Colin, The only thing that I would add is that I would echo Dan's concern about the mounting. I believe that the plans call for the lap belt mounts to be on the aft face of the rear spar. I recall seeing a KR accident photo sequence where the engine quit on takeoff, the plane stalled, dropped a wing and cart-wheeled after the right wingtip caught the ground. The last picture is the pilot reaching around and tossing the belts aside. The aircraft disintegrated around him, but he walked away. Why? Probably because the belts did their intended job and restrained the pilot in the structure, even while the structure was literally disintegrating around him. You have to ask yourself; Will the belt attachments that I made do their intended job of restraining myself and the passenger during a crash? Unfortunately we don't have the luxury of being able to do crash simulations / testing like in the automotive industry. While I was with my former employer (a Tier 1 automotive supplier), my office was on the other side of the wall from the sled lab. They had a pnuematic cylinder capable of a 60 G acceleration in the sled lab. Automotive seating systems are designed to restrain a crash dummy to 20 G's rearward in a test called FMVSS202, & 207/210. This federally mandated test simulates a rear end collision of about 25 mph (one of many mandated tests). Automotive seats are allowed to yield, but with no breakage of the welds, and must not allow the crash dummy to become unrestrained at any point of the simulation. This is a fairly tall order and is why most automotive seatbelt anchors are 10 mm diameter bolts. Seeing these test performed and looking at the results or aftermath was shall we say impressive? Really makes you wonder about getting in a car and driving in rush-hour traffic, knowing some idiot is on a cellphone, not paying attention, and goes plowing into the back of your car at 60 MPH.... OK, I'll get off of my soapbox now! Depending upon the seat that you are building, the belt attachment zone (for automotiveseating)is 45 degrees from "H"-point. It appears that you may be near or over the edge of the 45 degree attachment zone. Again depending upon where your H-point ends up as a result of your seat cushion design. Where would I attach my lapbelt anchors? Somewhere on the aft face of the rear spar, with the belt attachment bolts going through the rear spar. Wick's and others sell books on small aircraft crashworthness, which I think might be a big help for you in deciding for yourself on what to do. --- Colin <[email protected]> wrote: > Netters, > I am looking for commentary critique of my mounting > of the lap belts in our KR. It is shown on our site > and Dan Heath expressed a valid concern about the > mounting. I would appreciate any commentary critique > of this mounting and potential improvements.
===== Scott Cable KR-2S # 735 Wright City, MO [email protected] __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now http://companion.yahoo.com/
