When I flew on the zero-G NASA KC-135, Bob Williams conducted a pre-flight briefing, which included parachute instructions. One of those instructions was to pull the D-ring to deploy the chute. “Everybody gets that one wrong,” he said. Us newbies donned our chutes, then reached for the D-ring, with me going first. I reached for what I thought the correct ring was, Bob stopped me and said “That’s the one that unbuckles the harness. Everyone makes that mistake.” I quickly learned to recognize the real D-ring, though I’m not sure I would have remembered it falling from 10,000 feet.
The only way out of the plane in an emergency was through the belly door, the same one used to board. Any of the side doors would result in collision with the horizontal stabilizer. And we had to be sure not to panic and pull the D-ring inside the plane, because as soon as the belly hatch opened, the deployed chute would drag us out of the plane at such high speed that we’d probably be killed by the collision with the tunnel.
I have a feeling that Bob was the only one who would ever have gotten out of that plane in an emergency…
I was told a story (later corroborated) by a test pilot about the son of a company VP who got a highly unofficial ride in a 2-seat fighter trainer; well, would have gotten a ride except he managed to activate the ejection seat before taxi; he survived with significant injuries, and somehow it was hushed up.
Another time I got to sit in a fighter – I won’t tell you which one; you wouldn’t believe me anyway 🙂 – and after I sat down, the ground crew warned me that the ejection seat was armed. I was very careful getting out…
Another time I got to sit in a fighter – I won’t tell you which one;
Why not? You steal it? 🙂
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”
“…after I sat down, the ground crew warned me that the ejection seat was armed”
And now one of your legs is longer than the other.
Ejection seats are described as “attempted suicide to avoid certain death.”
Scares me and I’m fearless.
One of my mentors was a well-known AF test pilot who had the experience of having to punch out twice; the first time was in AF TPS in an F-104 – the seat firing down version – after he got a radio call that his engine was on fire. I don’t recall what the second one was, probably an F-16 (he encountered several “firsts” on that program, few of them pleasant). He had plenty of back problems.
My stats are
132 intentional jumps, zero emergency jumps, two reserve rides, six rocket flights, one broken bone (T12).
Two reserve rides in 132 jumps? Wow. I understand that sport skydiving averages about one reserve ride per thousand jumps. Any particular reason for your high ratio, or were you just “lucky”?
132 intentional jumps,
IMHO you enjoy Russian roulette with the number of chambers unknown. 🙂
If you don’t want to fly have the integrity to say no.
Sheesh, this shouldn’t be a peer pressure issue.
You either love to fly or you don’t. Pretty simple.
I don’t look down on people who don’t like to fly.
Hell take the bus or take a train, it’s fine with me….
What a cluster… Along with not properly assisting him with pre-flight, why in God’s name was the selector switch left in Command Ejection mode? With an inexperienced person in the back seat it should absolutely have been set to Pilot Control mode specifically to avoid what almost happened here.
Command Mode – Either seat ejects both.
Pilot Control Mode – Pilot ejects both, Rear seat only ejects rear seat.
Wow.
When I flew on the zero-G NASA KC-135, Bob Williams conducted a pre-flight briefing, which included parachute instructions. One of those instructions was to pull the D-ring to deploy the chute. “Everybody gets that one wrong,” he said. Us newbies donned our chutes, then reached for the D-ring, with me going first. I reached for what I thought the correct ring was, Bob stopped me and said “That’s the one that unbuckles the harness. Everyone makes that mistake.” I quickly learned to recognize the real D-ring, though I’m not sure I would have remembered it falling from 10,000 feet.
The only way out of the plane in an emergency was through the belly door, the same one used to board. Any of the side doors would result in collision with the horizontal stabilizer. And we had to be sure not to panic and pull the D-ring inside the plane, because as soon as the belly hatch opened, the deployed chute would drag us out of the plane at such high speed that we’d probably be killed by the collision with the tunnel.
I have a feeling that Bob was the only one who would ever have gotten out of that plane in an emergency…
I was told a story (later corroborated) by a test pilot about the son of a company VP who got a highly unofficial ride in a 2-seat fighter trainer; well, would have gotten a ride except he managed to activate the ejection seat before taxi; he survived with significant injuries, and somehow it was hushed up.
Another time I got to sit in a fighter – I won’t tell you which one; you wouldn’t believe me anyway 🙂 – and after I sat down, the ground crew warned me that the ejection seat was armed. I was very careful getting out…
Another time I got to sit in a fighter – I won’t tell you which one;
Why not? You steal it? 🙂
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”
“…after I sat down, the ground crew warned me that the ejection seat was armed”
And now one of your legs is longer than the other.
Ejection seats are described as “attempted suicide to avoid certain death.”
Scares me and I’m fearless.
One of my mentors was a well-known AF test pilot who had the experience of having to punch out twice; the first time was in AF TPS in an F-104 – the seat firing down version – after he got a radio call that his engine was on fire. I don’t recall what the second one was, probably an F-16 (he encountered several “firsts” on that program, few of them pleasant). He had plenty of back problems.
My stats are
132 intentional jumps, zero emergency jumps, two reserve rides, six rocket flights, one broken bone (T12).
Two reserve rides in 132 jumps? Wow. I understand that sport skydiving averages about one reserve ride per thousand jumps. Any particular reason for your high ratio, or were you just “lucky”?
132 intentional jumps,
IMHO you enjoy Russian roulette with the number of chambers unknown. 🙂
If you don’t want to fly have the integrity to say no.
Sheesh, this shouldn’t be a peer pressure issue.
You either love to fly or you don’t. Pretty simple.
I don’t look down on people who don’t like to fly.
Hell take the bus or take a train, it’s fine with me….
What a cluster… Along with not properly assisting him with pre-flight, why in God’s name was the selector switch left in Command Ejection mode? With an inexperienced person in the back seat it should absolutely have been set to Pilot Control mode specifically to avoid what almost happened here.
Command Mode – Either seat ejects both.
Pilot Control Mode – Pilot ejects both, Rear seat only ejects rear seat.