Chapter 26

Upholstery, May 2004:

I located an upholstery shop at Mesa's Falcon Field (home of Nat Puffer's aircraft) called Arizona Aircraft Interior Design that I've chosen to do the upholstery for the Cozy. I've built, sanded and painted everything on this airplane, but one thing I knew from the beginning was that I would have a professional do the interior. I had dropped by in February 2004 to get a spot on the calendar for the installation, but David, the owner, still needed to see the plane as this was the first Cozy he has done. My wife and I picked out the materials and colors in late April with the help of David's assistant Linda. These folks have been extremely helpful to us and we're looking forward to getting the plane back after seeing the beautiful workmanship his team does with everything from RV's to large corporate jets. I flew the plane to their facility in mid May for David to look over and write up an estimate. A couple of days later I got the estimate and set up the date for installation to begin (June 1, 2004). David estimated 3-4 weeks that he'd need the plane - a long time to be without it.

As far as the details go, we chose Marian-Victoria Garnet 210 cloth for the seat cushions (a maroon color that matches the paint striping), Douglas-Columbia UltraLeather CD203 Whistler (light grey) for the sidewalls, headliner and panels, and Douglas-Rainshower Carpet (dark grey) for the floors. I had already purchased ConforFoam from Sally at Bestco for the seat foam and David will make the cushions from that.

Here are a few pictures of the finished interior.

Rear seats

Looking into the cockpit from the nose

Front seat

Pilot side showing door latch

My custom overhead console on the turtleback

View from the rear seats looking into the leg area. The ELT (orange box) is on the left side of the center brace and the landing brake motor cover is on the right. Intercom jacks are on the shoulder support in the upper corners and the right side also has a 12V accessory outlet for a secondary music source (such as a walkman or MP3 player).

Rain Cover, July 2004:

I talked my mom into sewing a cover for the plane prior to its first big trip. It's made of Sunbrella fabric purchased thru the web. The front has an elastic gather so that when stretched over the nose it stays on. There is a web strap and buckle that goes under the fuselage just about where the front of the canopy starts. This helps keep the cover drawn tight prior to extending back over the canopy. At the rear the cover extends about 2 inched over the upper cowl where another web strap and buck secure it. The material is water tight and durable. Mom also made a small pouch to store the cover in when not in use. It's about 10 inches in diameter and about 14 inches long with a draw string at the opening. It fits nicely in the rear seat floor and will fit in a wing baggage pod someday...