Hatz Biplane Association

Just brainstorming an idea...

I've made a few camping trips with my Hatz, mostly airport camping but once for a short backpacking trip. I'd like to do more, but baggage space is so limited. I can strap a backpack to the front seat and put more stuff in the front baggage space, but the volume is still pretty limited, even with the seat cushions removed... the backpack can't be too bulky or it interferes with the stick movement.

One obvious solution is to make the front stick removable, and I'm interested in any feedback on that. Seems a simple matter to cut it off 3-4" above the pivot, put a sleeve inside, and a bolt with a wingnut or quick release pin to hold it in place... but there's still potential for things to interfere with the stub.

The thought I had was to build a removable cargo cradle or bin... it would attach to the seat, and have a panel, probably 1/4" plywood with suitable reinforcement, running from the front edge of the seat (as far forward as possible without interfering with the control stick stub) and angling forward to just below the front panel, possibly with sides so nothing can fall out and land on the rear seat rudder pedals, which are alongside the front seat. If the front panel was hinged and the sides fabric it could collapse for easy installation and removal. Another fabric panel or net over the top to hold stuff down would also be advisable. The nice thing about this is that I can just toss stuff in, without having to worry about carefully lashing it down with the seat belt/harness.

Has anybody ever seen or tried something like this?

Making the stick removable is probably easy enough. The stick and rudder pedals in my '48 Luscombe are removable. The pilot side has bolts holding them but the passenger side just has clevis pins and quick release pins.

The floor boards were a mess so I replaced them with some mahogany I bought for my Hatz floor. I flew most of the year without the passenger controls. Lots of passengers don't care to fly the plane and it gives them more room.

Have a look at Hans and Samuel's build. They made a large baggage area behind the Pilot. On the other hand, the passenger seat is over the CG so you can add a lot of weight there without putting the CG out.

Making the stick removable is fairly straightforward. I just have to cut it off with about 4" of tubing above the pivot and sleeve it. I was looking at the drawings last night... assuming it was built to plans, the stick is 1" OD x .035. I could either use an external 1-1/8 x .058 sleeve, or do it clean and turn down a length of 1" x .083 to slip inside. I'll probably do the latter as it's just cleaner and I can control the fit better. I'm not worried about removable rudder pedals, I don't need to carry that much stuff.

For the cargo area, I'm not going to mess with the existing cargo space in the turtledeck. The removable cargo bin seems pretty easy to do (and easy to mock up with cardboard)... I've heard some Cub pilots have done something similar.

Looks like I'll have to cut and drill the stick in situ, the cable has the swaged eye at the stick and the turnbuckle is at the elevator horn... and I can see no way to remove and replace it with the fabric in place. Unfortunately the builder didn't use a shackle between the stick and the eye. The current plan is to make a cutting / drilling jig that clamps to the stick so I can do it neatly.