Ejection seats
Thread Starter
Ejection seats
Greetings and Happy new year to one and all!
I am the happy(proud) owner of
www.ejectorseats.co.uk
and would like to ask for the following:
Any ejection seat related stories (non ejection stories also)
Seat anecdotes (any ex bombheads or ragpackers out there?)
seat rumours.
photos etc
Did you do 10hr sorties strapped to a Mk 3 in a Vulcan or Victor? What was it like?
Was the underwater ejection system totally removed from early Buccs?
Has anyone ever landed and found the pins still in place?
What training did you do prior to a new type of seat been flown?
Anyone ever seen an actual ejection? describe please?
In fact any e seat related stuff whatsoever PLEASE!
ID will be kept secret if required and this is just for adding to the website for a new year update.
many thanks in anticipation
I am the happy(proud) owner of
www.ejectorseats.co.uk
and would like to ask for the following:
Any ejection seat related stories (non ejection stories also)
Seat anecdotes (any ex bombheads or ragpackers out there?)
seat rumours.
photos etc
Did you do 10hr sorties strapped to a Mk 3 in a Vulcan or Victor? What was it like?
Was the underwater ejection system totally removed from early Buccs?
Has anyone ever landed and found the pins still in place?
What training did you do prior to a new type of seat been flown?
Anyone ever seen an actual ejection? describe please?
In fact any e seat related stuff whatsoever PLEASE!
ID will be kept secret if required and this is just for adding to the website for a new year update.
many thanks in anticipation
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Sub 1000 ejectee from a Mk 4 seat at low level - a little shorter for the experience! Enjoyed the 1000 dinner at the Dorchester in about 1966? Spent about 11 hours strapped in - Marham to Travis with a big refuel over Goose - copilot decided that he wanted a pee but having stood up and made the necessary dress arrangements, couldnt do it after all and waited until we landed, 5 hours later! Always had a piss on the grass at the last minute and never used the p-tube ever!
We had a Nav/Plotter who was so far behind the rest of the crew on a basic Wildenrath - Scampton transit that he hadn't had time for a pre-flight pee. So at top of climb, he duly unstrapped, unzipped and took aim. I waited until the AEO tipped me off that he'd reached the point of no return, then clicked the autopilot out and gently pushed...... He, the pee tube and its intended contents rose gracefully off the floor and he began to scrabble frantically to avoid dousing the AEO, Nav Radar and Crew Chief.....
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Thanks Beagle - You may just know the answer to another quandry from very many years ago. In the hangar at Scampton was a Vulcan up on jacks with what looked like grass stains on the extreme leading edge/underside of the port wing tip. A simple question as to what it was was met with silence. Often wondered.
Never heard of that before! It sounds as though someone was very, very lucky...
I doubt whether it would have been a take-off or landing incident - some very low flying, perhaps?
Mind you I did hear tell that tyre marks were once found on the VASI boxes at Scampton after a Vulcan had gone around in very poor weather.
Back to 'bang seats', there was once a thing called the 'short rig' or somesuch. We visited Finningley (long before it became a navigator farm) and the Vulcan OCU gave us a demo. One of our number was strapped into the short rig bang seat and the pins removed. The instructor told him to pull the handle, the next thing was a bang from a .22 blank to simulate the canopy firing. Then the sequence continued - it ended with the seat shooting about a foot up the short ramp to which it was attached under the effect of compressed air! The look on the victim's face was one of total shock - I'm sure he thought that he was about to go through the ceiling!
The sheepskin seat covers and more particularly the arm rests made the Vulcan seat far more comfortable on long flights than the JP or Hunter T7 seats of similar design - and infinitely more so thatn that bondage-fetishists delight, the Mk 2 or Mk 3 fitted to the single seat Hunter! Rocket seats were even better, because they didn't need such a firm, non-compressive seat cushion as the earlier 'gunpowder' seats. The Hawk seat was a truly excellent and very comfortable design, compared to earlier seats. But the simple safety lever in the Folland seat fitted to the Gnat was much safer than all those wretched pins in early MB seats!
Fortunately I never had the cause to need a MB (or Folland) let-down!
I doubt whether it would have been a take-off or landing incident - some very low flying, perhaps?
Mind you I did hear tell that tyre marks were once found on the VASI boxes at Scampton after a Vulcan had gone around in very poor weather.
Back to 'bang seats', there was once a thing called the 'short rig' or somesuch. We visited Finningley (long before it became a navigator farm) and the Vulcan OCU gave us a demo. One of our number was strapped into the short rig bang seat and the pins removed. The instructor told him to pull the handle, the next thing was a bang from a .22 blank to simulate the canopy firing. Then the sequence continued - it ended with the seat shooting about a foot up the short ramp to which it was attached under the effect of compressed air! The look on the victim's face was one of total shock - I'm sure he thought that he was about to go through the ceiling!
The sheepskin seat covers and more particularly the arm rests made the Vulcan seat far more comfortable on long flights than the JP or Hunter T7 seats of similar design - and infinitely more so thatn that bondage-fetishists delight, the Mk 2 or Mk 3 fitted to the single seat Hunter! Rocket seats were even better, because they didn't need such a firm, non-compressive seat cushion as the earlier 'gunpowder' seats. The Hawk seat was a truly excellent and very comfortable design, compared to earlier seats. But the simple safety lever in the Folland seat fitted to the Gnat was much safer than all those wretched pins in early MB seats!
Fortunately I never had the cause to need a MB (or Folland) let-down!
Thread Starter
Many thanks for the responses so far.
I'm sure that there must be some stories out there!! Keep 'em coming please .
Thanks Damienb..please check your PM's.
I understand that the mobile training rig was in use until quite recently.
I'm sure that there must be some stories out there!! Keep 'em coming please .
Thanks Damienb..please check your PM's.
I understand that the mobile training rig was in use until quite recently.
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Working Hard
I know of at least one Vulcan which had its port wingtip in the grass. This followed a very heavy arrival at Coningsby where bits of the landing gear parted company following which the aircraft became airborne again and was recovered in markedly second-hand condition I think to Waddington
I know of at least one Vulcan which had its port wingtip in the grass. This followed a very heavy arrival at Coningsby where bits of the landing gear parted company following which the aircraft became airborne again and was recovered in markedly second-hand condition I think to Waddington
I was a student demonstrator of the moble rig at Finningley at Air Shows in the 70s. If I remember correctly it went about 6 to 8 ft up. Must remember to mention that at my pre release medical (just in case I start to suffer back problems)
The rig I was referring to was much smaller - only about 18" or so of vertical movement. It ran off compressed air (or was it nitrogen?) - not the infamous travelling back injury machine!
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That rig was still being used at Luffenham until at least the early 80s.
I know of one guy who knackered his neck prior to Linton to such an extent he lost his flying cat and had to become a ginger beer.
I had a minor neck ache after using the rig but "ignored" it. Years later when I actually did bang-out the docs were most intriqued looking at my X-rays at what appeared to be an old, albeit minor, compression fracture to one of my neck vertibrae. Could not have come from anywhere else.
Be quite neat if MB listed all the bang seat records (dates, ac, names, etc) on their web site. Or maybe that's a job for you Jim G!
I know of one guy who knackered his neck prior to Linton to such an extent he lost his flying cat and had to become a ginger beer.
I had a minor neck ache after using the rig but "ignored" it. Years later when I actually did bang-out the docs were most intriqued looking at my X-rays at what appeared to be an old, albeit minor, compression fracture to one of my neck vertibrae. Could not have come from anywhere else.
Be quite neat if MB listed all the bang seat records (dates, ac, names, etc) on their web site. Or maybe that's a job for you Jim G!
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In a recent conflict I had the misfortune, along with many others, to have been strapped to one of our newer seats for up to 8 hours every other day. As a tall chap it abso-chuffing-lutely killed my arse bones! Cycling shorts just didn't seem to do the trick! How guys coped when all this was just fields I don't know.
JimGriff, the Lowestoft Harrier crash is probably the best documented recent ejection...loads of angles, I guess it's available online. [Edit: just seen your website, you've already got it!] Haven't seen the Thunderbirds crash though.
What's the endurance of a Canberra? Don't envy them much.
Back to peeing, how do guys do it when in a goon suit? Beats the hell out of me unless you've got a high pressure extended model.
JimGriff, the Lowestoft Harrier crash is probably the best documented recent ejection...loads of angles, I guess it's available online. [Edit: just seen your website, you've already got it!] Haven't seen the Thunderbirds crash though.
What's the endurance of a Canberra? Don't envy them much.
Back to peeing, how do guys do it when in a goon suit? Beats the hell out of me unless you've got a high pressure extended model.
Last edited by Feck; 4th Jan 2004 at 23:04.
Per Ardua ad Astraeus
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Back to peeing, how do guys do it when in a goon suit? Beats the hell out of me unless you've got a high pressure extended model.
- hi Eric if you are still around). Most of us baulked at unrolling the pee-tube on the suit which was just behind a live ejection seat bottom handle, especially over a cold North sea at night! I mean - who would want to punch out with it waving in the wind................. The 'other' option was quite comforting for about 2-3 minutes....................
I will never forgive the Victor tanker crew who called me alongside after 5 hrs airborne from a midnight scramble to wave full bottles of orange juice at me
BTW - what reserve should I put on Ebay for one used MB seat (with 'provenance - ie it was mine!)? Only joking - it means too much to me.
Thread Starter
The "Martin Baker Patented Ejection Seat Trainer" was a 49' tower with seat attatched which was towed by a "Standard Bedford or Crossley 4 wheeled Tractor Unit".
It had a vertical height of 47' with a 20 degree angle of dangle.
According to the manual I have in front of me it used a "standard primary ejection gun cartridge" which gave a "stroke of at least 41 inches" .
That would give you a pretty firm kick in the pants!
I remember seeing one at Lynton in the early 80's and was told that it was in regular use for ab initio FJ pilot (read JP) pilot training.
I would love to hear from those of you who have "banged out" even if you do not think you have a tale to tell.
I have the records for the first 300 ejections and am slowly compiling the rest. I greives me to say it but MB are quite silent when you ask for details on most things. But hey! Cant complain, they do help in other ways and I like to think that the website is looked upon with interest by them.
It had a vertical height of 47' with a 20 degree angle of dangle.
According to the manual I have in front of me it used a "standard primary ejection gun cartridge" which gave a "stroke of at least 41 inches" .
That would give you a pretty firm kick in the pants!
I remember seeing one at Lynton in the early 80's and was told that it was in regular use for ab initio FJ pilot (read JP) pilot training.
I would love to hear from those of you who have "banged out" even if you do not think you have a tale to tell.
I have the records for the first 300 ejections and am slowly compiling the rest. I greives me to say it but MB are quite silent when you ask for details on most things. But hey! Cant complain, they do help in other ways and I like to think that the website is looked upon with interest by them.
Last edited by jimgriff; 5th Jan 2004 at 00:30.
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I had the "pleasure" of using the Ejection Seat Trainer whilst doing Av Med at North Luffenham prior to my JP course in mid 85. Although there was a real good kick in the pants, the scariest part was swaying in the breeze 30' up the rail before they wound the seat back down.
Thread Starter
Chris Kebab.......
Care to e mail me with yours ejection story?
See you do not allow PM so my e mail is
[email protected]
Many thanks
Jim
Care to e mail me with yours ejection story?
See you do not allow PM so my e mail is
[email protected]
Many thanks
Jim
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Canberra T17, RAF Wyton, 2 Hangar, Canberra Servicing Flight
I was present in 1982 (poss 1983) when a young armourer got muddled up on a seat removal and fired the thing. It gave him a glancing blow, breaking his arm and jaw on the way through the canopy, hitting the main girder in the hangar roof (Or it would have gone through the roof) I kept a bit of the smashed canopy and its still in my shed.
Loudest noise I've heard in my life - I thought the Russians were coming.
Cue more stories about accidental seat firings....
I was present in 1982 (poss 1983) when a young armourer got muddled up on a seat removal and fired the thing. It gave him a glancing blow, breaking his arm and jaw on the way through the canopy, hitting the main girder in the hangar roof (Or it would have gone through the roof) I kept a bit of the smashed canopy and its still in my shed.
Loudest noise I've heard in my life - I thought the Russians were coming.
Cue more stories about accidental seat firings....
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Wasn't somebody killed and a number of bystanders injured in Singapore last year,when the Ejector Seat in a F16 was accidently fired inside a hangar, I think it was a F16.