Luckiest Pilot alive?
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
I have wondered if Bill Parks has the highest number of actual emergency ejections with 4?
There are other factors - I did a tour with a USMC pilot who switched to become a controller after ejecting 3 times*. Back wasn't gone, but his poster said no there Squadron commander wanted someone with his luck....
Sea Vixen
I was airborne in a gannet off of HMS Ark Royal (I think it was "Ark" I've not got access to my log books!!!!) on the Beira Straights patrol when we heard a Vixen had lost an engine and was loosing fuel. We vectored a Scimitar tanker to join but the asymmetric trust on the Viven made it impossible for a successful plug in. The vixen pilot (A.T.) called tanks dry descending to 10K to eject. The Lookers seat failed and so he (J.S.) tried a manual bale-out. He got half way out but it is surmised his seat pack caught on the top seat handle and he was stuck and became semi inert. A.T. tried rolling and bunting and I believe tried flying left handed to reach into the "coal-hole" and toss out the observers dangling legs. All to no avail and he eventually ran out of hydraulics. The Sea VIxen hit the water in a 90 degree bank and the Tanker pilot called that both had gone in. The rescue helo however found A.T. in the oggin with a damaged ankle and a scratch on his face from his visor. He had ejected as the Vixen rolled and his seat just bounced along the water (like a Flat stone thrown on a lake). Milliseconds either way and he would have been history but he lived and had a successful career as an MTP. (he was an engineer officer prior to becoming a pilot)
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I have wondered if Bill Parks has the highest number of actual emergency ejections with 4? (F-104, A-12, M-21 and Have Blue). I know there are several who made more test/trial ejections, but what about actual emergency ejections? I believe there are several USN F-8 Crusader pilots with three ejections. A few Germans crews in WWII? Soviet? Others with 3, 4 or more?
None Emergency has to be Bernhard Lynch..
An intrepid employee, Bernard Lynch, attempted the first static ejection on 24th January 1945. He then conducted the first mid-flight test ejection on 24th July 1946. He ejected himself from the rear cockpit of a specially modified Meteor 3 at 320 mph, 8000 ft in the air. Bernard Lynch made a perfect landing and subsequently made a further 30 ejections.
