Started 03/04/06
After my seats were installed I spent a little time "hangar flying" and trying things out. One thing I noticed is that to reach the flap handle and the fuel selector valve you have reach way forward. I quickly realized that standard shoulder harnesses would make this task difficult without leaving them loose enough to really not do any good in the event of an actual accident.
Therefore I opted to go with the inertia reel shoulder belt and regular seat belts. I bought mine from Tuff-Tow (see supplier's section)
The lap belts bolt to the diagonal tubes that run from station "D" to Station
C/S. Some bushings are welded into the tubes for the bolts. On
the outside tubes, there is no access to the outside bolt head after fabric
covering, so you have to tap the inside of a 7/16" tube to accept a 5/16
- 24tpi bolt. Here is the outer seat belt attach point (passenger
side) with threaded bushing welded in place:
The one at the center of the fuselage is drilled to allow the bolt to slide
all the way in and both belts (pilot and passenger) will attach to this
bolt:
The inertia reel gets attached at the top cluster of station "N" just under
the rear wing attach point. The Bear-Traks newsletter for April 1999
shows a full scale drawing for the attach bracket. I made mine about
1" longer so the inertia reel would have adequate clearance. Here is
the reel and the attach bracket:
The attach bracket was angled forward to align with the center of the front
seat to allow a straight pull in the event of an accident:
Here is the inertia reel installed in the fuselage:
Here is a picture of the front seat belts installed:
One thing that I need is a stop of some sort to prevent the shoulder belt
from retracting completely when you take off the seat belts. Of course
on second thought, that may be a good thing to get the belt up out of the
way when exiting or entering the airplane. I'll try it a couple ways
before I decide.
The rear seat occupants have lap belts only and they are attached directly
to the rear seat:
Seat Belts
Completed: 03/04/06
Total Time: 4 hours