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2006-11-27 Iraq

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Posted by Glenmore 2006-11-27 08:16|| || Front Page|| [5 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 I do hope the pilot managed to eject safely.

Posted by trailing wife 2006-11-27 08:29|| 2006-11-27 08:29|| Front Page Top

#2 In peacetime, ejecting from a plane is regarded as so traumatic that it could easily ruin a pilot's career. I once rode on an explosive charge ejection simulator, and it gave me a horrific twisted neck.

Posted by Anonymoose 2006-11-27 10:48|| 2006-11-27 10:48|| Front Page Top

#3 ...Trying to find out if this is a bird from my old outfit at Shaw AFB. I'd hate to think that some jihadi got a golden BB in.
And Moose is right, even under the most ideal conditions an ejection is so hazardous that Chuck Yeager (who only did it ONCE) referred to it as 'commiting suicide to avoid being killed." A Class A flight physical is mandatory fora pilot who has ejected (pilots can lose up to 4" of height from spinal compression, not to mention everything else that can get whacked/broken/amputated on egress)and regs only allow a pilot to eject twice in their careers - after the second one, it is a mandatory lifetime grounding.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2006-11-27 13:20|| 2006-11-27 13:20|| Front Page Top

#4 pilots can lose up to 4" of height from spinal compression

wTF, 10 cm!!! I had no idea it is so traumatic.
Anyway, I sure hope the pilot managed to eject, regardless.

Posted by anonymous5089 2006-11-27 13:28|| 2006-11-27 13:28|| Front Page Top

#5 Good thing I'm not a pilot, then. My family delights to mention that anything below 5'0" is considered a midget in California -- handicapped status and everything -- but a further 4" would place me on the list throughout the country. ;-)

Posted by trailing wife 2006-11-27 14:09|| 2006-11-27 14:09|| Front Page Top

#6 We were given orientation rides in T-33 trainers when I was a cadet at the AF Academy in 1964. We had to go through an ejection seat simulator that was spring-loaded. That was easy. Later, in Vietnam, I flew a couple of times in the back seat of RF-4s. Before that, I had to go through the explosive ejection simulator. That was ROUGH! Bailing out is the next-to-last thing a pilot wants to do. The last thing is riding one of those steel lawn darts into the ground. In this case, it sounds like the fly-by-wire system was damaged, and the plane became difficult to control (flying up and down erratically). I hope he bailed out...

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2006-11-27 15:58|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2006-11-27 15:58|| Front Page Top

#7 I hope he bailed out...

Just outa curiosity, is a manual bailout ever still possible?

Posted by Shipman 2006-11-27 16:20|| 2006-11-27 16:20|| Front Page Top

#8 OP,
'Lawn Dart' is grimly accurate in this case; that's a nickname for the F-16. The -16 had a bad rep early in its career for a series of accidents that involved a main electrical system failure followed by an immediate crash, all of which were fatal. It took a very brave test pilot at Edwards to recreate the system failure (at high altitude, all of the accidents were at low) and figure out the remedy. IIRC, the original programming for the FBW had the control surfaces automatically lock in place when they lost power - the on-board APU was supposed to start up fast enough on detecting a power failure that it shouldn't have been a problem, but they discovered that the APU was taking up to 3-5 seconds to fully spool up and reactivate the FBW system - and when you're zipping along at 500 KIAS only a couple hundred feet above the ground, having your control surfaces lock solid is a guarantee that you're going to hit the ground. Having said that, it's unlikely the FBW system is at fault here, though it can never be ruled out.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2006-11-27 16:55|| 2006-11-27 16:55|| Front Page Top

#9 Ship-
It's theoretically possible, but the last JET manual bailout I know of took place in the early 60s with an F-8 Crusader. I'd think that given the design of modern jets, it would be just about impossible.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2006-11-27 16:58|| 2006-11-27 16:58|| Front Page Top

#10 FREEREPUBLIC/WN.com/FOX [Guam time] are reporting that Islamist groups claim it was shot down but their claims have NOT yet been offio verified. No final status either on the pilot.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2006-11-27 21:50|| 2006-11-27 21:50|| Front Page Top

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