After much time, sitting in and looking at VH-JZE (my flying EZ) and sitting in XEZ (this build) I finally decided the solution was to move the rudder pedals as far back as I could. The problem was my feet were not going to be as comfortable as in the current plane and I have to think about route legs of up to 18 hours in this cramped cockpit. Leg and foot  position become very important.

I had thought about getting the pedals re-welded and other solutions. This idea of just moving them seems the best approach. As a bonus I am making a second set of fixing points for whoever follows me in this plane after I have finally flown 1000’s of hours in it and decided to move on to other adventures. Maybe they will be a lot taller?

Here is my current per plans position relative to the seat being 2″ forward of plans. Those two nut plates in the pic are the ones I’ve just made for putting in a rear position 2.3″ back (or forward depending on your viewpoint) from where the pedals are now fixed.

The ‘pivot’ blocks have the nutplate cover with 4 ply of BID. I promptly sanded off about 3.5 plies of BID. No need to add extra weight for no gain. Then it was just a matter of making an insert area.

I glued the new hardpoints in per plans. Here you can see how much they are moved back.

4 Plies of BID over the top and some peel ply.

Cutting out the new holes and setting up the inside holes took quite a while as its quite difficult to get into this area. I also found different length AN3 bolts were needed. After a long day it was done. If anything I have added an adjustment feature, right? Tomorrow I’ll continue with the rudder cable setup runs.