Milt,
I read a story a while ago about some Russian blurk who held the record for both the highest and fastest ejection. Memory serves me very poorly but I believe the story was thus: Foxbat at M2.6 and 62,000 feet with a mechanical disintegration of one engine. Subsequent yaw produced roll-yaw coupling and the airframe began to tumble and disintegrate. Said Russkie, fortunately clad in space suit punches out successfully and remarks that he spent over 10 minutes in the seat while the seat descended on its drogue 'chute before auto-separation occurred!
What a ride.
Feel free to correct my recollections, anybody who knows the story better.
Jimgriff,
When I used to fly the SHAR we did a simple calculation to see how much time you had before your seat was out of limits following a total thrust loss in a 75 ft hover. From detecting the problem, recognising its severity, deciding to eject and getting the handle pulled to its extremity you had 1.1 seconds.