Door Sill Reinforcement

	At 240lbs, I'm quite a bit heavier than the FAA's 'average' 180lb pilot and I needed to reinforce the entry point into the aircraft to avoid damage to the fuselage structure.  The cockpit is pretty small and to get in requires backing up to the seat butt first, sitting on the door sill, then swinging the legs in.  Sitting on the door sill puts an incredible load on the fuselage tubing in a manor that flight loads never do - I wanted to make sure that the fuselage didn't get squished from my butt weight because once a tube is bent it can no longer take compressive loads.
	To insure this, I filled in the sill area with 1/8" aircraft plywood.  Here I am test fitting it into position.
	Here I have prepped the surfaces and have put them in place with structural adhesive.
	Here the sill reinforcements have been finished with epoxy varnish and are complete.  You can see now that heavy loads on the seat sill will be transferred to the landing gear attach points and have no risk of bending the fuselage tubing.

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