This is a work in progress. I still need to weld the tabs onto the fuselage that will be used to mount nutplates so I can screw the floor down. Once they are installed I have to drill all of the holes for the screws. I am also going to add a 1/2" aluminum angle to all of the edges to keep anything that is dropped onto the floor from rolling into the bottom of the fuselage. I also need to decide what kind of finish to put on it and I want to put some aluminum heel rails on it to keep the wood from getting damaged after YEARS of use (I hope!). I'm sure there are a few other minor things that will come up that I will have to do because you never seem to know everything left to do until you are finished. Actually, you probably still aren't done at that point!

For the flooring I used 1/8" Luan underlayment from good old Home Depot. It is cheap ($10 per 4X8 sheet) and looks good on the side that shows. It is also pretty light weight (the entire floor was 7 pounds if I remember correctly). If you elect to use something else the Luan is still good for making your patterns due to the price. The variations in the grain and quality of the top layer of wood vary greatly so you might have to look at quite a few sheets before you find one you want to use for the real deal.

Some people would argue that you don't really need a floor and it is excess weight. All I can say is it will probably keep me out of prison because the first time someone slipped off of the fuselage tubes and through the bottom of my plane I would want to kill them.

I started by making patterns using poster board. This will get you close but it still took several iterations of poster board to get it close enough that I wanted to start wasting wood making patterns.

This is just a view from the front left side.

After all was said and done this is what my floor looks like out of the plane. One piece will have to be modified because of the way I am mounting my seatbelts.

Here is the view from the front of the plane with the flooring installed.

Good thing this stuff is cheap! I went through three sheets including the one for the final boards I am using. If you find a sheet with really nice grain save it until you are sure everything fits well and then use it. It would probably be best if you waited until everything is done in the cockpits (flight decks for you ladies) for the final version because, like me, you may have to modify some. That is just another opportunity to screw your good wood up.