"I'VE LOST MY RIO" by Lt. Geoff Vickers

[GreenKnight121]

http://www.idahoexaminer.com/columns...ve-lost-my-rio (http://www.idahoexaminer.com/columns/9419/ive-lost-my-rio)

Description: "Here's the story by F-14D pilot Lt. Geoff Vickers on how he lost his rear passenger during a familiarization flight on board Tomcat BuNo. 164341 over Nevada in 2002.

The rear-seater was the captain of a cruiser in charge of the battlegroup air defenses and Vickers job that day was to demonstrate Tomcat's performance and tactical capabilities."

Morale of the story: "Warn the captain where his hands can and cannot be..."

[KiloB]

What about a list of people you would like to bang out the back on a Fam Flight?

[sitigeltfel]

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee201/sitigeltfel/Standardbrief.jpg

(Yes, I know I have placed this on another thread)

[effortless]

I said to myself, “This is new. I’ve never even heard of something like this happening.”:D:D:D


More glue vicar?

[Satellite_Driver]

Back before I escaped from ADGE to Satcom, I remember the Fighter Controllers recounting how one of their brethren had done something similar from the back of a Hawk during the mid-80s. The analysis wasn't as forgiving as the one in this article!

[beardy]

That'll have been Wedge.

[trap one]

Wedge AKA Bang Bang

[mr fish]

still the best looking aircraft from the 60s-70s,(with or without GIB); by the way, what happened to the phoenix missiles???

[sitigeltfel]

Any update on Tornado F3 ZE962 which went into the North Sea shortly after taking off from Leuchars on 14-10-05? Stories doing the rounds at the time put the cause down to the non-aircrew back seater getting the jitters!

[sunshine band]

Any update on Tornado F3 ZE962 which went into the North Sea shortly after taking off from Leuchars on 14-10-05?

Check out the accident report- available in all good crewrooms or from your SFSO!

SB

[sitigeltfel]

Check out the accident report- available in all good crewrooms or from your SFSO!

SB

Ah, there lies the rub! No longer serving but knows some who does.

[FlightTester]

I seem to remember a Phantom Nav having a similar experience during the late 80's in Germany during some DACT with a Canberra. Pilot then went on to give Bruggen and Wildenrath a celebratory fly-by.

Classic quote from a mate on the ground at the time "What's that big pole sticking up from behind the cockpit then"? :O

[Black 'n Yellar]

There is a good story in the book 'Fly Navy' from the era of Phantoms. There was a fairly new pilot flying with a crusty old observer in the trunk on a night sortie. As they were coming into land and dropped the flaps there was some kind of huge c of g problem, or something of the like, which caused a massive nose down pitch. The pilot could not control it so called for ejection, the observer wasting no time in getting out. However, the act of the observer ejecting solved the forementioned problem and the pilot was able to regain control and land safely. The observer in the meantime landed in some old dear's garden and was none too pleased!! Lots of other good dits in the book and I recommend it as a good read.:ok:

[TEEEJ]

Mr Fish wrote

still the best looking aircraft from the 60s-70s,(with or without GIB); by the way, what happened to the phoenix missiles???

The Phoenix went out of service with the U.S. Navy during September 2004. You'll still see them on Iranian F-14s now and again on exercise footage.

TJ

[Dan D'air]

You may mock, but will see you all at the next Caterpillar booze-up!!!!

[Farrell]

Back before I escaped from ADGE to Satcom, I remember the Fighter Controllers recounting how one of their brethren had done something similar from the back of a Hawk during the mid-80s. The analysis wasn't as forgiving as the one in this article!

Funny you should mention that......last night, I was told a similar story by a Sq Ldr about a fighter controller grabbing the handle who swears blind that he never touched anything. Wonder if it's the same guy.

Also told a story about a Middle Eastern visitor who banged out, got a taxi home and sat reading a paper in the mess saying "Me? No. I haven't been flying today....and no, that's not my signature."

[5 Forward 6 Back]

I've heard that one about the Middle Eastern chap from a BFT QFI. Apparently it was a JP student somewhere when various nations were trained at Linton/Fenton/Cranwell. I can't remember if it was meant to be at the start or the end of a sortie, but he was found in the ante room denying all knowledge.

[taxydual]

It was at Linton way back. The solo stude ran off the end of the runway. When the crash crews arrived, there was no sign of the stude. A search was organised and he was found in the crew room reading a newspaper (that was upside down). He denied all knowledge of being in an aircraft at all that day!!!

[Green Flash]

Slight thread drift but that reminds me of a story of a foriegn stude who landed his JP at Dishforth but then pulled the wheels up. Once it had stopped (on the runway) he calmly got out, to see people running towards the wreck. Thinking he was about to undergo some close quarter interview techniques he legged it the other way, straight across the A1 without being hit and was halfway to Ripon before some racing snake eventually caught the terrified bloke.

[flown-it]

Stories abound re ME students at Linton. "Allah has control" during aerobatics springs to mind. Also the gent doing PFOs in a Vampire was taking an age to rotate and eventually didn't! Investigation revealed that he had actually been shutting down said donk!! :ugh:

[charliegolf]

Did I dream this, or did a Vixen Obbo get half ejected during the enforcement of the Rhodesian sanctions? If true, what was the outcome (my dream must have run out of tape!) The Beira Run, was it?

CG

[greywings]

This was a hideous accident and certainly not one to be flippant about.

I was onboard at the time and the accident shook us all, especially as the observer was a splendid character, well-liked by all.

The aircraft had a problem that developed to the extent that the crew had to leave it. The Vixen seat / hatch combination had given problems before, and this time it resulted in the observer being stuck half-in / half-out of the aircraft as he struggled to manually bale out. Unfortunately, he did not make it, and his pilot left it incredibly late to eject, though he, fortunately, survived.

I have left out further details, including the names of the crew out of respect for the observer.

GW

[charliegolf]

not flippant, I assure you- I recall the incident dimly from an age of about 10, so had no idea of the outcome. I was expecting a happier tale. No offence meant.

CG

[greywings]

None taken, and sorry if I appeared testy. However, after all this time it still ranks as one of the saddest accidents I have been close to.

GW

[MAINJAFAD]

Back before I escaped from ADGE to Satcom, I remember the Fighter Controllers recounting how one of their brethren had done something similar from the back of a Hawk during the mid-80s. The analysis wasn't as forgiving as the one in this article!
Heard the story while at a now closed unit not far from a Hawk MOB, when back seat rides were offered. I said to the guy organising the jolly’s, any chance of getting on a ride during a Mirror Image ACM sortie. The reply, No because they don’t take passengers on any ACM sorties, after a Fighter Controller called Wedge had banged out of a Hawk on one.
Funny you should mention that......last night, I was told a similar story by a Sq Ldr about a fighter controller grabbing the handle who swears blind that he never touched anything. Wonder if it's the same guy.
It is, though what is probably a myth was the part of the story that I was told at the time, which had the maker of the bang seat putting a large reward up for the recovery of the seat, to prove that he had pulled the handle (the incident happened over the sea).

[4mastacker]

Back before I escaped from ADGE to Satcom, I remember the Fighter Controllers recounting how one of their brethren had done something similar from the back of a Hawk during the mid-80s. The analysis wasn't as forgiving as the one in this article!


ISTR a similar case during the 80s involving a similar red-coloured aeroplane and a member of the ground crew. The incident resulted, amongst other things, in the RAF getting a rather large bill from the Southern Scottish Electricity Generating Board for damage to some cables and pylons. OC Supply tasked me with raising the subsequent F34(write-off) for presentation to the CinC because the amount involved, plus the cost of 1 x ejection seat, exceeded everyone's powers except that of 'god'.

[Gainesy]

Ah yes, as the MoD PR man touted it at the time, the pilot "dropped his map and inadvertently lost height while trying to retrieve it".:)

Anybody know the break-out force for the seat firing handle? ISTR 40lb or 60lb?

[Wwyvern]

The story of a ME gentleman and an unexplained empty cockpit in an aircraft at the end of the runway was told at the Hunter OCU in 1960.

[Capt Pit Bull]

I have a recollection of an Intruder that had a seat malfunction and half ejected the Nav (or WSO or whatever they call them). Fired the drogue throught the canopy whicheh pulled the seat part way up the rail or similar, leaving the poor bloke stuck out in the airflow :(

(edit: heres a link, ain't google a wonderful thing. (http://www.gallagher.com/ejection_seat/#intro)

Along the lines of Black and Yellars F4 story, I also seem to recall, not an ejection but an abandonemnt, during the days of the Bulldogs nasty string of spinning incidents / accidents. IIRC the aircraft would not recover, QFI called for abandonment, but as the canopy and the stude parted company the spin characteristics changed allowing the QFI to recover it. Or something like that.

pb

[The Adjutant]

Once upon a time there was a fighter controller who managed to get a ride in a hawk during an 11 group AD exercise in the mid 1980's. (Please note this is a fictional tale. Any similarity with subjects and names mentioned above is purely coincidental). The controller wore thick glasses, so although he liked to think he could be a jet jocky one day, he had no chance. Anyway, the mission called for 2 x hawk to run a race track just off the coast and "hack" anything that flew through their area. At the end of the race track the 2 x hawks executed a cross over turn. (For the uninitiated, both turn towards each other to protect the "6 o clock of their mate) one goes high and the other low. Perfectly safe. In this case, our hero was calling out the range of the other hawk, and (so said the pilot afterwards) was underestimating the range by a factor of 10. Anyway suddenly the voice of the passenger went up by a couple of octaves and there was a loud bang and considerable buffet. The passenger had departed thinking there was about to be a collision. He was seen on a fully deployed parachute, and a may day was put out. In due course a S&R helicopter arrived and collected our hero, by now sitting in his little rubber raft.
Later in hospital, the tric-cyclist (well can you spell it!!!) said that although our hero claimed that "it just went off gov - honest" he had pulled the handle. His reasons were that normally, if a car passenger is involved in a crash, he has 2 or 3 seconds blacked out because he was not concentrating and things happend so fast. The driver however, often sees the same crash in slow motion because he can see it comeing, and is in adrenalin overload. Our hero could describe the whole thing in great detail (therefore knew what was happening) and the clincher was that he caught his pebble glasses in his hands as the seat accelerated up the rails and gravity pulled them off his face. As the hawk mk 10 seat only had one handle, and that between his legs, that is where his hands were and how he caught his glasses. However, as the seat was in the sea, this was only a guess. The navy sent a minesweeper for about a week, but the seat was not found. In the mean time, all the hawks and tornados were grounded as they all used the same seat, and it was just faintly possible that the seat did go off by itself (yer right)
Later our hero wrote an article in the in house fighter control newspaper and that upset just about anybody who had anything to do with the incident. I understand that our hero may have achieved a fairly senior rank in later years, but as I said, this is a fairy story, and I am making it all up.

[Maple 01]

If its any consolation I think I might have dribbled gravy (steady) on said legendry FC on a dining-in night on a mountain in the Falklands – I was very, very drunk and shouldn’t have been serving…..

[Dan D'air]

Wasn't there a GR1 mate circa 1970 who rapidly left the office after an engine failure, only to watch as it spooled up again and disappeared towards Denmark as he floated ponderously to earth?

[Gainesy]

Yep, Peter Squire, I read somewhere that as he was dangling in the 'chute, watching the jet becoming a dot towards Denmark he thought "Oh F***, now what do I tell the BoI".:uhoh::)

Didn't stop him going on to great er.. greatness.