Hooker harness should/lap belt

[MBDiagMan]

10 hours ago, Shadrach said:

In a tandem seat aircraft with a narrow panel, I feel fine being cinched down. In a side by side cabin where I want to have full reach of both sides of the panel, I feel confined when cinched. I don't deny that there is a "feeling" of security when one is tightly cinched. However, my guess is that a statistical analysis would show no difference in safety between the two, so it really is just a feeling. 

Great point!  I an 6'1".  In my 140 when cinched tight, I can reach everything except the wing root vents.  If I were conched tight in the Mooney I would not be able to latch the door or reach the fuel selector.  I could make a tool for the fuel selector and should not need to worry about the door while in flight.

[Shadrach]

1 minute ago, MBDiagMan said:

Great point!  I an 6'1".  In my 140 when cinched tight, I can reach everything except the wing root vents.  If I were conched tight in the Mooney I would not be able to latch the door or reach the fuel selector.  I could make a tool for the fuel selector and should not need to worry about the door while in flight.

I'm a few inches shorter (5'10") than you, but I have primate arms. Indeed the fuel selector and the CB panel would be a challenge when cinched tight.  The best combo is inertia reel pilot side and fixed on the passenger side as the reel inpedes egress and ingress to the back seat.

[Yetti]

hmmm.   My seat is 3 inches further back than y'alls and I have no problem reaching things.   I did not want the real to wack my head on if it comes to that.

[Shadrach]

1 hour ago, Yetti said:

hmmm.   My seat is 3 inches further back than y'alls and I have no problem reaching things.   I did not want the real to wack my head on if it comes to that.

You must really be a Yetti if you can reach the floor and twist the fuel selector while your back and shoulders are cinched tight to the seat back.  Given your unique proportions, it must be a nice bonus to tie your shoes without having to lean over  Given that you can reach the door handle to close the door while strapped down, your arms must be at least 50" long (probably longer to get around your massive yetti chest), do you think you could hand prop it through the pilot window (with the seat in the forward position of course)?  Perhaps check the oil from inside the plane?

[Yetti]

let's see 42" across the cabin.  right arm is in the middle Sleeve length of 39"  Yep math works out.   The have interesting thing is the seat is far enough back that there is slack to between my torso and the shoulder strap.  So that is a concern if I ever need it

[Heloman]

Get the clamps from LASAR that have a nut welded to them, fishing a nut behind the panel is a PIA. I have the regular ones now, they suck, I have the LASAR clamps on the shelf for next time.

[par]

4 hours ago, Heloman said:

Get the clamps from LASAR that have a nut welded to them, fishing a nut behind the panel is a PIA. I have the regular ones now, they suck, I have the LASAR clamps on the shelf for next time.

I wasn't aware they made them. I already ordered and received the ones from Alpha. I'll take a look though if these ones give me problems.

[Shadrach]

31 minutes ago, par said:

I wasn't aware they made them. I already ordered and received the ones from Alpha. I'll take a look though if these ones give me problems.

Be oh so careful around the windows. This is the right time of year to be working around plexi. Winter makes for brittle plastic.

Edited June 11, 2017 by Shadrach

[Heloman]

I wasn't aware they made them. I already ordered and received the ones from Alpha. I'll take a look though if these ones give me problems.

I actually have a second set of the Alfa "minor change kit" on the shelf too, I thought I needed two kits when I ordered them with my new belts. I've read a couple posts about this here and on the Mooney FB page, I once had a passing thought to offer the second set for free, but I thought, "no, that wouldn't be very nice."


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[Yetti]

On 6/10/2017 at 7:49 PM, par said:

I wasn't aware they made them. I already ordered and received the ones from Alpha. I'll take a look though if these ones give me problems.

Open end wrench and then blue tape the nut to hold it.

 

Update on the reach of an average Yetti... we all know it takes two hands to close the door.   Yes a Yetti can left arm reach across and get the latch forward to lock the door while secure in the shoulder harness.  Sorry for all you short armed people.   Extinction is your future.

[Hank]

33 minutes ago, Yetti said:

 

Update on the reach of an average Yetti... we all know it takes two hands to close the door.   Yes a Yetti can left arm reach across and get the latch forward to lock the door while secure in the shoulder harness.  Sorry for all you short armed people.   Extinction is your future.

 

Huh. All these years I've been closing the door with my right arm . . . . 

[Shadrach]

12 hours ago, Hank said:

Huh. All these years I've been closing the door with my right arm . . . . 

I thought you were an engineer?

[par]

Install started this week and unfortunately required the windows to be removed from the pilot side. There just wasn't enough room to get the clamp in there without it. Hopefully this will not hurt the wallet too much. Pictures are shown below.

 

[MIm20c]

I'm going to be installing mine next week. Please keep us posted on how the project goes. 

[HRM]

7 hours ago, par said:

There just wasn't enough room to get the clamp in there without it. Hopefully this will not hurt the wallet too much.

You just needed the grease of unmentionable expletives. I created quite a few new ones and damned myself to hell for eternity getting that clamp on the pilot's side with the windows intact.

[RLCarter]

Pilot side clamp for the shoulder strap is a Double Sum Bitch., was able to get it installed with out removing the side windows, I almost ran out of ways to string swear words together. As for being cinched in tight, I leave my shoulder strap loose untill right before I line up for take off, loosen it up at around 1500 agl, then tighten it back up when entering the pattern. 

[goterminal120]

On 6/5/2017 at 10:00 PM, MBDiagMan said:

I would really like to have Hooker Harnesses in my Mooney.  If I didn't already have the single shoulder harnesses, I would very definitely be choosing the Hookers.

At the 2015 Cessna 120-140 nationals in Tulahouma, TN, Jack flew there in his 120.  There were many skydivers jumping in quantity during the time we were there.  They even jumped through the clouds that we're keeping us on the ground, in the terminal, visiting.  These were some serious, long time skydivers.

One of the jumpers walked through the terminal having no Earthly idea that Jack Hooker was there.  Jack asked the diver if he used any harnesses in the plane while climbing out for the jump.  The jumper, again not knowing who he was said " yes we use a Hooker Harness system in the plane and tie off to it until we are ready to jump," and that some years ago that harness saved his life.  Jack had a fish on the line and everyone there knew it except the jumper.  Jack asked more questions.  The jumper told about a loss of power shortly after take off that resulted in a serious crash, but all the jumpers survived but none were seriously hurt.  Jack said something like I am very pleased that you are okay because I designed and built that harness system.

The jumper and his friends that were survivors came to our banquet with their families.  Jack presented all of them with a Test Pilot patch and each of them introduced their families and pointed out which children would have never been born were it not for the Hooker Skydiver harness system.

At dinner one night I asked Jack what led him to making harnesses.  It is a wonderful story.  In college he was a skydiver.  He met someone, married and once he had kids he decided jumping wasn't such a smart thing to do any more.  At that point he had a parachute riggers certification that led to making different harnesses.  He had someone come to him asking if he could make a race car harness which he did.  That led to doing harnesses for an airplane and learning how to go through the certification process.  This is similar to one of Al Mooneys areas of expertise which was getting planes certified.

Anyway, if you ever have the opportunity to sit down with Jack, don't pass it up.  He is a fascinating person to listen to.

I call bullshit. There is NO WAY skydivers would be jumping in overcast that keeps airplanes on the ground. This is the crap that gives skydiving such a bad reputation. Skydivers are the most safety conscious individuals I have ever been around, and are willing to pay thousands of dollars for a seatbelt/harness. Whining about  $200.00 on a life saving device is just sad.

[MBDiagMan]

21 hours ago, goterminal120 said:

I call bullshit. There is NO WAY skydivers would be jumping in overcast that keeps airplanes on the ground. This is the crap that gives skydiving such a bad reputation. Skydivers are the most safety conscious individuals I have ever been around, and are willing to pay thousands of dollars for a seatbelt/harness. Whining about  $200.00 on a life saving device is just sad.

I and others saw it with our own eyes at least once and I think they came through the clouds again.  Maybe they were broken.  I am not a skydiver, so I dont remember the exact circumstances, but I do remember how surprised I was when they came through the clouds.

Also sir, I have not "whined" about paying for a life saving device.  I have Hookers in my Cessna and the commonly used brand in my Mooney.  If there were none already in my Mooney I would be installing Hookers rather than the other systems.

NOW...... I DON'T appreciate being blatently called a liar.  I dont remember exact circumstances, but I saw jumpers come through the clouds.  I would expect an apology.

[par]

Almost done. Passenger side did not require window removal.

[HRM]

4 hours ago, par said:

Passenger side did not require window removal.

Indeed. That one is a piece of cake compared to the pilot side.

[Yetti]

In the F.... I started high and came down.  Had to loosen things up, but did not think any side to be worthy of new words.   There may or may not be an indention of a screw driver blade in the outer skin....  I may have tapped it back down.

[par]

Finally have this very important safety upgrade finished and I am very pleased with how it turned out. Like others have mentioned, the fuel selector is not reachable by those without monkey arms once all buckled in. However, it's not a big deal as you can either quickly loosen the shoulder strap or simply slide out from under the shoulder strap to take care of it. The same applies to CLOSING the door only. Opening is a right arm operation only. Everything else on the panel is easily reached.

Edited June 20, 2017 by par

[carusoam]

Great photos, PAR.  

Best regards,

-a-

[StinkBug]

I've been very fond of Hooker Harnesses since long before I was into aviation. I've been heavily involved in off-road racing for many years and years back we caught wind of the company after getting sick of belts that constantly loosen up during a race. When you're going fast in the dirt it's important to be TIGHT in the seat. They had some fantastic ratcheting belts that apparently were originally developed for aerobatics that completely solved our issues. I won't race in anything else anymore. 

 

[chrixxer]

Has anyone put together a 'master list' of the specific parts needed, and the install steps necessary, to install Hooker shoulder harnesses? After narrowly missing out on a $300(ish) set of Alpha harnesses on fleaBay, I'm in the market. Flying sans a shoulder harness has me uneasy (though I haven't flown at all in a month, plane's still at the avionics shop; my IND-351 needs replacing, sigh).