I needed a Rear Stick Hole Cover.  I didn’t like the idea of a big hole in the floor of the rear cockpit.  If anything fell in there, it would be hard to get out, and might jam in the controls, leading to a very bad day.

I liked this cover shown on Mickey’s RV8 Site.  It was simple, did the job, and was easy to make.  But I didn’t see how he attached it.  The back looks to be held with two screws, but I wasn’t sure of the front.

So I set out to make my own.

I started with poster board, and got the shape and size I wanted.  Then it was an easy matter to cut the holes, bend and drill a piece of scrap aluminum.  I made the left to right bends first, then bent the sides down afterwards.  If you have a break, think all the bends through before you start.  I made the sharp 90° bent for the front first.  Since it is the only really critical bend, I wanted it to be precise.  The exact degree of the other bends isn’t important, as long as you get the top to line up with the seatbelt anchors and the back to rest smooth on the floor.

I don’t think you actually need the sides on the cover.  The seatbelt anchors would keep anything from falling under the floor.  I didn’t like having the edge of the rear stick hole cover showing on top of the seatbelt anchors, so I added the sides.  Now the edge of the cover is against the floor and doesn’t show.

Two screws in the rear and two in the front hold the cover in place.  The rear holes didn’t line up nicely with any of the holes already in the floor, so I had to add two platenuts to the floor.  If you made the rear lip shorter, you could drill the holes to match the rivet holes that attach the forward F-830B stiffener to the F-830 floor.  Then just leave out the two rivets, and install two platenuts.

I thought about stopping the front of my rear stick hole cover on the top of the F-837 control mount, but this would leave a hole through which things could still fall under the floor.  So I wrapped the front around the F-837 control mount and used two screws to hold the front.  These two line up with holes that would normally get a blind rivet to hold the F-829 skin to the F-814C floor rib.  I drilled the holes a little bigger and added two platenuts to the underside of the F-814C rib.

I know the big hole looks kind of funny, but it is big enough to allow full motion of the stick, and the extra notch at the top leaves enough metal to make it sturdy.  If you are using the smaller metal eyeball vent, you will probably be able to make the hole rectangular.

When I test fit it with the vent installed, the vent screw heads prevented it from sitting flat.  So I drilled the three holes to make space.  Now the heads of the screws fill the holes, and when I cover the plate with leather, they will not show.   I didn’t want the screws to go through the cover, because then I would have a hard time attaching the two screws through the F-814J vent bracket.  The other option was to countersink the screws into the plastic eyeball vent.  I chose not to do this because the plastic wasn’t thick enough.

I'm very pleased with my rear stick hole cover.  It looks great, and will keep loose items from rolling under the floor.

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