Originally Posted by
the_stranger
The cockpit seats on some Fokker 50s made a sort of bang sound when the adjustment lever was used. Can't 'member a mask attached.
Maybe more of a crunch or creak though, it has been a while ago...
I can't really remember much of a 'bang' from the Fokker 50's seat, but you could get one from the J41's seat if you pulled the handle to adjust the height without holding your weight with you feet ant legs: the 'bang' was when your seat hit the floor! It was a great one to use on unsuspecting FO's in the middle of their PA -- reach across and pull his/her seat's height adjusting handle and they would drop to the floor with a startled 'bang'! One of the older and wiser FOs that I flew with would always position the metal-clad tech log next to his seat so that if I tried that I would probably have my fingers chopped off!! (Sadly he won't be able to read this but John was great to fly with!)
Another similar story about a 'bang' to the floor, in an aeroplane with masks and all. Someone that I knew (let's call him Ian) who once flew Vampires (the ones with no ejection seats, just the old 'sit on' parachute). He was leading a pair on a 'run and break' on their return to the airfield. He pulled really hard on the 'break'. The pins holding his seat-height in place sheared, with his seat dropping down its runners to the floor with a 'bang' and the extra jolt causing him temporarily to black out. he came to going skywards sitting on the floor, so he levelled off on instruments. His wing-man was startled at his 'trajectory' and called to ATC that he was going to catch up and find out what was going on. As his wing-man caught up Ian head his memorable call to ATC "There's no-one inside!"!! Ian then grabbed the bottom on the canopy to pull himself up and peer over the edge to see his wing-man, to be told later that is was a most memorable "Kilroy was here" fingers with a helmeted and masked face that appeared looking 'over the wall' out of the aeroplane!! (The recovery landing was apparently done with the wing-man 'talking him down' to short final where he 'stood' up and did a rudderless landing...)
Apologies for going off topic, but these stories need to be told...
DrJones, I don't think that many of your 'solutions' are likely ever to happen, but I do agree with you forecast of outcomes. Your first sentence says it all. Hence the need for pilots to work together to ensure that as many of them stay in employment as long as possible (in more ways that one), regardless of what income might be for the next while, to ensure that as many as possible are still able to benefit from any pick-up once this problem is over.
(I also think that your 'market forces' will do away with a lot of the expensive 'get a licence quick' and pay for type-ratings concepts: who would want to plan to go into this industry with any huge debt when it has now been clearly shown that everything could go over a cliff-edge in a matter of weeks.)
guy, I'm not quite so doom-and-gloom about the need for a vaccine. The Deputy Chief Medical Officer recently pointed out that the world is living with, and managing, many deadly diseases (she quoted that only smallpox has been eradicated, all the others are still out there). Not everything has come to a grinding halt because of them. Some genuine management of this one at source could have avoided us all needing such dramatic management of it now. But we will get there, vaccine or not.