I have been trying to decide between the Hookers at $410/seat (with the rotary latch) and the Crow at $160/seat for quite some time. Safety wise, I think they’re comparable, but there are several drawbacks with the Crows. There are only four colors of webbing to chose from as well as four colors of pads to chose from, none of which match my interior very closely. Also, the rotary latch is quite thick and I’m worried that it will interfere with the stick. The Hookers come in 14 colors, with 20 color choices for pads and trim, and the rotary latch is much thinner. The only drawback is the price. What finally clinched it for me is that I found out that Classic Aero Designs (who will be making my interior) sells the Hookers and will make matching leather pads using the same material that my seats are made of. With that decision made, I went ahead and drilled/reamed a 1/4″ hole, 1/2″ below the outer holes in each crotch strap bracket. I can’t use the stock Van’s hole position because the Hooker brackets are longer than the Van’s brackets.
I also primed and riveted on the inner flap motor mount bracket and bolted the flap motor in place. This bolt is secured with a cotter pin since you can’t torque it down since that would bind the motor and it needs to pivot on this bolt. I used some TriFlow lubricant here to keep everything moving smoothly. This is the same lubricant that I will be using on all of the rod ends throughout the plane.
