Pilot Shoulder Strap Clip

Time: 2 Hours

One thing I have read about is the complaints of how the pilots shoulder straps don’t stay into position on the roll bar behind their seat. The straps are held on with a loop of the strap around the roll bar. Since the roll bar extends outward for a little bit and bends downward the straps have nothing to retain them and can slide outward. This means you have to fidget with them to get them into position. Big deal? No but since I have time on my hands I decided to come up with a solution. In the shop I have these wall units that have a bunch of little drawers in them. They are clear plastic and house all my rivets, screws and so on. I have had them since I started my build. Anyways these set of drawers came with these flat clips on the back that you could use to hang on the wall. These clips were meant to slid into a receptacle that would get screwed to the wall. I held on to these receptacles for some reason. While I was digging thru some parts I found them and a light bulb went off. They were the same width on the inside as the width of the shoulder straps. So I devised a plan to screw these to the underside of the roll bar to hold the straps in place. You may be having a hard time picturing these but in the following photos hopefully they make sense. First I did some test while sitting in the seat as to where I wanted these to align on the roll bar so they were comfortable. Then I marked the location and removed all the parts. I fine tuned the marks on tape that I put around the roll bar to protect the paint. To get the two holes aligned and marked for drilling I attached them to the roll bar with zip ties. In the photo you see the clip zip tied with two small washers taped to the clips. This was to make up the space of the clip so the zip tie didn’t squeeze the clip too much so I could get a good mark on the holes.

Now you have an idea what these clips looked like. On each end is a hole that’s countersunk for a flat head screw. This hole fits a #8 screw perfectly. So I marked the holes through the clips onto the tape after I had them aligned along the roll bar. I removed the zip ties and the clips and drilled and tapped for #8 screws while laying down inside the fuselage. I tell you having a bunch of Harbor Freight moving blankets is key to protect your back from all the protruding parts. With the holes drilled, tapped and cleaned up I put then shoulder straps in place and attached the clips with screws.

Another little project done and making progress. Simple yet effective solution to a problem.

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