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falling out of your plane

I will apologize . I think it is a terrible and his family and friends are in my thoughts and prayers. At the same time there is lots of info missing here and lots for us all to learn from this.
 
That is a sad story. It appears that there were two things that happened either one could have prevented the tragedy. The students seat belt was not fastened and the canopy opened. Something is wrong here. Hopefully we will learn more.

Several years ago, near here, a man hired a Cessna 150 and pilot to take him up to photograph his house. While circling the house, the man undid his seat belt, opened the door and jumped out. It happened so quickly that the pilot couldn't stop him. It seems that he was getting a divorce and wanted to hit the house as a final gesture.

Once upon at time, I was doing a split S in my Stearman, While upside down I noticed that my seat belt felt loose. In fact it had come completely off. Note to self: Make damm sure that self maintains positive Gs until right side up !! This was one of those military style belts with the locking lever. It seems that I must have caught the lever with my jacket sleeve on my stick arm and never felt it. Solution was to reverse the seat belt. This could explain why some folks use double seat belts for aerobatics. I must say that this was a most scary moment in my life. Heck, it was an open cockpit. It didn't even have a roof to catch me like Bob Turner's Decalthalon.
 
A very sad story. Yesterday a friend and I took the Cessna up to look at some elk on their winter range. My headset cord plugs in near my left knee and at one point I noticed the cord had worked its way under the release and had almost popped it open. Maybe something like this happened?

Pete I'll bet you got a quick sweat even in an open cockpit.


Sent from my iPhone from the middle of nowhere using Tapatalk
 
That is a sad story. It appears that there were two things that happened either one could have prevented the tragedy. The students seat belt was not fastened and the canopy opened. Something is wrong here. Hopefully we will learn more.

Several years ago, near here, a man hired a Cessna 150 and pilot to take him up to photograph his house. While circling the house, the man undid his seat belt, opened the door and jumped out. It happened so quickly that the pilot couldn't stop him. It seems that he was getting a divorce and wanted to hit the house as a final gesture.

Once upon at time, I was doing a split S in my Stearman, While upside down I noticed that my seat belt felt loose. In fact it had come completely off. Note to self: Make damm sure that self maintains positive Gs until right side up !! This was one of those military style belts with the locking lever. It seems that I must have caught the lever with my jacket sleeve on my stick arm and never felt it. Solution was to reverse the seat belt. This could explain why some folks use double seat belts for aerobatics. I must say that this was a most scary moment in my life. Heck, it was an open cockpit. It didn't even have a roof to catch me like Bob Turner's Decalthalon.

That sounds like the type of harness I have in my Quick. All the harness points come together from both sides, the latching mechanism is a lever the goes through the other side and then the lever pivots back around and over centers against it's side and a small spring loaded ball engages a detente to hold it in the "cam-ed over" position. I have never given it a second thought as it seems like a perfectly secure condition. BUT now that you have brought this up we lost a member of the Quicksilver Ultralight owners yahoo group a few months ago when for some reason while attempting to land he flew into some trees and went inverted before stopping. This is the strange part. For some reason his belt opened or was opened and he fell a good distance to the ground apparently breaking his neck?
The FAA investigating found no reason for the accident and stated it would be possible to fly the aircraft after recovery from the trees. Some of us speculated a possible medical problem but of course were not in the loop for after-the-fact investigations. Anyway no one has any idea why he would have removed his belt either prior to the flight or after the accident as he was known to be a careful and sensible pilot. Absent any medical problem he would have been uninjured if the belt had not opened.

Perhaps I have been to confident in that belt system. If I fall out I get chopped up in the prop or go for a nice long fall. Only my seat, a couple of skinny tubes and the belt system keep me, ha!, "in" the airplane. So what do you mean you "reversed" the belt? If your talking about the lever do you mean you aim it towards your belly and if so how is there room to latch it?
 
Once upon at time, I was doing a split S in my Stearman, While upside down I noticed that my seat belt felt loose. In fact it had come completely off. Note to self: Make damm sure that self maintains positive Gs until right side up !! This was one of those military style belts with the locking lever. It seems that I must have caught the lever with my jacket sleeve on my stick arm and never felt it. Solution was to reverse the seat belt. This could explain why some folks use double seat belts for aerobatics. I must say that this was a most scary moment in my life. Heck, it was an open cockpit. It didn't even have a roof to catch me like Bob Turner's Decalthalon.

My friend Nic and I were trying to teach ourself how to roll the Stearman we were flying and we kept falling out stalled and inverted and would be hanging from the belts till we gained enough speed to get back level. We were at a flyin a couple days later and in the hangar was a Stearman fus almost ready for cover and the gent that was doing the work was showing it to us. We noticed that at the bottom of the seat he had a loop of 1/8" cable going around the lower seat frame and the lower longeron. Stearmans have vertical seat rails and you can raise the seat for takeoff and landing and lower it for cruise. We asked what the cables were for. During WWII a few instructers and students who were doing negative manuvers had left the airplane while still belted and sitting on their parachute after the seats slid up off of the verticale rails. Sure enough when we got back home we checked and we didn't have the safety cables but we did by the next time we flew.

Glenn
 
A buddy of mine and his friend were doing acro in a yak. They did some wild deal that caused his belt to break and eject him through the canopy. Opened his chute and came down through a tree. Most yaks now have double seat belts.
 
So what do you mean you "reversed" the belt? If your talking about the lever do you mean you aim it towards your belly and if so how is there room to latch it?

This is the type of belt that I had in the Stearman. :
th
I took the lap belt out and reinstalled it with the left belt on the right and the right belt on the left. That kept the latching lever away from my sleeve.
 
This happened in a Piper Sport not too long ago. Speculation was that the canopy was open and the pilot unlatched his seat belt and stood up to grab it as it will ride up due to aerodynamics. In that case, I still think there was more to the story such as he hit the stick accidentally and caused a sudden pitch down, tossing him out of the plane. They found the pilot about 12 miles from the crash site. I don't understand it though because when a forward hinged canopy like the Piper Sport is unlatched, it is not an emergency! It happened to me when I got checked out in one - very first takeoff. I just went around the pattern and landed the airplane, no big deal. I don't know how the canopy in the Zener is hinged so don't know if that applies to this case but a weird story nevertheless.

Now, I'm not a fan of forward hinged canopies because of what happens if you're upside down on the ground, and maybe on fire...

Best,
O-2
 
If you are going to hang by a belt, you better have two sets with seperate attach pionts.
 
A buddy of mine and his friend were doing acro in a yak. They did some wild deal that caused his belt to break and eject him through the canopy. Opened his chute and came down through a tree. Most yaks now have double seat belts.
Yea but he tells it better... something about being out yacken off and...
 
This is the type of belt that I had in the Stearman. :
th
I took the lap belt out and reinstalled it with the left belt on the right and the right belt on the left. That kept the latching lever away from my sleeve.

Thanks skywagon. That wouldn't change anything for me cause I could hook it with either motorcycle suit sleeve. I'm going to take a closer look at it next time at the hanger.
 
I now make it a practice to check my seat belts and shoulder harnesses secure prior to every Take Off and landing. If I recall this was part of my checklist while flying the F-4 Phantom and to lock the same. I have been flying for 37 years and I can attest to seat belts being detached in flight due to poor latch design, inadvertant unhooking by loose clothing and winter jackets, full aft sticking hitting bellies and latches and simply not getting strapped in properly. I can also attest to doors unlatching in hard landings, again ketching on clothing, not locked securely. I even know of someone almost falling out of a plane but I will leave that story to another time do to list of the comedy of errors leading up to scaring the "HHH " out of himself.
 
Those are standard airline cockpit belts.

I've been using them for over ten years. They work great in the float plane. Over 2000 hrs and never had one come loose on it's own. I have changed the shoulder straps to a Wagaero one in the J4 because the original one's Y was to long.

Glenn
 
what about the cam lock latches... I have these in my vette and but have not yet seen them in a plane... The latch is much easier to work and stays out of the way. i dont have to thread all of the buckles rather they just click in in any order
 
where can you buy the inertia reels? I need front and rear set for my experimental super cub, thank you in advance for your help..........
Rick

The ones I bought came with the inertia reels. Didn't see any complete seatbelts a S&F but did see some reels.

Glenn
 
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