Time for a new Seat Sling

[barnstmr]

Its time to replace the seat sling on N95598. I am looking for opinions about different suppliers. Photos of installation would also be much appreciated. It appears there are three main suppliers...

-Airtex is FAA-PMA approved, but have seen no comments on this forum about fit or quality.

-Wag Aero is the least expensive but not FAA approved. I have seen no comments on this forum about those either.

-Aircraft Spruce I saw that some have had problems with these a few weeks back. To their credit, it seems Aircraft Spruce stepped up to the plate and replaced them. It seems theirs are not specifically tailored to fit Taylorcrafts and are NOT FAA approved.


I am not sure whether the seat sling in my airplane is the original or a replacement. I know that the grommets are small in relation to the photos I saw of the Aircraft Spruce slings. My wife and I have considered buying the heavy duty canvass and using the old for pattern. We also have an old one from Mark Julicher for pattern. But before I do anything, I want to get some comments/opinions/pro's/con's from those on the forum who have experience with the different options here.

Finally... does anyone know of drawings or patterns for seat slings?

[M Towsley]

Re: Time for a new Seat Sling

Terry,

The Spruce sling, I thought, was very thin when I originally got it. It went in fine though I was still concerned about the material compared to my old one. Though I have not received my replacement yet, should be here in a week or two. Spruce will provide the specs for flame resistance and told me they would do so when the new material came in. They actually make them in-house, or at least the last ones were.

I did some research when it came to interior materials. Our planes are under the older CAA rules, though the FAA and others would like to upgrade to current rules. It states for CAR-3 Aircraft Interior that a CAR-3 aircraft that is used only in 14 CFR, part 91 oeprations, where smoking is not permitted, is that the materials shall be flash resistant. The fabric neesd to meet ASTM-American Society for Testing and Materials or similar national standard for either flash resistance or flame resistance. A manufacturer's statement is acceptable due to neither the CAA or FAA having published an FAA fire standard for either flash or flame resistance for interior materials for CAR-3 aircraft. Since the FAA would accept and recognize a national standard, the mechanic would reference the manufacturer's statement and the national standard that the material meet in the aircraft's maintenance records. (This is a loose quote from Section 4, Cabin Interiors).

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Time for a new Seat Sling

Terry,
When I replaced mine I did an "Owner Manufactured Part" because all the ones available were slightly different indesign and weight (I made a drawing at the time of the original). Based on my finding that no PMA or original manufacturer sling for my year seemed to be available (none were "correct" for my plane) I went to a tent maker with my drawing and had one sewn up. The fabric was commercial tent fabric that was to my eye identical to the original and the tent maker even had the same grommets in stock. The other nice thing is that even if the original sling was not required to be fire proof, the new tent material IS required to be treated and won't support combustion (nothing like a circus tent catching fire to make the news). It also meets some pretty stringent strength requirements to be used in a big tent and was a LOT stronger than the old one, but I don't know how much of that was from the age of the old one.
One thing you do NOT want is bleached cotton in the canvas. It looks much nicer, but the treatment really reduces the strength of the canvas.
Hank

Hope you took pictures of how it was laced! Took me quite a while to figure it out after so long.

[barnstmr]

Re: Time for a new Seat Sling

Well, I chose the Wag-Aero seat sling based on price and when I got it I did not even take it out of the package at first because it seemed really light. I guess I got what I paid for. I decided to return it but first called about the Air-Tex seat sling. Their price was $40 higher than Wag Aero, but it was FAA-PMA approved. Only problem was it was to have a 6 week lead time!

OK so I couldn't wait that long... so I stuck with the Wag-Aero one. Pictures are below. I am not sure if the one I removed was the original sling or not. But it was made much differently (stronger and better IMO) than the Wag one. I ended up having my wife modify the Wag Aero one with a piece of webbing (strap) along each edge. This was a feature of the one I had removed that I really liked and felt was a good beef-up feature. We also had to enlarge the seatbelt holes and reinforce the edges around them. Something else about the existing sling was that its grommets were much smaller and the whole sling was held together in place by safety wire, not rope as we have discussed here. I went back together with poly rope as you can see in the photos. Since it was so different from the existing one, I had to go with common sense in the lacing method. But I feel confident it is a good installation. I only wish the Wag-Aero sling were made from heavier canvass.

I have inspected the sling removed and talked with my wife. We decided it is in good shape enough that we can repair it with some heavy canvass and have it available as a spare.

One of the significant aspects of the installation had nothing to do with the sling itself, but the wire frame contraption under the seat. I noticed it did not seem to fit very well and after some measuring, found that one of the wire segments (RH-aft) was made shorter than its opposing one (LH-aft). This caused that side to to sit too low and the center bar dangerously close to rubbing on the elevator cables. It also caused the other side to be out of place and it was actually rubbing on the LH rudder cable. So I ended up replacing the rudder cable too.

To fix the wire seat frame issue, I ended up making two 4130 steel extender tabs to make up the 1.5 inch distance shortage for the RH-aft wire. Once installed, the whole seat frame was positioned uniformly and symmetrical with plenty of clearance to the control cables.

[M Towsley]

Re: Time for a new Seat Sling

Just a quick update. I received my new sling a week or two ago, took Spruce about four months to get the correct material to make the new ones. Anyway, the new one is definitely heavier material and just as nice as the last one I got, (that unfortunately was made of the lighter material).

[Scott]

Re: Time for a new Seat Sling

Hi all
Thought it would be good to share some information that is relevant to this thread.

I installed my spider and seat sling yesterday and ended up with the left side about an inch and change further forward than the right. Turns out I had the spider's legs mixed up. The left side wire is shorter than the right side. This is to allow for the lower fuselage diagonal, which moves the attach point a little over an inch forward. This also means the aft 'V' is shorter on the left than right.

Anyway old news to some no doubt. This is a useful thread however for those doing a seat change so this little tidbit might be helpful to someone.

Well, I chose the Wag-Aero seat sling based on price and when I got it I did not even take it out of the package at first because it seemed really light. I guess I got what I paid for. I decided to return it but first called about the Air-Tex seat sling. Their price was $40 higher than Wag Aero, but it was FAA-PMA approved. Only problem was it was to have a 6 week lead time!

OK so I couldn't wait that long... so I stuck with the Wag-Aero one. Pictures are below. I am not sure if the one I removed was the original sling or not. But it was made much differently (stronger and better IMO) than the Wag one. I ended up having my wife modify the Wag Aero one with a piece of webbing (strap) along each edge. This was a feature of the one I had removed that I really liked and felt was a good beef-up feature. We also had to enlarge the seatbelt holes and reinforce the edges around them. Something else about the existing sling was that its grommets were much smaller and the whole sling was held together in place by safety wire, not rope as we have discussed here. I went back together with poly rope as you can see in the photos. Since it was so different from the existing one, I had to go with common sense in the lacing method. But I feel confident it is a good installation. I only wish the Wag-Aero sling were made from heavier canvass.

I have inspected the sling removed and talked with my wife. We decided it is in good shape enough that we can repair it with some heavy canvass and have it available as a spare.

One of the significant aspects of the installation had nothing to do with the sling itself, but the wire frame contraption under the seat. I noticed it did not seem to fit very well and after some measuring, found that one of the wire segments (RH-aft) was made shorter than its opposing one (LH-aft). This caused that side to to sit too low and the center bar dangerously close to rubbing on the elevator cables. It also caused the other side to be out of place and it was actually rubbing on the LH rudder cable. So I ended up replacing the rudder cable too.

To fix the wire seat frame issue, I ended up making two 4130 steel extender tabs to make up the 1.5 inch distance shortage for the RH-aft wire. Once installed, the whole seat frame was positioned uniformly and symmetrical with plenty of clearance to the control cables.