27 Jul 2025 Rear seat throttle installation
This is how I installed the rear seat throttle in my RV-8. I fly alone 99% of the time, and when I do fly with someone else, they are usually not a pilot. From time to time I fly with a pilot for instruction or flight reviews, and they would like a throttle. Another reason for the rear throttle would be as Hoot Gibson vividly recalled from his NASA T-38 days “dead pilot!” This is where the GIB needs to land the aircraft due to pilot incapacitation – hard to do without a throttle. I don’t have rudder, brakes, prop, or mixture in the back, which means a “dead pilot” landing would be ugly, but probably survivable.
The main tricky part to installing the rear throttle is to find the exact right places to drill the holes. That’s what took the most time. Keeping in mind that the rod will move up and down as the throttle is moved from back to front. Not very much – probably about 8-10 millimeters. I used a rod end bearing on one end, and a random threaded black ball on the other. 10mm O.D./8mm I.D. aluminum tube from Jumbo. An 8mm bolt with the head cut off to attach the threaded black ball. A couple of snap bushings to avoid metal-metal contact between the tubing and the airframe.
It works very smoothly, and in the back, it should not get in the way of a passenger. It takes about 2 minutes to remove it if I want to.
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