The International Cessna 170 Association

I have a 1953 170B. I removed the rear bench seat a few years ago and had A&P give me rear seat removed new weight and balance. I now have a nice, expanded cargo area with tie down nets. But it would be nice to have a single place rear seat for occasional use. Does anyone know of such a seat that is already approved?

Yes, you have a couple options. There are folding rear jump seats available from F. Atlee Dodge and Lake View Aero. Some google searching will shows some pictures and I linked a discussion from another forum below.

One factor to consider is with the Lake View you can still install your bench seat back in if you want, but not with the FAD.


https://fadodge.com/removable-folding-jump-seats/

http://lakevueaeronautics.com/index.html

https://backcountrypilot.org/forum/atle ... eats-12344

I put a single airframe innovation seat in several years ago. Works well as I rarely have need for more than three seats. I put it on left side so there is lots of room to load from right door. Highly recommend. And probably lost 25 lbs.

dogone wrote:I put a single airframe innovation seat in several years ago. Works well as I rarely have need for more than three seats. I put it on left side so there is lots of room to load from right door. Highly recommend. And probably lost 25 lbs.

I wasn’t aware of that option. I found a website for them pretty easily…

https://www.airframeinnovations.com/seats

I am only offering this comment as an item of interest regarding aircraft seating.

When re-upholstering a corporate jet we needed to fly the aircraft to a different facility prior to the interior completion. The interior facility came up with a novel solution: They created a firm block of foam which was placed directly on the cockpit floor and a supporting, thinner block of foam to support the back (which rested against a cockpit bulkhead) and attached the seatbelt/harness to the floor and airframe as normal. FAA approved it on a Form 337 and the aircraft was ferried without restriction.

It seems the main concern is that the occupant of the seat be restrained by the seat-belt/harness in the usual manner…and the actual seating simply support a 9G vertical loading. Since the foam used was identical to that ordinarily used in aircraft seating, and mounted directly on the floor… FAA had no problem with it.

This caused me to wonder if a simple block of foam for a rear seat (no frame) wouldn’t be approved for a 170 rear seat. There would be a loss of space beneath the seat for small objects, of course….

The immediate problem for a 170 being the fact the original rear seat-belts are attached to the seat-frame and not the floor or other structure. Getting an alternate attachment approved is a major part of any rear seat modification.

Hmmmn….

Thanks to all of you for great information.

Danwaters wrote:I have a 1953 170B. I removed the rear bench seat a few years ago and had A&P give me rear seat removed new weight and balance. I now have a nice, expanded cargo area with tie down nets. But it would be nice to have a single place rear seat for occasional use. Does anyone know of such a seat that is already approved?

Kenmore Air Harbor has an STC for installation of easily removable C206 middle seats for C180/185 airframes but can be installed in C170s since the floor structures are the same in the rear seat area. It entails adding standard Cessna p/n seat tracks and an under-floor rear angle support in non-seaplane airframes. The biggest hurdle is finding a set of C206 middle seats. One or both rear seats can be used.

C206 middle seat frames sit lower than the front seats so headroom is not as restricted but is still tight for tall passengers. The seats are adjustable fore and aft and have excellent leg room. Full size middle seats have the same size cushions as front seats so they are very comfortable. C207 middle utility seats also fit and are much smaller with folding backs that fold down flat on top of the seat bottom.

Later model C180/185 seat belt attach brackets can easily be fabricated and attached to the sides of the fuselage and a center seat belt attach can be added to the existing seat anchor nutplate in the floor.