Armrest reinforcement

Some RV owners complain that people push too hard on their arm rest when getting in or out of the plane and then bend it.

I have seen how some people reinforce theirs with elaborate ideas and have come up with my own method that I think works best and is very elegant.

 

Simply put a 1/2" 0.064 aluminium angle for the full length on the straight edge facing down and back.

This have the following advantages:

- The down force is distributed along the enitre arm rest

- Can be done before the armrest are fitted or retro fitted on existing installations

- Minimal weight addition (66 grams or 2.3 oz)

- Does not change the appearance of the arm rest.

- Create a nice smooth finished edge on the bottom of the arm rest compared a thin plate, since the L bends backswards.

- Creates a lip to wrap upholstery around.

- 2 hours of work for piece of mind

- Since it is not structural you can use your home depot or hardware store variety alu angle here, so it is cheap.

 

Here are the components with the 1/2" alu anlge cut to length

 

Mark even spacing for the rivets aprox 30mm or 1"1/8

 

Clamp the angle so that it aligns with the lip, and test that you can get a rivet squeezer in there

 

Drill, debur, dimple the armrest and countersink the alu angle.

 

Rivet it together using your rivet squeezer

 

The finished products

 

A picture of it being fitted to the airplane. I'll see if I can get a better picture of it later. One would hardly notice it is reinforced. The only clue is the row of rivets on the armrest face.