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Like most people I do my flight training in a Cessna 150, I am 5"5 however my instructor is at least 6"0 my problem is that I am just not seeing the same site picture that my CFI tells me to look at.

I was told that the 150's seat has a height adjustment, I noticed there is some sort of thingamajig located in the middle of the seat but I think it is for removal of the seat cushion instead of a height adjuster.

I bought a 2in lawn chair cushion from Wal Mart which I haven't tried out yet but I am sure it will give me the height that I need to see a lot better over the cowling but may be a little uncomfortable for my back. Does anyone have any suggestions? I know Oregon Areo makes seat cushions but man these cushions are over $100.00 , thanks in advance.

Student Pilot
Pro Fight KJZI Charleston, SC

A couple of suggestions --

First of all ... I think you did the right thing buying a cushion. As far as I've seen there is no height adjustment on the 150 seat. There is a forward and back adjustment but not an up and down adjustment. A cushion (or even two - one under and one behind) usually does the trick. Find some comfy ones ... maybe check out Target or some store like that.

Also ... your sight pictures are yours. They don't have to be the same as your CFI's. The most important thing is that you have some that work. You and your CFI can work together to find out what those are for you. Maybe he/she can slide down a little bit to your eye level and give you advice from there. Most sight pictures in a Cessna 150 don't require you to see 'over' the nose. This is not to say that you should be sitting so low you can't see over the nose, just that you can get a lot of information by looking forward through the side window. So ... work together to find the pictures that give you pitch, yaw, and roll information. Having said all that, however, I really think the cushions are going to save the day.

Good Luck!
Jason

_________________
"To Live is To Fly" - Townes VanZandt
www.thefinerpoints.net
jason@thefinerpoints.net

Good morning,

I have to agree with Jason, get a nice comfy cushion...it sounds like your back might be an issue? Maybe something like the support cushions that you can buy for the car? It is so important that you are comfortable. You don't want to be constantly distracted by this.

As far as sight picture, I think something also that is important is to really spend some time establishing a reference picture in your mind. Whether you are sitting high or low, figure out what straight and level looks like to you. Have your instructor confirm that you are trimmed, straight a level, and have a good look around. Note where the horizon intercepts the cowling/window, look out the side at the wings. Note how the angle compares to the horizon. Confirm this with you instructor and then start experimenting. A climb. Raise the nose until you change where you can see. Perhaps it will be so that you can only see out throught the forward side of the window, but note what that looks like. Try a turn, again note the angle change, look out at the wings, both sides, and note that picture. You will be doing this so many times, that it will start to become familiar. It is just important to be concious of what these changes look like.
I would then confirm with your instructor what you are seeing with what he/she is and then go from there.
There truly is so much to be said here, so I hope that this is a start.
anais

Hey Guys:


Thanks for all of the advice however due to the lack of aircraft availablility, I have chaged to a different and much better flight school
http://www.flycoastalaviation.com/ I am now switching from training in a 150 to a well equiped 172, I am interviewing instructors so I'll keep you posted on my progress, thanks again.

This is something I've run into as well in my training. I'm 5'7 flying in a PA28-161 and I was having a hard time seeing over the cowling. Got a $5 cushion from Target and it made the world of difference! Definitely worth trying out.

Hey Guys:

Thanks for the info like I mentioned before have changed flight schools and they have 3 2002 172 Skyhawks which made a big difference as far as seeing outside and over the cowling also posed more of a challenge. I had some questions about setting up for slow fight and stalls but I will start another topic on that, thanks again.

I feel your pain, as I am also about your height. Most of my cessna time is in the C172 and C182, with only about an hour in a C150.

While you don't have to have the same sight picture as your CFI to be able to fly the plane, it makes training and learning a lot easier if you are both seeing the same thing. When learning pitch attitudes, it is much easier to tell them to set the horizon on a specific point (the dash, or the top of the compass, etc). Quite often, us CFI's might get really used to using these references, and if you aren't seeing the same sight picture, it could be difficult for you to figure out what he wants you to do. There are a lot of students who have trouble with the flare on landing because the instructor is telling them to fly a certain sight picture/pitch attitude, but their seat position is wrong, so they see something different.

Perhaps the most important thing is that your seat height/position is consistent. Any change in seat height/position will also change your sight picture, and the same pitch attitudes you used before will no longer work.

At my flight school, there are lots of instructors and students, and the students are here from Private up through Commercial and CFI, and over the course of their training will fly with multiple instructors. For safety sake and ease of training and transition between CFI's, we are big on standardization of procedures. A lot of time is spent early on helping students find the proper sight picture, and it helps a lot in the long run.

If you ever get to fly any jets, you will find that in a lot of them, there are devices in the cockpit that help you align your seat so that both pilots have the same eye position and sight picture. Kind of nifty little devices, but they wouldn't be there if the manufacturer didn't think that consistent sight picture was important.

Being about 5'5" also, I have never found that I needed a cushion, nor have I ever used one, even when I flew a C150. The C172/C182 is pretty generous with seat height and position adjustments. If you cannot get the seat into the right height/position with the adjustments alone, you should look at the way you are sitting. You should be comfortable, with your back against the back of the chair, not sitting straight up with your back off the chair, or, even worse, leaning forward slightly. Not only does the latter mess up your pitch attitudes, but you can't reach as far with your legs.

_________________
Stephen St. John
CFI-A, CFI-I, COMM ASEL/AMEL
Prescott, AZ, USA