Posted for "Chuck Jensen" <cjensen@dts9000.com>:

 Brent,
 
 You were cruising pretty good until you hit the issue of product
 liability/responsibility, specifically Lancair (though it applies to all
 manufacturers).  Lancair, in commercial trade, has certain
 responsibilities and duties.  The first is to produce a plane as well
 designed and reasonably safe as possible and to make an effort to
 disclose limitations of their product.  If they knowingly produced a
 defective and dangerous product because, through aggressive and
 inaccurate marketing, they could sell it and make a profit, is simply
 not enough--either before the consumer or before the law.
 
For instance, if Lancair calculates that they will sell more planes by
 telling potential customers "no problem, if you're   low and slow and
 find yourself flying through the localizer, just crank 'er over.  She'll
 fly just like a C150 and is virtually stall proof."  Obviously, Lancair
 doesn't do this and, in fact, encourages transition training and full
 awareness of the trade-off and compromises made to design and produce an
 good looking and high performance aircraft.  Were they to do otherwise,
 then 'bring on the lawyers.'
 
 Lancair is NOT responsible for making you a safe pilot or monitoring you
 to ensure that you fly safely or ensuring that you get good transition
 and recurrent training.  So, each person (and corporate entity, who is a
 person before the law) has their own scope and degree of responsbility,
 including Lancair.
 
Finding out where the this fine line of the division of responsibility
 lies is where a lot of dollars are spent and perceived abuses occur.  I
 have no warm spot in my heart for lawyers either, but without them and
 the judicial system, it would be a 'wild west' out there where the
 biggest gun and sharpest knife wins the day (even though it seems like
 that system is already in place in some ares).  I'm in favor of reigning
 in the legal system to prevent abuse while protecting my rights,
 including seeking redress if I've been harmed or damaged....good luck
 figuring out how to do it and without trampling on too many other
 peoples rights and harming innocents!
 
 Chuck Jensen