Wimps need not apply

[chinook240]

I don't know many 136lb pilots, with or without AEA.

Flyers ?too light? for jets: RAF pilots have to fatten up for new fighter aircraft | UK | News | Daily Express (http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/635344/Flyers-jets-RAF-pilots-fatten-up-fighter-aircraft)

[Pontius Navigator]

Nothing new Miss PN was too light for parachutes 15 years ago.

Had one Nav students had to st on a booster cushion in the Dom.

[Stitchbitch]

I'd imagine given the weight of the helmet that everyone would be within limits... ;)

[newt]

Well I remember when it was very different! Went for my annual medical at Bruggen. Very fit squadron leader doctor who played rugby for RAFG! Told me my BMI was bad and I needed to stop drinking and go on a diet or he would have to recommend grounding my arse!!!

I thought about this for a second and said "OK Doc but if you want to see how fit I really am, come down to the Squadron tomorrow and come flying with me!" He agreed and next day I strapped him in the back of the T2 and took him flying for an hour! Low level and a range detail at Nordhorn then a couple of tight circuits! Had to pull him out of the back seat and he was very unsteady on his feet!!

So much for being over the BMI limit!

I told him I had to do that two more times that day and I would see him in the bar at five! Never got the beer but better still, never heard another word about bloody Body Mass Index!!!:ok::ok::E:E

Sorry guys its a bit off thread but I could not resist it!

[kintyred]

What's a picture of the right sleeve of a Stumbly pilot doing in the article? Perhaps because Puma pilots are lightweights?!:E

[BEagle]

Hi newt! The BMI bolleaux affected one of my UAS students who was applying to join the RAF as a pilot. She was quite a fit (in the true meaning of the word...actually in both meanings) young lady but fractionally over some arbitrary quack's limit. So she trained harder and was soon 'in limits' - then came Kate Saunders' Harrier T4A accident and 'they' realised that bang seat limits weren't sufficient for some of the ladies, so my student, having trimmed herself down to meet the BMI bolleaux and been accepted for pilot training, was promptly told to put on weight as she was now below the Tucano seat limit....:rolleyes:

It's always been a love/hate relationship between aircrew and the nut-grabbers. I recall one annual medical the day after the Med Centre's Christmas party and it was obvious that the quack doing my medical was suffering from a humungous hang over; sweating like a rock ape at a spelling test and shaking like a leaf in a gale. So when it came to the "How much do you drink?" question, I replied "A b£oody sight less than you did last night, I would say, so just put down whatever the latest aircrew lie is!"

[Fareastdriver]

When we were at FTS on Provost T1s one of our Malaysian students was 'Danny' Doong, a five foot nothing ethnic Chinese. He looked normal holding a half-pint of beer. He had to have an extra seat cushion to be able to look over the engine and the rudder pedals he could only just reach. I last flew with him in a Herald in Borneo.

I, as a 140lb youth in flying kit, would strap myself into a Mk 3 MB seat. This would leave the end of a eight foot three stage gun at 80ft./sec with a 170lb pilot on it. I was going to go out considerably faster so I was advised to REALLY tighten my lap straps up. A habit which continued during all my time on helicopters.

[sycamore]

F E D,especially for low-level d/wind EOLS...!

[Pontius Navigator]

As at 140lb man is not unusual then that should not be a problem. In Miss PN's case, as a young, fit female she grossed at just 103lb and lead weights was not an option.

Now is there an upper weight limit? We had an AEO that grossed at over 300lb in his socks (a sight you would wish not to see) and that would have been a challenge for bang seat, parachute or dinghy.

[charliegolf]

A habit which continued during all my time on helicopters.

Including Belverdere startups FED?:E

CG

I was 133 lbs when I joined up in 1979! 165 now...

[VX275]

IIRC several years ago one of the ETPS foreign students (Singapore / Korea I forget) was under weight for the bang seat. A proposed solution was lead sheet sewn into their flying suit.

[ExAscoteer]

chinook240 please explain to me how being under 136lbs makes someone a 'wimp'?

[sittingstress]

I recall one annual medical the day after the Med Centre's Christmas party and it was obvious that the quack doing my medical was suffering from a humungous hang over; sweating like a rock ape at a spelling test and shaking like a leaf in a gale.

I pacifically object to such an outrageous statement.

[PersonFromPorlock]

I seem to be missing something: why not just put 'saddlebags' on the seat and add handicapping weights? Works with horses!

[charliegolf]

I pacifically object to such an outrageous statement.

And I Atlantically object to it too!

CG

[sittingstress]

And I Atlantically object to it too!

CG

My my that didn't take long to get a nibble did it? ;)

[charliegolf]

Much too tasty to pass up!:ok:

CG

[Bill Macgillivray]

PN,

I think I know who you mean, he was large but generally cheerful (and I did see him once in swim trunks) - not a pretty sight!!

Bill.

[tartare]

...that's 61 kilos by my reckoning - a very light and slight Knucklehead.
Although size is no predictor of gimlet eyed ability to kill :E

[MAINJAFAD]

Now is there an upper weight limit?

Yes there is, I can't remember what it was for the MB Mk 10 that strapped to my backside on the only occasion that I ever flew in a fast jet, but what I do know is that I was only just under the maximum weight and leg measurement limits by a couple of ounces for the former and a couple of millimeters for the later. The primary reason for the weight limits on the older MB seats is to do with the pitch control unit that sets the angle of the rocket motor under the seat so that its thrust angle goes through the centro of gravity of the seat and its occupant. Minimum weight also has an effect of the operation of the parachute, apparently.

[Pontius Navigator]

BM, got him in one. One Christmas he went on a sponsored swim, lost 42 lbs and took us for a lot of dish.

Same time he got me to buy a big tin of Quality Street just for him.

[Pontius Navigator]

chinook240 please explain to me how being under 136lbs makes someone a 'wimp'?

It is from the 50s, don't you remember the Charles Atlas ads for Bull Worker IIRC, the wimp having sand kicked in his face?

[langleybaston]

I was the wimp model ................

those were the days.

[airpolice]

Dear Charles, I have completed the course, please send muscles asap.


Valley, 1974, and the squiffers are having fun trying to strap me into the Folland seat. I was so scrawny (then) that we couldn't get the shoulder straps tight enough to restrain me.

Eventually we had success with a flying suit over a wooly pooly, and then the immersion suit over the top of that lot. Sweating like a rapist, and approaching twice my usual weight, I had to be helped out the steps to get in (and out of) the seat after each trip.

Nowadays I have an issue with the PA28 straps not being long enough to go all the way round me while the seat is forward enough for me to reach the rudder pedals.

Funny old world right enough.