shoulder harness for 14-19-3

D

dwjeepilot

New member
Has anyone installed shoulder harnesses and if so , what type was used and where were they mounted to the frame ? I'm hoping to keep from getting those little round circles on my face if I stop suddenly! Duane
 
I put them in my Cruisemaster. You can see pictures on Russell Williams site. I found place to bolt them in when I did the headliner/interior. Lynn N9818B :)
 
I saw a couple in a 14-19-3 up at Oshkosh maybe 15 years ago.

They were the helicopter type reels which had a short cable stub that went up into the headliner. The stub was just long enough for the inertial reels to clear the headliner. The inertial reel fed out cable which was connected to the top of the shoulder straps.

I don't remember how the owner told me they were attached above the headliner.

I took a couple of pictures of the plane at the time. One might have the N-number, and possibly you can get the owners name from the FAA registry. As I recall, the owner was quite friendly about answering my questions.

I'll try to remember to dig through my Bellanca picture archives when I get back home from this two week business trip.

Dave York
 
Thanks Lynn, Dave. I'll check out Russell Williams site and if you find the pics Dave, I'd appreciate it. Thanks again, Duane
 
Among the Club's various collections and reprints is one on shoulder harnesses. Some, like the one with attachments on the floor behind the seat, could crush your spine. Others, such as the ones mentioned here, pretty much require you to replace your headliner. This is not due to the mod itself but, rather, the fragile nature of the original, ancient headliner found in most of our airplanes.

My headliner is the one that came with the aircraft in 1950. It looks just fine. I balance the pain of replacement with the grim fact that I'm more likely to die from my skull getting crushed into the panel during a forced landing with poor landing options than I am by anything else. I choose the original headliner :)

Seriously....too much damned work has gone into my 'Master and the time I've gotten to fly it is too little. Nonetheless, shoulder harnesses should be on the very top of the list of everyone whose aircraft is from the lap belt only era. I certainly have them on my Luscombe.

Jonathan
 
I am rebuilding a 14-13-2 from the frame up, and thus could weld mounts in. I installed an inertia reel for the pilot, and a mount for fixed double side harness for the co-pilot. W/o the inertia reel, getting to the flap handle on the cruisairs would require leaving your harness very loose.....losing their value. I had a Mooney M20A that required leaving the shoulder harnesses loose enough to get to the floor mounted fuel selector and was always uncomfortable with that setup. Ken
 
The problem with inertia reels is that, deep down, we really don't trust them to work....search your feelings...sorry, I just watched Star Wars for the first time in ages on HBO. Okay...I have this somewhat deep seated problem trusting them. In my Luscombe I too opted for the inertia reel on my side and the slap-you-to-the-firing-squad-pole on the other side. As a part of my Luscombe pre-flight I lurch forward to see if the damned thing is going to catch me :oops:

In short, inertia reels are cool, even if you don't need to reach for something. Our triple tails can cover a lot of ground and being able to move around adds more to comfortable range than an Aux tank. If you have the money - and I know it's a LOT of money - install a reel on the copilot's side as well. As for the rear seat passengers the law states that they only need to be buckled up during the take-off and landing phases. Plus, if the end of your flight is...uh...extremely sudden, their heads hit the back of your seat, not a metal panel.

I don't know about you, but when I fly in the right seat, or have someone in the right seat, it's usually a pilot who helps out in various ways such as grabbing the next sectional or approach plate, calling out the ATIS and AWOS frequencies enroute and so forth. I regret not putting on reel on the copilot's side in my Luscombe. When I upgrade to shoulder harnesses I will put reels on both sides.

Yes, copilots can loosen their belts or apply the same rule as "passengers" but a recent encounter - at altitude - with wake turbulance, as I described in another topic, changed my thinking on that when it comes to transitioning through major league airspace. The worst of it is not, as previously thought, to be when those gigantic thermoses with wings and jet engines are dirty and on final, but when they are clean and flying slow...well...slow for them.

Now I simply have to practice what I suggest :)

Jonathan
 
Ah...I'm back to myself again...not sure who that bluebaron guy is (I suppose it was my original login) but my whole computer went to hell when I fell for some dumbass software called Speed Up My PC. I should know better. And, no, it did anything but that....took an entire night to undo the damage :oops:

Jonathan
 
Bellanca used to sell a shoulder harness kit. It covered all 14-19-3's, 14-19-3A prior to s/n 4331,and 17-30's prior to s/n 30012. It included new belts, inertia reels, hardware, tabs, and a drawing which showed the location of tabs. As you might guess, it wasn't cheap. The drawing number is SK 123456789-7009. Tom
 
I e-mailed the factory and recieved thier reply. They have a kit for $100 that includes the tabs for welding to the airframe. That's all ! I'll pass! No belts, no nuthin!
 
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