I wanted to see what everyone had to say regarding seating position/height.

I am training on a 172N and I think I put my seat too high. I like driving my truck with the seat up pretty high so I can see my surroundings well. However, in the 172 I have the seat at the highest setting. I am 5'11".

I feel it may be a bit too high and may affect my sight picture. I feel I am looking too far down the nose towards the ground.

How do you guys like to position your seat?
How tall are you?
How much nose/ground can you see?
How high is your eyesight above the instrument panel?

Very subjective with a few exceptions. You need to be able to easily reach and manipulate all controls to full deflection. Beyond that I generally have my seats in a similar spot.. low enough so the glare shield blocks the upper panel all the way down to the top of the gauges I need to see. High enough so I can just see over the “horizon” of the glare shield. I can just see the entire top of the glare shield and where it meets the base of the window but just barely.

Yeah, most folks use a "low rider" position compared to what you might do driving a car. Allows consistent sight picture for landing and comfortable view of instruments for IFR ops.

On a long cruise flight you can raise the seat higher for comfort and visibility (I do this in airliners too).

I usually adjust my seat so I can still see the top of the cowling

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I appreciate the info. I think I have my seat too high. I am doing a night flight this evening. I will try to lower the seat a little bit from what I normally do.

I have the seat usually pretty far forward so I can do full deflection of rudder pedals without locking my knees.

I flew a 172R model one a few months back and it felt way easier to flare/control on landing. Could be a lot of things but I think I had the seat quite a bit lower than what I do in the normal 172N I train in. My landings were way better in the R but then again maybe this was because of many other factors and not the seat position at all.

In "most" aircraft (not all) above the dash you may see three little balls in a triangle position. This is called a eye position indicator. They are a sight guide. You line up the back ball with the ball closest to you for proper seat alignment. Think of it (Liberal trigger warning, pardon the pun ) like sighting in a rifle. Front sight lines up with rear sight for proper shot placement.

Here is a video that shows you how the big guys do it. Been a while since I have flown something the size of a small cessna but as I recall nearly all had this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsn7j9ItoA4

I may be a tad lower for serious IFR flying, close enough for full rudder throw. As important is to be sure your ‘pinned’ into position, don’t want the seat sliding at a critical time.

I don't think that's even close to "most aircraft" by type. It's important to set a consistent height, but I seriously doubt he has "3 balls" on a C-172.

I appreciate the input from everyone. I have only flown once since the post. I took the seat all the way up (like I normally do) but then backed it down 2 full turns.

My landings did feel a little better, but it is hard to tell as I was doing my first night flight. We did 8 full stops. I was pretty nervous because on short final there is a park with nothing but trees all the way up to the edge of the airport property. So you are coming in on final and see nothing but black before the runway. We have a VASI but I was pretty nervous about getting too low.... also the trees make for a lot of turbulent air as you are passing above them.

I fly again tonight. I will try out the same seat position and see how that does.

I am similar height, i do about 5 turns down from all the way up. close enough to easily deflect full rudder, but far enough to where i can turn the yoke in an aft position without smacking my legs/kneeboard. high enough to where i can still see the cowling.