The International Cessna^® 170 Association

I'm looking for a good inertia reel shoulder harness for my 1950 170A. I would like to fly my aircraft to a facility near Indianapolis (within reason,always looking for an excuse for a trip) and just have them installed for me with all the legal paper work and be done with it. I'm not a mechanic and don't play one on TV. I've looked at the B.A.S., but they have 4 weeks turn around and Eatonville,WA is a bit too far. I'm hoping to have this done before Sun & Fun and also hoping to see some of you folks at Petit Jean in May.

I just installed BAS harnesses. The installation on a 170 is very easy. Any competent local mechanic should be able to the Job in a few hours. BAS says to allow 4-5 hours if it is the first time the mechanic has done it. I am the slowest wrench in the world and I spent less than an hour installing mine with the headliner removed. Just use someone that has a reputation for neatness and attention to detail.

The BAS harnesses are a first rate, top quality product, and priced like spare parts from a defense contractor. Hooker Harness http://www.hookerharness.com is working on a STC'd 170 inertia reel shoulder harness, but I don't think he has the paperwork completed yet. A little competition should help to get the prices are down to something a little more reasonable in the future.

Let's hope both of us never need them.

I recently returned from an I.A. renewal seminar in L.A. George Petterson, an NTSB Air Safety Investigator gave an interesting presentation of accidents he has investigated. He said, "I do not like inertia reel shoulder harnesses. I've seen too many heads buried in instrument panels with inertia reels fully extended."

Look for reels that are manually lockable. If you get B.A.S. harnesses make sure the inertia reel is locked before impact.

I have a friend who just removed the non-inertia-reel shoulder harnesses from his Pacer. They had to be so loose to allow him to reach the flap handle that he figured they weren't gonna do any good anyway,so out they came.
You can loosen/tighten as required when taking off & landing,but I can see how that'd get to be a reel (get it?) pain in the patootie.

Eric

I installed Hooker Harness in my 170. I am happy with them. I have found that I can set them in such a way that I can still reach the flap handle in the middle not the end and still fell snug in the harness. The easiest thing to down is go ahead and pull the flap handle up a notch or two then tighten the harness. What's so inconvinent about that. I am 5'7" with normal reach. The cost of the inertia reel shoulder harness and the trust you must have in them working in a split second was prohibitive for me to install them. Let's just hope none of us will ever need them.
Curtis

I install the BAS shoulder harness setup this winter in my 1952 C170B.
I'm far from good with tools, but it only took a half day (4 hours).
I'm happy with them. It's worth the time and money.

gerry

I sent Bud Blanchard a link to this thread and he gave me a call. See he's not really into computers. He did say that he has tried to find the Mr. George Patterson with the FAA and has not been able to find him. Bud knows of one wreck where the inertia reel supposedly failed but that all tests after the accident it worked fine. Also there were apparantly some problems with the axel area in the old reels but he failed to elaborate other than they're not out there anymore.

He also mentioned the safety of being able to lean forward to spot traffic in the pattern. I guess your fixed harnesses are not going to help much in a mid-air.

He said that they stock kits in standard colors but the waiting time is for custom colors. Can't blame him for that, I think there are 8 or 10 colors.

I've enjoyed the quality and use of many BAS products on several airplanes, pull handles, harness kits, and fold up jump seats. I'd much rather get quality and pay once than go with less and regret it.

Just passing it on....