Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Patrick Hoyt on October 2, 2018 at 6:34am

I'm 6'3", 32" inseam.  Originally built my cabin floor with the rudder pedals 2" forward, but hadn't taken into account the aftward tilt of the firewall, which resulted in the brake pedal brackets (mounted on the rudder pedals) hitting the firewall and preventing a lot of rudder deflection.  Had to scrap that idea....

I rebuilt my cabin floor "per plans", and have lived with it ever since, but in hindsight if I were to do it again I'd have cut holes in the firewall and installed stainless steel "pockets" to allow for clearance.  Got the idea after seeing another guy's airplane (not a Zenith) where he made "pockets" for his heels because his feet were too long and his toes wouldn't fit underneath a header tank.

Made the pilot's seat-back very thin, and dropped the aluminum "sling" as far down as I could, which got me a little room. 

- Pat

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Permalink Reply by Larry Zepp on October 5, 2018 at 8:12am

Hi Pat and group, I am the same inseam - used to be 6"3"but now resigned to being 6"2"! I am checking my fit on the rudder pedals and brakes today. I like your idea of adding additional clearance with stainless steel pockets in the firewall for the brake levers. Thanks for the tip! Larry Zepp Zodiac 650B with Viking 110

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Permalink Reply by David Gallagher on October 2, 2018 at 6:39am

Tim,

I considered moving the 601 rudder pedals forward during my build, however, you compromise brake pedal travel at extreme ends of rudder travel.  This is precisely when you would want to make a sharp turn on the ramp using the brakes.  You could angle the brake pedals rearward to make up for the loss of travel, but them you risk riding the brakes during normal ground ops.  Based on this, I left my pedals at the original drawing locations.  However, I don't have the same knee issues you do. 

Have you played with customizing the seal cushions to gain knee room that way?

Dave G

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Permalink Reply by Bob Pustell on October 3, 2018 at 5:15pm

I make the same suggestion as the other folks -- play with moving your body aft instead of you pedals forward. Most of these planes usually have pretty thick seat base and seat back cushions. You can test the "most available aft and down" situation by removing all bottom and back cushions and sit in the bare metal seat pan and back frame. That is the most far aft and down you can get. Then you can experiment with various thicknesses of cushions until you find the bottom and back cushion thicknesses that give you the seating position and knee clearance you need.

I am six foot two, 34 inch inseam, size 15 feet. With normal cushions I don't fit the plane. With a one or two inch bottom cushion and a two inch back cushion I fit well. With a one inch back cushion I think I would be perfect but I have not found a one inch cushion tall enough to fill the seat back area to experiment with yet.

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Permalink Reply by Gil DeVault on October 5, 2018 at 1:42pm

Im 6'1 1/2" 32" inseam. I use a 1" seat cushion from Amazon, about 15 bucks, and I fit fine now. My longest flight about 4 hours long and I was comfortable

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Permalink Reply by Joe Hopwood on October 5, 2018 at 2:41pm

I am 6’2” and could not fit with the brand new seats from Zenith. Very thick padding but beautiful. Luckily I changed the turnbuckle Barrel to the longest one avaialable and I now barely fit. My thoughts are that needing full rudder with maximum breaking on same pedal was less concern than to be able to fly comfortably the 99.99999% of the time in the plane. To date, happy with that choice.

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Permalink Reply by Larry Zepp on October 7, 2018 at 8:51am

I am 6"2", 32"inseam and size 14 shoe. When I flew the 650 demonstrator last year with Roger, rudder pedals were way too short.

I am using Pat Hoyt's suggestion of adding pockets to the firewall for additional rudder pedal travel. floor structure and position of rudder pedal bearings remains per plans 6-B-9. Instead of setting the rudder pedal center at dim A, (205 mm in my 650B) the rudder pedals are angled forward to be 108 mm from the firewall. This increases leg room by 3.8".This gives me comfortable leg room wearing my New Balance shoes with 1 3/4"heels. With a thinner shoe, even better.

I am using a Wilton steel mini loaf pan for 1.5" deep pocket in firewall These allow brake lever clearance of 58 mm for full rudder deflection. Master cylinder brackets need to be moved forward and cylinder rods shortened.

Larry Zepp, Zodiac 650B on gear and Viking 110 engine installed. 

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Permalink Reply by Alan Lutz on May 11, 2023 at 2:53pm

I know your post is several years old, but basically being the same dimensions as you, I found the rudder pedals too close in a 650 I sat in last week. You said you changed the dimension "A" from 205 to 180. that's only an inch. How did you get 3.8"? also, did you end up installing pockets in the firewall?

BTW, my 650 kit is due to ship the end of the month. Thanks.

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