Stealth Pilot wrote:

some homebuilts have less than optimal design features but that is
part of the character of them.
every single homebuilt is different and lessons from one are seldom
transferrable to another.

from my perspective who cares what the NTSB attributes the crash to.
Bill wont care. It wont bring him back. It wont stop people making
poor design choices in homebuilts.

I respect your attitude, but I do not share it.

For one thing, the Lancair Legacy is not a "one-of." There are over 100
of them in the US registry alone. Bill had a "hired gun" build the
Lancair; the man built at least three of them (in addition to at least
one other type).

So I think it's important that the current Legacy owners know whether
there's a design flaw in the canopy latch. I think it's important for
owners of the hired gun's other aircraft to know whether their builder
had trouble getting the latch to work right.

Almost fourteen years ago, Steve Wittman and his wife were killed in the
crash of his O&O special. The accident resulted from his use of a mix
of covering processes (Poly-fiber fabric attached with nitrate dope).

Just *two weeks* ago, that accident was referenced in a Fly Baby mailing
list discussion of covering and painting processes.

About ten years ago, a very respected local homebuilder was killed. He
died because he didn't tighten a nut.

Every time I take a wrench to my airplane, I think of him and how even
the best can make mistakes.

So the lessons *do* get learned...but we need to do the research that
reveals the truths. If we learn nothing from this accident, then Bill's
death was a total waste.

Ron Wanttaja