Crow Harnesses have arrived!

I was incredibly surprised to come home from flying today to find that my Crow Harnesses arrived on a Sunday! Wow. I ordered them early Monday morning Dec 17th and they landed on my doorstep today the 23rd (a Sunday!). I was not expecting that considering they were shipped USPS/Canada Post and shipping in Canada is always slow.

Firstly, I ordered directly off the website and chose the Kam Lock RV6/RV7/RV9/RV14 restraints with Pads in the Pro Series with Black Hardware (2" width). I called Crow to ask a bit more detailed information on the 2" aluminum adjusters and the response was they were a cleaner look than the steel, however he mentioned there was not much if any weight savings. Since I really wanted the red pull tabs, I opted to stick with the steel adjusters.

Taking them out of the bag, they are just beautiful.  

Straight away much of my pre-order concerns where taken care of at first glance. The Kam lock itself is much nicer that previous pictures as looks to be similar to those used on the Hooker Harness setup. The diameter is 2 5/16" and they are about 1 1/4" thick. In my opinion not cumbersome at all.

I was most happy with the attachment fittings. Reading past reviews it seemed that modification was required for the bolts but it seems that this has now been rectified. The crotch strap is not sewn at the bottom attach point allowing it to be adjustable and have that fitting in the pre-cut opening of the Van's attach bracket. The crotch strap attachment fitting is drilled for an AN5 bolt.

The lap belt and shoulder harness attachment fittings are slightly smaller and allow for an AN4 bolt.

I pulled out the scale and one complete set of belts (for one person) weighs 1585 grams or 3lbs 7.9oz.

Countersink the Firewall spacers and angles - 2 hours

Not a huge day on the build, but a big airplane day. I had a flight booked and the weather was perfect, so I flew a 1.6 and a 1.0 under the hood (working on my night rating), that ended up eating away most of my mid-day.

I was dreading countersinking the firewall parts. I've never enjoyed this process as I could never easily work out the best countersink depth for mating a dimpled piece in a countersunk piece. Getting a rivet flush with the material was the easiest cause you just work up to flush. But its never really clear how far past flush you go for nesting pieces. I ended up countersinking a little past flush so there was a very small ring around the rivet. When cleco'ing a small piece of dimpled material to it a very small gap was still present. I believe when I rivet this gap will disappear, or a very least be nearly gone.

Unfortunately I made one small oops. I had accidentally countersunk the topmost #30 hole in the F-601N-L stiffener. That one particular hole shouldn't be countersunk as it rests on top of the F-601L-1 stiffener. Oh well, I will have to put in a small order after Christmas to Van's and rivet it later.