Rear Control Stick caught in front seat strap

legilbert

New member
Rear Control Stick caught in front seat shoulder harness

I had a really close call on a take off attempt. On the take off roll, when I pushed the stick forward to raise the tail it became caught in my shoulder harness behind my seat. As I gained speed and started to apply back pressure the stick wouldn’t come back. The plane came off of the ground a few feet and it took a couple of seconds for me to decide to abort. I pulled the throttle back and the plane settled back to the ground in the wheel landing configuration. I couldn’t get the stick back to get the tail wheel on the ground for tail wheel steering so, as most of the runway was behind me it was very difficult to go straight and get stopped before hitting the fence. I did manage though.

Have any of you experienced anything like this?

I think I’ll install keepers for the shoulder straps in such a way as to prevent this from happening again.
Advice?
 
I do believe there is an AD that requires the front shoulder harness to be routed inside the seat cover.

Bill
 
I just checked my Hooker Harness installation instructions. Here's a quote: It is necessary to cut a 3 inch long slot in the top of the seat back cover just behind the seat back top cross tube to route the yoke inside the seat cover. (this is to comply with AD 81-16-04) to prevent entanglement with the rear control stick.

I could scan the instructions and send them to you.

Bill
 
If the rear stick is all the way forward and the front straps are loose the rear stick can get stuck. Did you do a control check before takeoff? If your belts were snug and you had full control movement it should not have gotten stuck. I assume you are talking about the harnesses that come from the factory.

AD81-16-04 is for the additon of an acro harness when using standard shoulder belt.
http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgAD.nsf/0/9C66B2383C84E988862569AF00767736?OpenDocument&Highlight=81-16-04
 
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