4-point harness for Grumman Tiger??

dwalt

dwalt

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DWalt
Looking to possibly replace our shoulder harnesses in the front seats of our AA-5B with 4-point harnesses. Does anyone know if there's an STC for this and where to get it?
 
There isn't one. And I can't see where you'd hook up the inboard shoulder strap if you wanted to try to develop one, either, but I'm not a Grumman structural expert, so it might be possible with enough engineering.
 
What other shoulder harness upgrade options available for Grummans? Inertia reel?
 
Ron Levy said:
Yes. Karas Engineering holds the STC to install 3-point Schroth inertia reel harnesses in AA-1/5-series aircraft to replace the original separate shoulder harness and seat belt.
http://www.karasengineering.com/index.html
It's a quick and easy replacement.
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I didn't have any luck getting their ancient website to load properly -- do they have an STC for AG-5B as well?
 
Thanks, Ron. I attempted to contact them, going to some individual's VM. I am not sure they exist anymore.
 
Ron Levy said:
There isn't one. And I can't see where you'd hook up the inboard shoulder strap if you wanted to try to develop one, either, but I'm not a Grumman structural expert, so it might be possible with enough engineering.
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Same problem with the Navion. Sliding canopies do not make good mounting points and it would take substantial structure in the seats and seat mounting to do what the military type stuff do.
 
ksp_530 said:
Thanks, Ron. I attempted to contact them, going to some individual's VM. I am not sure they exist anymore.
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Try checking with either Garner Rice at Fletchair or Ken Blackman at Air Mods NW (easy finds on Google). If anyone knows Karas' status, one of those two will. And please post what you find.
 
Correct, I wanted to upgrade to the 4-point and was advised it was impossible with the canopy.
 
FlyGirlKHWO said:
Correct, I wanted to upgrade to the 4-point and was advised it was impossible with the canopy.
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I don't think it's impossible with the canopy (lots of canopy planes have 4-point harnesses -- even 5-point), but you'd probably need to anchor it to the floor in the back, and it would be a difficult structural engineering problem. I suppose with enough time, money, and engineering expertise it could be done, but I don't see it as a financially viable project for anyone to undertake with hopes of recovering their investment via STC sales.
 
Contacted Ken Blackman at Air Mods. He says Karas is gone. Ken is working on contacting the company that Karas used to work with.
 
You might be interested to know that my 1991 AG Tiger has a factory installed front seat belt system that I would call an almost 4 point system. I will do my best to describe it, I hope that you can picture it.

The shoulder belt comes from the inertia reel mounted to the side wall just above the rear seat armrest as a single belt. It then passes through a (bridge?) mounted on the top center of the front seat, after that it splits in 2
( one over each shoulder ) it then connects to the right and left lap belts near the buckle that is centered on your lap.

Since this was factory in 1991 maybe it can be used in other models ?

Good luck in your search..
 
iflyatiger said:
You might be interested to know that my 1991 AG Tiger has a factory installed front seat belt system that I would call an almost 4 point system. I will do my best to describe it, I hope that you can picture it.

The shoulder belt comes from the inertia reel mounted to the side wall just above the rear seat armrest as a single belt. It then passes through a (bridge?) mounted on the top center of the front seat, after that it splits in 2
( one over each shoulder ) it then connects to the right and left lap belts near the buckle that is centered on your lap.

Since this was factory in 1991 maybe it can be used in other models ?
Click to expand...
Only works with the AG-5B's, not the AA-5B's, unless you also replace the seats with AG-style seats, and I've not seen anyone do that with an AA-5B.
 
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