05-13
Here you are happily flying along, getting ready to land when you realize the carpet is bunched up under the rudder pedals. Yikes! This could be bad. It’s happened enough times to us that we wrote “Check Carpet Position” in our pre-landing checklist.
Close inspection reveals that over time, the carpet backing separated from the foam rubber padding which allows it to slide under your heels when you work the rudder pedals. Now, your old flight instructor would be proud that you know what those pedals are for, but with the carpet bunched up behind them it could be dangerous when landing.
Simple fix! Put some glue on the foam rubber and slap the carpet back down!
Rats. Not only does that not work for very long, but it leaves a messy concoction of glue and foam bits on the floor, which is exposed as your carpet again slides forward. There is great potential to track this gooey mess elsewhere both in and on the airplane. So much for Plan A.
What to do? Of course, you could buy and install all new carpet, but that is really expensive.
Or you could find a piece of new, but faded, blue pilot’s side carpet. But I’ll bet that even Kent Dellenbusch couldn’t find that part.
Hmmm… Maybe make a replacement with cheap discount-store carpet? That might work… until you get an FAA ramp check.
Finally, my wife, a really smart physics person, came up with the idea of using Velcro. First, take a 1.5-inch wide Velcro strip and have it sewn onto the back of the carpet near the rear edge. (See photos 1 and 2, pages XX.)
Then you get some 3M Scotch-Weld Neoprene High Performance Rubber and Gasket Adhesive 1300, a type of contact cement. This product was brought to our attention during The Gathering at Waupaca by fellow Piper Flyers Henry and Greg.
After being sure you have good ventilation so your life doesn’t get too weird, lay down a strip of glue for the matching Velcro on the cleaned portion of the aluminum floor panel. (Be sure the messy old concoction is cleaned off before putting down the glue.) Since it is contact cement, you also need to put glue onto the piece of Velcro that will be installed on the floor panel.
Wait four to six minutes, then align the Velcro to the glue strip on the floor panel. Be sure the Velcro is where you want it because it will NOT move again. (See picture 3, page XX.)
Now, reinstall your carpet using the Velcro strips to hold it in place (Picture 4). Voila! You have a cheap fix to the carpet sliding problem!
We still check the carpet before landing (after all, it is on our checklist) and Pam is still really smart (she made me put that in here again), but so far, our “fix” has worked like a charm.
Rich and Pam Busboom are the owners of a beautiful 1979 Archer II. Send questions or comments to editor@www.piperflyer.com.
