I have consistently noted that statistics of actual history are more
importatant than subjective analysis. It appears that the C1 is much safer
than about anything else in the single engine arena by the statistics.

While the rear hinged canopy may not be ideal, perhaps the trade off was
even less ideal. At any rate, while your point is valid, I believe that in
total the design must be a good one.



"Vaughn" wrote in message
news

"Thomas Borchert" wrote in message
...
C,

I suppose the NTSB site would be worth investigating.


IIRC, you'd find zero fatal accidents. Zero, zip, nada. Same for the
DA20. Pretty impressive.

Yes, but you will find at least three -20 accidents in the database
that
would never have happened without that rear-hinged canopy. Nice as it is,
the -20 is an airplane with an accident built into it, just waiting for an
inattentive pilot (which is all of us occasionally) to screw up. Don't
get me
wrong, all three of them are likely caused by pilot error, but it is a
trap
engineered into airframe that is familiar to any glider pilot.

As a CFI(gliders), no new student gets into my trainer without first
hearing "the canopy lecture".

They fixed the problem in the 4-seater.

Vaughn