Vaughn wrote:

Sorry, don't agree. The latches we have now fail. Even the self-latching
canopy lock (as in the L-13) must be checked before flight (and should be a
checklist item) the difference is that its NORMAL CONDITION IS SAFE. If you
forget to check it, 99.999% of the time it won't kill you. What can be bad
about that?

From a manufacturers standpoint,
self-latching canopies are a no-no. I don't think we'll ever see
them in manufacture by any company that can ever be sued...

By your logic, how did we ever get manufacturers to design self-connecting
control hookups? (which also should be a checklist item before flight)

Market pressure. And if self-latching canopies are to come,
this is how they will happen. Lower insurance rates for
vehicles that have them.

Thank God for thermals. Because of them, all gliders (that I know of
anyway) have shoulder harnesses. This keeps glider insurance rates WAY
down. Coincidence, yes, but we were way ahead of the power guys,
thankfully.

You mentioned 12 people saying "why wasn't this put in?"
In a business class I remember reviewing a case where
a lawn-mover manufacturer had the opportunity to put
a safety bar in front of the rotor to stop fingers getting
chopped off (this had been a problem in the past). The
manufacturer management quietly declined in an internal
memo. This would have been seen as an admission that the
previous design was unsafe, and opened the door for those
darned 12 jurors...

Of course other competitors started doing this, and the manufacturer
simply and quietly stopped making lawnmowers...

So Vaughn, you have a great idea, but somebody is
gonna have to be the first to try it. And 12 high-school
graduates aged 65+ are pretty prone to think the newsy-bewsy
stuff failed vs. condemning the industry standard.

I'm not saying it's right, just that there's reasons.
If you have a good foolproof self-latch, pray tell...
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Mark Boyd
Avenal, California, USA