Using the "Hat Trick" was a good idea. Ours is made using wooden ribs, foam, and one layer of carbon on each side. Our seat back weighs almost as much as your seat and it is made with 1/4" Last-O-Foam and one layer of carbon on each side. If you plan to put your radio antenna in the back fuselage area, think again about making the back out of carbon. You may also have to put an ELT antenna back there. You need to plan for your push tube that may be going under the seat as well as the center seat belt attachments that may have to exit through the seat. Also, depending on the canopy that you will or do have, will you be able to get the seat in and out of the plane? Our seat back is carbon, so I had to mount the antenna outside and had to make more cuts and repairs than I can remember when it came time to put in the seat belts. That is a really nice looking seat. "There is a time for building and a time for GOING TO THE GATHERING, and the time for building has long since expired." See you in Mt. Vernon - 2004 - KR Gathering http://KRGathering.org See N64KR at http://KR-Builder.org - Then click on the pics Daniel R. Heath - Columbia, SC _______________________________________ to UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@mylist.net please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html
