Wondering if any of you know of an option to install 3 or 4 point harnesses for the rear seats in a '79 Warrior. My googling so far has found only that Alpha Aviation was working on an STC, but I didn't find anything on their website about it.

As near as I can tell, there are no attachment points a shoulder harness on this airframe. Any leads would be much appreciated!

A step in the right direction.

https://piperowner.org/talk/discussion/ ... arness-kit

Jeff, thanks for posting that; I managed to miss it in my searches. Looks like the parts are (relatively) easy to source separately, but not as a kit.

No prob. POS tends to be a bit slow, but like here, there tends to be a lot of folks with a lot of answers.

I'd be surprised if Piper didn't have a solution. The latest Warriors must have had rear seat shoulder harnesses, didn't they?

Isn't the latest Piper 100i trainer or whatever they call it still a PA-28-161?

George

George, it turns out that Piper does have a solution. The link that James posted goes to a discussion on the Piper Owner's forum, complete with a service bulletin and kit part numbers and instructions.

It's not trivial. You have to cut back the headliner to access the structure (there's a plastic cover plate to install to hide this) and have to drill a hole through the fuselage skins to install a screw.

A good alternative to shoulder harnesses in the rear seats of Pipers is the AmSafe Soars lap belt airbag. I’m looking at installing those is the club seats of a Cherokee Six due to the lack of an STC for three-points.

Are you a POS member yet?

Colin, which model PA32 do you have? Alpha Aviation has an STC and install kit for several models, and with the SB information I sent them they may come up with more.

I heard from them this afternoon that they are able to source all the parts to install on our ‘78 Warrior.

I’ve got a ‘77 PA-32-300 with three point belts in the front. I checked out Alpha’s STC but it looks like it’s only for the pilot/co-pilot seats. My goal is the make the rear club seats with no option other than lap belts a bit safer and came across the Soars air bag lap belts. Not sure how effective air bags would be in the rear facing club seats though, but probably can’t hurt.

FWIW, CAP started removing the airbag seatbelts from the new Cessnas when they times out. I’ve heard both that it was about money and that they didn’t work as advertised.

Steer clear of Amsafe. While the products are good, support is painful. Just wait till you have to send the airbag controller back for calibration. It used to cost $400 and take two weeks.
Now, it's $700, and you may, or may not get it back after several months. And this is after you've spend many days just trying to get an RMA to send it in for repair. At 7 years, the controller is sent in for recalibration, and at 14 years, you have to buy a new one for $1100. The inflators expire in 12 years, figure $1k per seat for new ones and the conversion kit, since they changed the size of the inflators.
We deal with them for Cirrus airbag systems. Cirrus unfortunately added the airbag components to their chapter 4 life limited items list. So when the controller is expired, the plane is grounded. At last count there were dozens of planes grounded, with no end in sight. And this is at the OEM level, where Cirrus has some clout. Individuals with STC's systems are absolute nobodies to Amsafe. They don't answer emails or the phone.
I've been waiting for exchange controller units for 3 months now.