Pilogress
“Pilot Ingress / Egress”
Climbing into a Cessna 172 is somewhat awkward for anyone, but especially so when you’re starting from a wheelchair!
No matter—that’s a straightforward structures design challenge to interface with the plane…so the idea for Pilogress was born!
The general idea is to give myself an intermediate ledge to perch from on my way up to the seat.
In its current form, it works on most of the 172s I’ve tried it on, although some additional design has to be done to interface with ANY seat I come across.
The first test! Took several tries, but it functioned as an intermediate ledge just like I intended.
First full-weight seated test. That’s the "my cantilever bending hand calcs were correct” face.
I went through a few iterations of the 3D-printed adapter for this particular C172. The final one is printed on its side to avoid layer-line shearing. Plus, some Kevlar reinforcement for a bit more toughness.
I had a local welding shop plasma-cut the pattern in aluminum. Given plasma tolerances, I made sure to make all holes clearance, and slot the ones that were already in 80/20 slots.
