BANG! And passenger was gone
BANG! And passenger was gone
The civilian passenger was expecting the ride of a lifetime when he strapped himself into the back seat of a South African Air Force Silver Falcons aircraft.....
BANG! And passenger was gone - Times LIVE
BANG! And passenger was gone - Times LIVE
.....and he wasn't dissappointed!!
I guess he'll also get a tie as a momento, which I'd imagine he wasn't expecting
I guess he'll also get a tie as a momento, which I'd imagine he wasn't expecting
Yes, Him
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Well, he/she isn't the first by a long chalk and I doubt they'll be the last.
Just wondering how the tie will be knotted and if it'll be thrown over a handy branch first?
Just wondering how the tie will be knotted and if it'll be thrown over a handy branch first?
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Sgt S,
Don't you mean 'BOTH'? When flying a Pax, the CE Lever was always set to REAR so that the pilot could still land what was left of the jet, in case something similar happened.
Don't you mean 'BOTH'? When flying a Pax, the CE Lever was always set to REAR so that the pilot could still land what was left of the jet, in case something similar happened.
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Thanks 60024, perhaps I should have written: It's a good job the Command Eject Lever was set such that an inadvertant initiation of an ejection sequence by a pax in the rear seat did not also eject the occupant of the front seat... or something like that. 
We didn't have Command Ejection on the JP5, it was everyone for him/herself!
We didn't have Command Ejection on the JP5, it was everyone for him/herself!
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It's happened loads of times. One I remember was at Wattisham in about 1982/3. A Hawk (100 Sqn or were they still Canberras then?) took up a Fighter Controller from Neatishead for a bit of DACT with the resident 56 Sqn.
FC said afterwards that he never touched anything and couldn't explain why he decided to make an unplanned exit over the southern North Sea! Meanwhile said Hawk landed back with a "pole" poking out of the rear cockpit.....
Another well-documented example was a "cabriolet" F14 that was written up in the USN's "Approach" magazine with some rather spectacular air-to-air pictures. With such a big canopy completely missing the cockpit must have been extremely draughty....
A picture tells a 1,000 words....
When flying with a non-aircrew pax don't bank more than about 130 degrees and avoid negative g.....instinctively they make a grap for the yellow & black "handle".
MB
FC said afterwards that he never touched anything and couldn't explain why he decided to make an unplanned exit over the southern North Sea! Meanwhile said Hawk landed back with a "pole" poking out of the rear cockpit.....
Another well-documented example was a "cabriolet" F14 that was written up in the USN's "Approach" magazine with some rather spectacular air-to-air pictures. With such a big canopy completely missing the cockpit must have been extremely draughty....
A picture tells a 1,000 words....
When flying with a non-aircrew pax don't bank more than about 130 degrees and avoid negative g.....instinctively they make a grap for the yellow & black "handle".
MB
Yes, Him
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a Fighter Controller from Neatishead
Some RN Obs left his driver in a Vixen after mis-hearing him and I think also somone got out and swam from a Canberra off Lincs severalteen years back.
Then there are the "genuine" ones where the back seater thought it really was time to go and with very good reason-- like the Reds Hawk twanging HT lines some years ago.
Gainesy, yes, I was one of the F4 aircrew down at the ORP making rude gestures when the Hawk landed with a pole sticking out of the back where the seat had been....
Felt rather guilty when I saw the state of the jet later - canopy perspex had taken large chunks out of some rather important bits. I think it was a TWU jet - 'Tatty Ton' were flying Canberras back then.
As for the 'Vixen incident, there was an excellent cartoon in one of the RNs excellent magazines at the time. It showed a Vixen steaming happily along, with an empty coal-hole and the perplexed Looker on the end of a parachute...
"I thought he said 'Eject'"
"No he didn't, he said 'Oh sh*t'"
"OH SH*T!!"
Was said expletive not banned therafter in FAA fixed wing aircraft?
Felt rather guilty when I saw the state of the jet later - canopy perspex had taken large chunks out of some rather important bits. I think it was a TWU jet - 'Tatty Ton' were flying Canberras back then.
As for the 'Vixen incident, there was an excellent cartoon in one of the RNs excellent magazines at the time. It showed a Vixen steaming happily along, with an empty coal-hole and the perplexed Looker on the end of a parachute...
"I thought he said 'Eject'"
"No he didn't, he said 'Oh sh*t'"
"OH SH*T!!"
Was said expletive not banned therafter in FAA fixed wing aircraft?
FC said afterwards that he never touched anything and couldn't explain why he decided to make an unplanned exit over the southern North Sea! Meanwhile said Hawk landed back with a "pole" poking out of the rear cockpit.....
By the way, Wedge is still in. I saw him very recently.
The B Word
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A similar thing happened in a middle eastern country when the student accidentally pulled the handle on a PC9 aircraft, the canopy looked like a cracked egshell after it had been successfully landed by the instructor.
Happened to a F-15E out of Lakenheath back in the mid 1990's over mid Wales, though in this case the pilot had called Eject, Eject after a bird strike. Both crew pulled the handles, WSO's seat fired, the pilot's seat didn't. He managed to recover the aircraft and land at Valley. Two Hawk's landed with one less person on board than they took off with during April 1983. One was the Red Arrow which hit HV cables (groundcrew in the back thought the aircraft was a goner and banged out) and the other one was Wedge (both happened within 5 days of each other).
Last edited by MAINJAFAD; 5th Nov 2009 at 23:13.
The B word
" I always believed it was the Bristol Channel as the Hawk was from Chivenor?"
Nope was definitely over the North Sea and it definitely landed at Wattisham, 'cos I was there, standing out on the airfield when it landed. It transpires I was obviously not a million miles from BEagle...if only I had known
Nope was definitely over the North Sea and it definitely landed at Wattisham, 'cos I was there, standing out on the airfield when it landed. It transpires I was obviously not a million miles from BEagle...if only I had known
Per Ardua ad Astraeus
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There was an 'incident' on a certain aerobatic team a few decades back. Let's call the front 'X' and the rear 'Y'.
Following annual major overhaul, X took Gnat airframe up to airtest as per normal with 'backseater' Y. Following upper airwork, the plot was then to check the rigging etc by throwing it around, pulling to buffet to check for any 'nasty' tendency. So, a few thousand feet over Gloucestershire, X pulls hard at the top of a loop, well into buffet (as you do), whereupon 'nasty' airframe decides to try out a 'Porteous loop' all on its own. With his usual consumate skill and panache, X neatly recovers the airframe to a semblance of a normal loop, but is interrupted by a large blast of air as the canopy departs, and a bang from behind as Y decides it is time to go, 'cos Sir has obviously lost it and we are about to die. Oh how we larfed
Following annual major overhaul, X took Gnat airframe up to airtest as per normal with 'backseater' Y. Following upper airwork, the plot was then to check the rigging etc by throwing it around, pulling to buffet to check for any 'nasty' tendency. So, a few thousand feet over Gloucestershire, X pulls hard at the top of a loop, well into buffet (as you do), whereupon 'nasty' airframe decides to try out a 'Porteous loop' all on its own. With his usual consumate skill and panache, X neatly recovers the airframe to a semblance of a normal loop, but is interrupted by a large blast of air as the canopy departs, and a bang from behind as Y decides it is time to go, 'cos Sir has obviously lost it and we are about to die. Oh how we larfed