When I first started working on Ej Seats in the 70's they were serviced in the bay every 6 months beit every 'other' check was mainly a visual with complete stripdown and instrument testing done on an annual basis. However on the 'visual service' we did find frayed straps and the occasional damage caused by the many people getting in and out of the cockpit. When it was deemed in the 80's that Seats only needed to go into the bay every 12 months it certainly increased phonecalls to the bay and subsequent visits out to the sqns to do ad-hoc work. The next step was to change bay servicing to every 2 years, cannot comment on that because by then I was driving a desk. I am now told (not varified) that some ej seat bays have closed completely and ejection seats are crated and sent back to a central location every 5 years for servicing?
This must be one hell of a cost saving over the years.................. but do you do cost/risk management on what some folks on this thread call the 'last resort'.