On Fri, 21 May 2004 15:41:04 -0500, frank wrote:

Air bags are a factory option on some certified planes, including the
Mooney. The bags are built into the seat belts.

Frank


How are these things controlled? Where is the g-switch that triggers
them? Do they need electrical power to run the system? I wonder what
sort of electrical failures could cause them to fire when they shouldn't?
There have been incidents and accidents where debris in wiring
bundles has shorted a live wire to another wire, thus sending voltage
where it wasn't meant to go. This could potentially cause one of those
air bags to fire when it shouldn't.

I wonder if the air bag would push forward on the yoke if it fired in
flight? If this happened at low altitude, or a high enough airspeed,
could it cause an accident? If so, could installing one of these
air bags actually reduce the level of safety? Of is the perception of
safety more important than actual safety?

Just wondering.

--
Kevin Horton RV-8 (finishing kit)
Ottawa, Canada
http://go.phpwebhosting.com/~khorton/rv8/
e-mail: khorton02(_at_)rogers(_dot_)com