Shoulder harness?

[mhorowit]

Anyone use a shoulder harness?
Which model? - Mike

[Richard Boyer]

Re: Shoulder harness?

Hooker Harness. Ordered them at Oshkosh a few years ago.

[Frank DeBartolo]

Re: Shoulder harness?

Richard,

How are the Hooker Harnesses installed. Are any modifications to the airframe (BC12-D) required. What is cost of the harnesses.

Frank DeBartolo

[Richard Boyer]

Re: Shoulder harness?

In 2002 they cost me 220.

The lap belts installed where the old belt were with no problem. I attached the shoulder harness to the tube above and just behind the seat with no modification to the plane at all. I think I posted a picture sometime in the past on the board to show how I fastened them on the tube. I just used zip ties to keep them from moving around. I also had to cut a hole, then reinforce my headliner. I do like them alot!

Oh yeah, since they make the harness after you order it, they have a selection of colors you can pick from....(I'm sure they all do though....)

Richard Boyer
N95791
Georgetown, TX

Hooker Custom Harness (815) 233-5478

[paulp]

Re: Shoulder harness?

Howdy Richard,

Did the addition of the sholder harness's involve an STC and if so, is it available from Hooker? I really would like to add the sholder harness's to my model 19.

Thanks

[mhorowit]

Re: Shoulder harness?

In 2002 they cost me 220.

... reinforce my headliner.

Richard Boyer

Richard -I'm probably going to have to cut a slice in my headliner also. I'd like to hear/see how you reinforced it - Mike

[lktiller]

Re: Shoulder harness?

Several years ago the FAA declared that no STC is necessary to retrofit seat belts and/or shoulder harness to older aircraft. Make a log entry in your name.

As Richard indicates, the shoulder strap ends wraps around the spar carry-thru tube above and behind your head. Cinched with a slip-thru buckle to adjust the length. No mods to airframe necessary.

One caution, don't wrap the strap around the aileron cables! They're right behind this tube.

[Richard Boyer]

Re: Shoulder harness?

First, a sewing disclaimer. I know JACK about sewing. All terms in the following email are technical, but for something else!! If you are a sewing purist, I ask your forgiveness in my ignorance. But I did get the job done!


Reinforcing it was a pain. I know someone else on the list actually knows what the stitch I used is called (I think it was either a button hole or something real close). I have a picture though!! Anyways, you set the fancy sewing machine up with this stitch. It probably couldn't hurt to put another piece of fabric behind it, but I didn't. When you start the fancy sewing machine it will automagically make that long stitch. How fast you push the fabric will dictate how "dense" the "border" is. It was really easy once someone that had a slightly larger clue than I got me set up. (and she is the most wonderful woman on earth!)

The one mistake that I made...that you won't now is not to make the hole UNDER the "spar carry-thru tube" (thanks itkiller for the real name of that bar! LOL!). Make it forward of that. You can see in my picture where I "stress" the overhead liner. The belt in the picture is just laying over the seat. The belt doesn't pull on the fabric at all if I let it hang straight down. For a reference, in the pic you can see the seam in the liner where the "bow" crosses.

I hope this helps!! I also found my pic of how I imobolized the shoulder harness on the spar carry-thru tube.

Oh, one last thing.....practice on something else first!!!

Richard Boyer
N95791
Georgetown, TX

[mhorowit]

Re: Shoulder harness?

Does anyone know if they make an oval plastic or nylon grommet that might be wide enough to take the harness strap? Maybe in two parts that would feed-thru the fabric? - Mike

[btbell]

Re: Shoulder harness?

Richard,

Funny thing is I am also looking to install these harnesses and just happened across this posting. The pictures you took are very helpful. Is there any chance you could take a couple more from a wider angle to see exactly where the headliner holes go and which tube they attach to?

For those interested, here is the info I got from Hooker earlier this afternoon:

Hooker Harnesses 815-233-5478
$149 per seat
seatbelt part# 206340
harness part # 2Y60243D-3

Hooker has no installation drawlings or pictures and confirmed this is an owner installaiton procedure with NO 337, STC or field approval because their in no welding or modification to the frame.

Thanks,
Brian Bell
New Jersey
NC43255

[Carl Ellis]

Re: Shoulder harness?

A Grommet -

What about you get a piece of soft leather or heavy canvas. Cut an oval using pinking shears. Then a slit for the harness. Use the sewing machine to bind the edges of the slit if canvass. Apply with a good fabric cement.

- Carl -

[Frank DeBartolo]

Re: Shoulder harness?

Richard,

It appears to me that the "spar carry through tube" is the tube that is directly in front of the aileron cables. I have a skylight in my BC12-D and the way the skylight assembly is installed, makes it appear impossible for the "spar carry through tube" to hold the shoulder restraint straps. However there are smaller angle tubes on each side of the "spar carry through tube" that are attached to the fuselage. Can the shoulder harness be installed on the smaller angle tubes on each side of the "spar carry through tube"?

Thanks,


Frank DeBartolo

[flyguy]

Re: Shoulder harness?

I'm more than a little hesitant to bring this up, but has anyone thought about the amount of stress that is put on the end welds of a straight tube in the first quarter or half inch of movement when it is subjected to a 2500 lb or more load in the center. I know of a tow plane, a piper agricultural type, that hit a dike in an emergency landing and the shoulder harness was routed over the cross bar on the rollcage. Ripped the weld at the end right out. It was not a puny tube nor a small weld.

Tie a strong cable between two of anything and cinch it up. Pull up or push down on the middle, either the cable will stretch (doubtful) or something at the ends will give. The middle of a tube is not a good place to put a load.
Having made this point I have to concede that, with few exceptions, any shoulder harness is better than none at all.
Ok, everyone can jump on me now.
Darryl

[mhorowit]

Re: Shoulder harness?

I'll have to take a careful look, but my lapstrap isn't secured directly to the frame. That implies the same could be done with the harness. I seem to recall a piece of wire or cable between the anchor and the belt
Now - how does one secure a cable to the frame and what characteristics of an anchor would one look for ? Again, we could take a lesson from where the seatbelt is anchored and how. Hmmmm – here’s what I got when last I asked that question: (thread that doesn’t quite answer the question, but is a good answer anyway)
Maybe Tony Bingelis' book has something.

[lktiller]

Re: Shoulder harness?

the harness is attached more to one end of the tube, not the center. The tie-wraps are good to keep it from moving down the tube.

The weld joints have more strength than anything I can put on them by normal pulling on the harness or even in a sudden stop. Mine have not moved even in violent turbulence.
Of course, I haven't tried them in a crash. but look at the direction of the energy involved in a crash. The engine will come through the firewall before that tube will bend.

The shoulder harness is to keep your face out of the instrument panel and the yoke out of your chest. If the tube bends slightly in that kind of crash (and I survive) I'll gladly replace it.

A bracket could be fashioned and welded to a tube but that takes more paper work, adds weight, welding may reduce the strength of the tube.

The angled tubes should be ok, but the harness would rub your neck. In a crash it would jerk you sideways.
The skylight could be a problem. I'll have to ask a friend how he did his. Did you have to move this tube?

I can attest to the strength of the seat belt attach points..... Having been suspended upside down (on the ground) (accidentally, of course!)