Greetings All.
I was chatting with a guy at my local model club recently and he explained that aircraft seatbelts are commonly unlatched by the user when finished with and dropped over the back of the seat (or down the side for the lap belt) so when he next gets back in he won’t be sitting on them. I can see the logic.
Can a real 1:1 scale flyer confirm this for me? If so all those seatbelts I’ve put in draped over the seat aren’t really protoypical are they?!
Thanks
Celestialsphere
Melbourne, Australia
Depends on if the maintenance guys place them back on the seats. I have seen it both ways.
From my limited experience in tactical jets, in older ones like the T-33A and F-104 where you put on the parachute before entering, the belts are in the seat just like on our models, made easy to get to by the crew chief for safety reasons and because it’s the nice thing to do. Starting with the F-4’s generation up to the F-15/16/18 generation, the parachute is installed in the seat already, as you know, and when you get in you are already wearing the harness for it. It is into this that the shoulder belts snap, serving as your connection to the parachute and as the shoulder restraints. Those straps, as well as the lap belt and leg garters – all the things attached to the ejection seat and from there to you – have usually been arranged by the crew chief in such a way as to make them easy to get to, certainly not fallen down between the seat and the consoles. Groping around blindly down among the workings of an ejection seat for a belt buckle is a potential recipe for a nasty death, even though it’s pinned and safed at this point.
In such things as a T-6 or T-28 (can’t speak firsthand for Mustangs and Corsairs, but the belts are the same), as well as old bombers, I’ve found that regardless of how the last guy left the belts, they are big and heavy and stiff with heavy fittings, and they tend to fall back into the seat pretty much as we put them on our models. I’m sure there are exceptions, but it’s perfectly natural to have belts and shoulder harnesses arranged on the seat back and the lap belts on the pan or cushion, just as we usually put them on our model seats. I can see them being moved out of the way so you can sit down, just as you would in your car.
TOM
These forums are great for the finding the details many of us would never notice in the real world. Thank you for your explanations, guys! [bow]
Celestialsphere.