Cost of new seatbelts from annual
 

Evening all, bit of advice needed please, just received an itemised bill for our annual from the maintenance outfit and we were charged just over £610 for two retractable seatbelts and fitting, is this the going rate? Aircraft is a PA28 Archer 2. I'm well aware this aviating lark isn't a cheap do but it seemed a bit steep!

Cheers, Jim:ok:

It sounds steep, but equally I don`t think being an engineer is a get rich quick scheme either. I picked up on this thread as I recently spotted seatbelt replacement on a list of pilot permitted maintenance operations and wondered if anyone ever did it. At that price its tempting....

A Gadringer 4 point harness (certified -form 1 job) will set you back the best part of £400 so 2 inertia reel lapstraps (is that what's meant by retractable?) fitted for £600 doesn't seem too outrageous.

Jim

That price is comparable with what we (unnecessarily) had to pay.

Securon four point harness for car use about forty quid. Plus fitting. Yes, I know you aren't allowed to put them in an EASA aircraft. Just for a price comparison.

Cessna SIDS
 

EASA have just published a written statement that as in USA/FAA these are not mandatory. ie removing wings.
As the CAA have stated they will not in future "Gold Plate" EASA rules hopefully common sense will prevail in discussions with our maintenance organisations and prevent huge bills and possible scrapping of older types.
My 1956 aircraft was rebuilt 6 years ago and wholesale disassembly would be completely disproportionate.

There is also the option of getting the seat belts overhauled, i believe there a thread on this some years back with a UK based company can do this..... Costs a pittance cared to replacing them...

Anglia Sailplanes does new harnesses and rebuilds. Good stuff but they're not radically low cost.

I had a harness re-webbed by a manufacturer of lifting slings (guaranteed 2 tonnes breaking strain per strap) but that was for an annex II glider. I doubt that EASA/CAA would approve!

p.s. anyone had an inertia seatbelt replaced by a car main dealer lately? Probably not much change from a couple of hundred quid

You dont say why you bought the new ones. Our 182 required new seat belts a few years back purely because of age - cost was over £1000

Thanks to advice from ppruners we eventually managed to convince our maintainers that these could be refurbed. Sent to US and back in a matter of days at a fraction of the cost.

Technically and legally 'refurbishing' seat-belts should be completed in accordance to the original specification and test standards. I understand that some companies doing the work can issue an appropriate Form 1. As far as car seat-belts, bear in mind that modern cars have logic in the seats etc to give you warning when someone is not wearing the belts and therefore not a simple operation these days.

As a comparison a LUKE 6 point proffessional auto racing harness £140+vat.
Why do we have to put up with 'approved' equipment when better quality, safer stuff is available at a fraction of the price elsewhere?

The price for two PA28 inertia reel shoulder harnesses including fitting is unfortunately the going rate.

Pacific Scientific who manufacture the PA28 shoulder harnesses have a UK office in Maidenhead.

A few years back, you could get a legal overhaul of the units for around £150. Last time I used them the price was very similar to the cost of a new harness so no real advantage given that you have to wait to have your belts overhauled.

Many thanks for replies everyone, they are shoulder inertia straps, I should have mentioned in the opening post, they seemed to have lost the power to retract, I knew they were going to be swapped but wasn't aware of the cost. But now I feel a lot better about the situation! I just didn't know the going rate, I was chatting to someone on Sunday and he said the Cessna he has a share in had the inertia reels changed because they have a lifetime on them, seems a bit harsh, although there must be a reason for it? I can imagine the airtime on some taken out due to age can vary massively.

Thanks again, Jim:ok: