Disc drive inertia latch with a wind vane

A latch apparatus for use in a disc drive having a data storage disc rotatably mounted on a spin motor fastened to a base, and an actuator assembly mounted on the base adjacent the data storage disc for pivoting an actuator arm over a surface of the data storage disc, the latch apparatus comprising:

• a pivot portion adapted to be rotatably mounted in the disc drive, such that the pivot portion is rotatable between latched and unlatched positions;
• a latch arm attached to the pivot portion, the latch arm adapted to restrict movement of the actuator arm when the pivot portion is in the latched position and adapted to avoid restricting movement of the actuator arm when the pivot portion is in the unlatched position;
• a biasing mechanism attached to the pivot portion, the biasing mechanism adapted to continually bias the pivot portion toward the unlatched position when the pivot portion is mounted in the disc drive;
• and
• a wind arm attached to the pivot portion, the wind arm positioned so that a wind produced by spinning the data storage disc pushes against the wind arm and thereby biases the pivot portion toward the unlatched position when the pivot portion is mounted in the disc drive.