There's an auto upholstery shop in town that is very well regarded and while
talking with him regarding my car I got to wondering if I could pull out my
Cherokee seats and have him leatherize them. FAR 43.100 states pilots can:

(11) Repair upholstery and decorative furnishings of the cabin, cockpit
when the repairing does not require disassembly of any primary structure or
operating system or interfere with an operating system or affect the primary
structure of the aircraft.

Hmmmm. Does "repair upholstery" cover "replace with leather" (or pleather
for that matter)? Does taking out a seat constitute "disassembly of a
primary structure"? I'm pretty sure other people have done this but I was
just wondering how "legal" it is.


-Brian
N33431


I had just been considering the same thing recently. Thanks for
posting the question Brian. And thanks to all who answered.

But I have a couple more that maybe someone out there knows the answer
to. My recently purchased Cherokee 180 is an older model with the
original furniture inside.

Instead of just recovering the seats, I'm considering replacing the
original Cherokee seats with newer models. I'm wondering what the FAA
would say if I wanted to take seats from a newer model Piper (with
height adjustment and nice extras) and put them in my Cherokee. If
the floor rails are the same, it should be a plug'n'play change. Of
course, the weights would have to be calculated to reflect weight
changes. But does anyone know if the FAA would allow this if they
came from another certified plane to my Cherokee???

Come to think of it, I'd love to change the yokes in my Cherokee while
I'm at it. Get some newer models instead of these original bow-tie
yokes. And I guess same question would apply -- would they let me
take from one certified model to another???

Thanks guys.


Chuck
N7398W