Since this topic has gone completely off topic I thought I would remind everyone that the reason for this post is I am trying to find the manufacturer of the harness in the original post that was on display at the Heliservice AW169 at European Rotors. Its not one of the ones used by them and they said someone from Leonardo borrowed it from another exhibitor at the show to put on display but I cannot find who that exhibutor is even after going through their website. So if anyone has an idea that would be great
KiwiNedNZ I am curious what sort of quick release products you are using (and mind you this is strictly curiosity, I am not in the HEC or shoe-selfie business!) All of the ones I've seen advertised rely on a snap shackle mechanism. Having extensive maritime experience with snap shackles, I would NEVER trust such a mechanism for safety of life! When going aloft (up a mast) to fix something we always tied in to the halyard and never trusted the snap shackle alone (and sometimes used two halyards). I had heard rumors of a device based on the ubiquitous 3-ring release used in skydiving--that I would trust implicitly (I'm also a skydiver). But not a snap shackle, particularly one with an easily snag-able handle or lanyard.
I primarily use two - one was made in Australia that a lot of the crewies wear. It has the parachute rings type setup on the back and the ripcord type handle on the front. The other one I use is a US made one from ARS which has the quick release lanyard.
Because of the way the FAA do it now after the Hudson accident they approve a person with each specific harness and then send you paperwork for that specific combination of you and that harness. If you turn up to do a shoot and an FAA rep does a spot inspection and you are using a different harness to that mentioned in the approval doc then the operator is in deep ****e.