Originally Posted by
MPN11
I was wondering how you could achieve that. Strapped in tight, and fumbling behind ones head/helmet to insert a pin in an invisible hole seems almost impossible ... with the added risk of accidentally pulling that handle in the process! Or does the seat-pan pin isolate the face-screen operation?
No, the seat-pan handle wouldn't isolate the face-screen handle. But in the JP you could see across to the top of the other seat - in fact the same procedure was used in the Canberra T4.
In the PR9 (Mk 3 0ft 70kts seat) the ground-crew removed the top pin once you’d strapped in; after landing, you could reach up and over to put your own pin in! It sounds somewhat hazardous, but in reality you need a hell of a pull to initiate the seat firing, furthermore, if you used the face-screen handle, you had to pull it all the way down over your face. Surprisingly easy to fit the top pin after landing, although not if you had short arms - we didn't even stop taxiing. 😳