The first flight of JD was in February of 2001, making it almost 24 years old. For most of that time it has had harnesses made by Pacific Aero Harness. I really like this harness, it has a ratchet to tighten up the lap belt and good shoulder harnesses. After more than 2,400 hours of operation the shoulder straps were really starting to show their age mostly from fraying of the web material. They also would tend to loosen up during the course of a flight.
Your first question may be "Steve, why do you need a ratchet in a lap belt?" If you'd asked me that before I bought JD, I would have answered that you don't, why would you do that? Ratcheting lap belts are somewhat common in aerobatic airplanes because while the airplane is moving all over the sky, the pilot really needs to stay in place. If nothing else, you don't want to hit your head on the canopy when you flip upside down. They are less common in sport planes.
Once again, you may ask "Steve, you don't do aerobatics, so why do YOU need a ratcheting lap belt." Well, if you'll pipe down for a moment and let me speak I'll tell you. Sheesh!
None of the airplanes I had or flew before had them and I certainly didn't think they were needed. Once I bought JD and flew with this system, I found that I really like it. I like being able to stay put where I am.
Many years ago when I was flying the RV-12 that my Dad and I built I had a close encounter with wake turbulence. From a 747 no less. The harness in the RV-12 was very nice and I thought I had it really tight when I took off. I was heading west over Lake Goodwin and saw a 747 heading into Paine Field. I thought I had given myself plenty of room behind it. I was wrong.
I hit the wake at a 90 degree angle, so instead of rolling me it threw me up and then down very quickly and very violently. I hit my head on the canopy and my headset and glasses went flying and landed in the passenger foot well. My first thought was to ask if the airplane was still flying and controllable. It was. There was no sign of immediate danger, so I recovered my glasses and headset. I thought I had surely cracked the canopy. No I hadn't (and don't call me Shirly). Then I remembered that there was another one from the other wing and I did a 180 and climbed as quickly as I could to get above it.
I was fine after that and the the airplane performed flawlessly, so I continued on. I believe that if I had my belts tighter I may not have hit the canopy. As a result of that, not only am I more wary of wake turbulence than I had been before, but I worked really hard to make sure my belts were as tight as I could get them.
I hoped it would be a simple matter of getting the whole thing re-webbed. As so often happens, nothing is ever as easy as it seems that is should be, The very first suggestion that I got from Carl was to get with Dan at Paraphernalia (his hangar is right behind mine) and see if he would do it. Years ago, they had re-webbed the belts for some of the club's gliders. It made sense that they might do it since they have all the equipment necessary for making parachute harnesses.
I never "bumped into" Dan so I started looking for other options. I thought that harness manufacturers like Crow and Hooker might do that since they make harnesses, but when contacted them they both said that they only re-web their own harnesses. After that I started looking for harness repair stations and found a few. I thought mine would be easy since it is going in an Experimental Amateur Built (EAB) airplane I wouldn't need any certification, just a good quality job. None were interested and a couple also said they only did for harnesses they manufacture.
I was beginning to wonder what I was going to do as the shoulder straps were just getting more and more frayed. Several months ago, around Oshkosh I think, Dan at Fairings-Etc. was having a special where they were charging no shipping. During that event, Carl bought a new set of Crow's and he let me try his old set. I mostly just wanted to see how I liked them.
After installing them the first thing I noticed was that they felt much lighter than the old harness. The next thing I found was that it didn't feel like I could get them tight enough. In reality it was most likely tight enough, it just didn't feel the same. After flying with that harness for a few flights Dan announced that Crow was going to raise their prices soon, so I ordered a new set before the price went in.
Somewhere along here I decided to just stop into Paraphernalia and ask if they would do my harness. Yes, the thing that Carl suggested I do in the first place. I talked to Jimmy and found out that he is the guy that does re-webbing and was the one who did the glider club's harnesses.
The first thing he noted was that the lap belts and crotch strap were in very good condition and didn't need re-webbing. Pacific Aero Harness apparently used a webbing that was much thicker than what is normally used. I noticed that the Crow harness was a thinner web. He said that he did have some of that type of webbing but only in charcoal, mine was black. I said that charcoal would match the gray interior better anyway.
I thought he was going to re-web the whole thing in charcoal to match. He even mentioned that there was a bit of a difficulty with where the web attached to the ratchet, but he thought he could do.
I made the cardinal mistake and said that I was in no hurry, but I really wasn't. I had resigned myself to not being able to use that harness any more. I had almost forgotten about them and figured I would wait until after the first of the year to check on his progress. I was rather surprised when I got a text from Jimmy on Thursday 12/19/24. He said the harness was ready. I made arrangements to pick it up from him on Friday since they were closed the next two weeks.
I was a bit startled when he told me that he had only done the shoulder straps since there was nothing wrong with the lap belts and crotch strap. He did add some pull tabs on the adjusters that hadn't been there before and that was nice. The price he charged me seemed very fair for re-webbing the whole thing. For just the shoulder straps it didn't seem as good, but in fairness he was my only option and he did a fantastic job so I am very happy. Very much recommend. Two thumbs up, way up. Definitely an E-Ticket.
Today, Saturday 12/21/24, I was able to put them back in. Now, I did like the Crow harnesses. They are very well made, comfortable and much lighter. It just happens that I like the old one better.
I climbed in to try it out and I really like the way it feels. It can be pulled very tight making you feel you're not going anywhere. After a few minutes of making airplane noises I got out and cleaned everything up.
I packed up the Crow harness in the box it came in. I will hang on to it for a while to make sure that the old one works fine and then I will probably sell the Crow. It is still practically brand new.
Sadly, the weather has been really terrible this fall / winter. I haven't flown since the Saturday after Thanksgiving and looking at the forecast, it doesn't look like I will be able to fly at all this month. Bummer. Can't wait to try it out.
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