Originally Posted by
Less Hair
Do they need a prior permit to eject?
I know for a fact that during the Cold War some eastern air force pilots did need one....
Sounds very much like an urban legend. A very close friend of mine trained to be a Mig-21 pilot in the Hungarian AF in the late seventies (spent two years at the type school in Krasnoyarsk, was dismissed with a medical a few weeks before graduation), they were drilled to eject at the first sign of engine failure (an unpowered -21 has the aerodynamics of a handle-less axe head...) and never attempt to get it on ground.