Vulcans - rear crew disabling pilots ejector seats in flight
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Last edited by Pontius Navigator; 2nd Feb 2016 at 16:15. Reason: Small screen and fat fingers in Lanzarote.
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That sight dissuaded my son from a flying career.
1986. Happened right in front of me. After excellent display flight, aircraft returned to its allotted parking space. Pilot stood on seat, waiting for the ladder,and inadvertently trod on seat pan handle with fatal result.
That sight dissuaded my son from a flying career.
That sight dissuaded my son from a flying career.
CG
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Aschaffenburg was a different one, now I've checked. That was the one that had a fatality in the crowd hit by the seat- the pilot was ok. Dumpel- I think I was on the Puma display there, and the Harrier went off without a hitch.
CG
CG
Rear crew seat pins.
I don’t recall any rear seat pins. What I do recall is a Corporal Nav Inst getting his legs trapped under the table after accidentally inflating the Nav Plotters assist cushion. The Nav Plotters seat only went fore and aft whereas the outboard seats could swivel and the seat inflation was accompanied by the seat back tilting forward to push the occupants up and out of the seat.
As he was working on his own he was there for some time before anyone knew of his predicament. Don’t know how he was extricated but it probably involved a sharp knife into the offending cushion. As a by-the-way he never wore a watch and used to set the GPI 6 to 360 Knots and used the Miles and 10ths of a mile counter for the minutes and seconds for timing of whatever he was doing. Very clever I thought as a new Liney at Cottesmore in the late 60’s.
I don’t recall any rear seat pins. What I do recall is a Corporal Nav Inst getting his legs trapped under the table after accidentally inflating the Nav Plotters assist cushion. The Nav Plotters seat only went fore and aft whereas the outboard seats could swivel and the seat inflation was accompanied by the seat back tilting forward to push the occupants up and out of the seat.
As he was working on his own he was there for some time before anyone knew of his predicament. Don’t know how he was extricated but it probably involved a sharp knife into the offending cushion. As a by-the-way he never wore a watch and used to set the GPI 6 to 360 Knots and used the Miles and 10ths of a mile counter for the minutes and seconds for timing of whatever he was doing. Very clever I thought as a new Liney at Cottesmore in the late 60’s.
Ashaffenurg, if memory serves the pilot was told to eject by the tower due to the engine fire. A spectator was killed when he took pictures of the seat returning to earth. The front fuselage was undamaged and removed from the rest of the aircraft for display in the uk
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Morton, I think there was a safety pin for the rear crew booster cushions. Just one of those automatic procedures that sink into the subconscious.
Quote from the Aircrew Manual:
Where was the plotter's pin stowed? I can't remember at all.
YS
Pins are provided for the assistor cushion bottles To make the bottles operative the navigator/plotter's pin must be removed and the other two must be inserted.
YS
From the operating handle a sleeved cable went to a U shaped bracket, this bracket was secured to the operating sear of the gas bottle by a pip pin. When disabled the pin was removed preventing the handle from operating the bottle. As I remember it there was no stowage for the removed pins. The pins were attached to a short wire lanyard the other end of which was secured to the seat frame.
Wondering if the Victor had a different arrangement for the rear crew cushions. I just recall pulling a knob upwards whch activated the air bottle. No recollection of having to remove a pin - but as P - N says it was a long time ago, and memory is definitely unreliable.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
TTN, I think the only difference from the Vulcan was 3 swivel seats. I know the K2 had 3 seats in 1984, didn't they remove a seat when up that went to single nav; just a very vague memory.
My recollection of Aschaffenburg (In RAFG but not present) was:
Water injection motor exploded, causing power reduction whilst in hover.
(I think that event also damaged the engine? Believe Navy Harrier had a mod to armour the pump?)
Attempted to roll the a/c on, an outrigger broke, he ejected at some angle as wing hit ground.
Certainly, his buddy in the tower - who had direct comms - called him to eject, there were flames not visible to pilot.
The flames "caught up" with the aircraft rapidly, enveloping it.
George Blackie (RIP), the Puma display pilot, was on the ground watching with the Harrier pilot's wife!
It did not look good, George turned her away, rapidly.
As we know, thankfully that bit all worked well and the pilot (NG?) was fine, despite the unfavourable angle involved.
NW, the Puma Crewman (who is on the forum) ran to secure the seat.
It was past the end of the main crowd line - the gent was very unlucky indeed to have picked that spot and then have the seat land on him.
lsh
Water injection motor exploded, causing power reduction whilst in hover.
(I think that event also damaged the engine? Believe Navy Harrier had a mod to armour the pump?)
Attempted to roll the a/c on, an outrigger broke, he ejected at some angle as wing hit ground.
Certainly, his buddy in the tower - who had direct comms - called him to eject, there were flames not visible to pilot.
The flames "caught up" with the aircraft rapidly, enveloping it.
George Blackie (RIP), the Puma display pilot, was on the ground watching with the Harrier pilot's wife!
It did not look good, George turned her away, rapidly.
As we know, thankfully that bit all worked well and the pilot (NG?) was fine, despite the unfavourable angle involved.
NW, the Puma Crewman (who is on the forum) ran to secure the seat.
It was past the end of the main crowd line - the gent was very unlucky indeed to have picked that spot and then have the seat land on him.
lsh
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I definitely don't remember a safety pin on my seat cushion during my two Nav Rad tours on the beast. However, there was the story of a crew "dealing" with their captain who decided it would be a good idea to try and descend below Safety Alt, whilst IMC, in Goose Bay 
. I wonder who that was?
3P
. I wonder who that was?3P
P - N it was after my time, but one seat was removed and the remaining nav seat had a rail which allowed it to slide across between the radar/plotter positions. I have to confess that the tanker nav radar's job was not the most demanding in the RAF, but in our defence we did a reasonable number of single nav trips when tanking was not going to be involved, such as air tests, pilots' instrument rating flights etc. I'm guessing that single nav in the final years of the K2 must have been quite busy at times.
