By Steve Bulwicz
On August 17, N8292P, my PA24-250 was fitted with two front seat AmSafe seatbelt airbags. From the time the aircraft rolled into the Wipaire maintenance shop at South St. Paul (KSGS) Airport at 0830, it was a mere six hours (including a nice lunch break), before it rolled out with all the paperwork and logbook entries complete. In order to ensure that there were no hiccups during the installation, AmSafe’s Steve Marshall flew north from Wichita to assist the operation. He arrived equipped with a photo-filled laptop computer, factory drawings, and a cell phone ready to connect with AmSafe engineers. The Wipaire technicians had already installed three systems in Cessna floatplanes, but the technician assigned had no previous personal experience with the system – but all went smoothly. Since mine was the first PA24 to receive the seatbelt airbag system, AmSafe wanted to oversee the process to verify that the factory procedures and installation instructions were correct.
To prepare for an airbag installation, your aircraft should have a compatible three-point seatbelt/shoulder harness system for the best front seat occupant protection. A four-point system would be better, but there aren’t any available for the Comanche. In the case of N8292P, there was a previously installed Kosola shoulder kit for the pilot, but not one for the copilot. The cost of one Kosola kit is currently $484, plus shipping, and another $390 in labor to fit it to the upper fuselage. It was a little easier for my mechanic to install it since the headliner was just removed for replacement, but it took him longer than he was expecting. The Kosola kit includes all the appropriate webbed belts that are completely replaced by the AmSafe belts. There are other shoulder harness kits available that work with AmSafe seatbelt airbags, such as Alpha Aviation kits.
The installation process for the AmSafe seatbelt airbags starts with all seats and rear fuselage access panels (baggage compartment) removed. The technician clamps the cold Argon/ Helium inflators to the bottom side support rails of the aircraft’s front seats. Next, he attached the electronic module assembly (EMA) crash sensor to the rear avionics support shelf to sense forward impact. In the case of N8292P, it was placed abeam the 3M WX-10A data converter.