Eject! Eject! - John Nichol
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Australia OZ
Age: 75
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Having corresponded via e-mail with the 'project: get out & walk' author (about RAN FAA ejections) and seeing his comments otherwise on the website, when it was active, I would gather that the info seen is the best he knew (given by others mostly) at the time. Perhaps more info will turn up?
Last edited by SpazSinbad; 30th May 2023 at 02:15.
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Australia OZ
Age: 75
Posts: 2,579
Likes: 0
Received 52 Likes
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45 Posts
gargLINg on google with "LDCR David J. 'Goose' Lortscher USN RIO F-14 Tomcat" came up this gem?:
"...Lt. David J. “Goose” Lortscher. He and his pilot (not LCDR Diego E. Hernández ) were lost at sea after a mid-air collision between two F-14 Tomcats in December of 1979 off the coast of Puerto Rico...."
"...Lt. David J. “Goose” Lortscher. He and his pilot (not LCDR Diego E. Hernández ) were lost at sea after a mid-air collision between two F-14 Tomcats in December of 1979 off the coast of Puerto Rico...."
John,
have ordered your book but will not read it straight away. We are going on a Bordeaux wine cruise in August so will save it for then. As we enjoy the wine tasting I will raise the glass to MB and all those the seats saved. Even now after working on the Javelin, Hunter and Lightning all those years ago if I am anywhere near the cockpit of a museum exhibit with an ejection seat I instinctively check that it is safe ! The Pavlov dog syndrome my wife calls it.
Best wishes
aa
have ordered your book but will not read it straight away. We are going on a Bordeaux wine cruise in August so will save it for then. As we enjoy the wine tasting I will raise the glass to MB and all those the seats saved. Even now after working on the Javelin, Hunter and Lightning all those years ago if I am anywhere near the cockpit of a museum exhibit with an ejection seat I instinctively check that it is safe ! The Pavlov dog syndrome my wife calls it.
Best wishes
aa
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Mogwi,
one of the tours on offer is a visit to those very pens, and an evening light show against one of the massive walls. When you see Hitler's obsession with gargantuan concrete projects it is easy to see how Germany lost WW2 !
one of the tours on offer is a visit to those very pens, and an evening light show against one of the massive walls. When you see Hitler's obsession with gargantuan concrete projects it is easy to see how Germany lost WW2 !
Just got the book, superb and brought back many memories of my own ejection 60 years ago ( (JP4 XP 635) training over Northumberland as mentioned in the early pages.
Still vividly remember the 4,700 feet descent in the seat, in cloud, before the chute opened just as I was about to start the manual separation ! 1 Chute panel tore ( it opened with a hell of a bang after the freefall) resulting in slight spin making PSP release impossible. But, thank you MB, and the real heroes, who did the early live testing, you delivered me to the ground in one piece.
A great read, must finish it this evening !
Still vividly remember the 4,700 feet descent in the seat, in cloud, before the chute opened just as I was about to start the manual separation ! 1 Chute panel tore ( it opened with a hell of a bang after the freefall) resulting in slight spin making PSP release impossible. But, thank you MB, and the real heroes, who did the early live testing, you delivered me to the ground in one piece.
A great read, must finish it this evening !
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Mog
Mog,
we are going with UNI....D, as our Venice cruise with them was superb. As with your cruise company not cheap but you do get what you have paid for.
aa
we are going with UNI....D, as our Venice cruise with them was superb. As with your cruise company not cheap but you do get what you have paid for.
aa
Just got the book, superb and brought back many memories of my own ejection 60 years ago ( (JP4 XP 635) training over Northumberland as mentioned in the early pages.
Still vividly remember the 4,700 feet descent in the seat, in cloud, before the chute opened just as I was about to start the manual separation ! 1 Chute panel tore ( it opened with a hell of a bang after the freefall) resulting in slight spin making PSP release impossible. But, thank you MB, and the real heroes, who did the early live testing, you delivered me to the ground in one piece.
A great read, must finish it this evening !
Still vividly remember the 4,700 feet descent in the seat, in cloud, before the chute opened just as I was about to start the manual separation ! 1 Chute panel tore ( it opened with a hell of a bang after the freefall) resulting in slight spin making PSP release impossible. But, thank you MB, and the real heroes, who did the early live testing, you delivered me to the ground in one piece.
A great read, must finish it this evening !
One of the stories I cover is Ron Guthrie - the first combat ejection after being shot down in Korea. Ron came out at 38,000 feet (summer flying kit, WW2-style goggles, flimsy oilcloth helmet & mask!). He was in a Mark 1 seat so totally manual - he had to unstrap, push the seat away, go into freefall then pull the D-ring. He was under the parachute at 35,000 feet so had around a 25 minute descent ...... into a very brutal captivity. Great guy to chat to, sadly gone now.
I remember reading somewhere (possibly one of Winkle Brown's books) that the Luftwaffe's WW2 tandem-engined Dornier 335 Pfiel was fitted with a compressed air-operated ejector seat. One of the design features required the pilot to manually jettison the canopy before ejecting. Unfortunately the two levers were attached to the canopy itself rather than the airframe and in a couple of cases dead pilots were found in the subsequent wreckage minus their arms, which had been wrenched off by the departing canopy. 
Not a great morale-builder for the crews, especially considering that the ejection sequence required explosive charges to blow off the fin and aft propellor to prevent the seat from hitting them. Assuming they managed to keep their arms, a manual bail-out would probably have resulted in a very messy ending anyway.
Edit:
It was mentioned in Winkle Brown's Wings of the Luftwaffe. I had a sniff around the Internet and some sources quote the arm losses during ejection as a tall story told to him in 1945 by a Luftwaffe pilot. Who knows!!!
Whatever, from a Hong Kong models thread on the Pfiel:
Post-war French tests of the ejection mechanism with the Do 335 M17 also showed it to be unsatisfactory. Apart from the issue with the canopy potentially hitting the pilot on release, the ejection procedure was also very complicated: the pilot first had to push three buttons in sequence to activate the explosive charges for top fin, prop, and lower fin; then pull both canopy handles to unlock and release the canopy; disconnect the microphone; arm the seat; assume the ejection posture with feet placed on the seat supports; and pull the ejection handle.
Not a great morale-builder for the crews, especially considering that the ejection sequence required explosive charges to blow off the fin and aft propellor to prevent the seat from hitting them. Assuming they managed to keep their arms, a manual bail-out would probably have resulted in a very messy ending anyway.
Edit:
It was mentioned in Winkle Brown's Wings of the Luftwaffe. I had a sniff around the Internet and some sources quote the arm losses during ejection as a tall story told to him in 1945 by a Luftwaffe pilot. Who knows!!!
Whatever, from a Hong Kong models thread on the Pfiel:
Post-war French tests of the ejection mechanism with the Do 335 M17 also showed it to be unsatisfactory. Apart from the issue with the canopy potentially hitting the pilot on release, the ejection procedure was also very complicated: the pilot first had to push three buttons in sequence to activate the explosive charges for top fin, prop, and lower fin; then pull both canopy handles to unlock and release the canopy; disconnect the microphone; arm the seat; assume the ejection posture with feet placed on the seat supports; and pull the ejection handle.
Last edited by stevef; 1st Jun 2023 at 20:47. Reason: Research
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Fascinated to read about past experimentation with seats designed to fly away from the scene of the ejection - Rollo wing etc - so as to avoid capture by hostiles.
There's nowt new under the sun...
There's nowt new under the sun...
But it's certainly the type of 'contraption' some of us would have been delighted to try out in 1991.....
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My copy arrived this morning but I’m out of country - looking forward to next week!
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Half way through he book and really enjoying it.
Maybe a daft question but ( humour an ex radio officer) Is there a standard approved phase to initiate an ejection. I thought it was EJECT x3 but Johns title suggest EJECT x2. And is it standard across air forces, knowing that US phraseology can be different.
Also is it true that aircrew would avoid using the E word in flight unless really about to leave the aircraft.
Hutch
Maybe a daft question but ( humour an ex radio officer) Is there a standard approved phase to initiate an ejection. I thought it was EJECT x3 but Johns title suggest EJECT x2. And is it standard across air forces, knowing that US phraseology can be different.
Also is it true that aircrew would avoid using the E word in flight unless really about to leave the aircraft.
Hutch
Half way through he book and really enjoying it.
Maybe a daft question but ( humour an ex radio officer) Is there a standard approved phase to initiate an ejection. I thought it was EJECT x3 but Johns title suggest EJECT x2. And is it standard across air forces, knowing that US phraseology can be different.
Also is it true that aircrew would avoid using the E word in flight unless really about to leave the aircraft.
Hutch
Maybe a daft question but ( humour an ex radio officer) Is there a standard approved phase to initiate an ejection. I thought it was EJECT x3 but Johns title suggest EJECT x2. And is it standard across air forces, knowing that US phraseology can be different.
Also is it true that aircrew would avoid using the E word in flight unless really about to leave the aircraft.
Hutch
Half way through he book and really enjoying it.
Maybe a daft question but ( humour an ex radio officer) Is there a standard approved phase to initiate an ejection. I thought it was EJECT x3 but Johns title suggest EJECT x2. And is it standard across air forces, knowing that US phraseology can be different.
Also is it true that aircrew would avoid using the E word in flight unless really about to leave the aircraft.
Hutch
Maybe a daft question but ( humour an ex radio officer) Is there a standard approved phase to initiate an ejection. I thought it was EJECT x3 but Johns title suggest EJECT x2. And is it standard across air forces, knowing that US phraseology can be different.
Also is it true that aircrew would avoid using the E word in flight unless really about to leave the aircraft.
Hutch
I certainly don't remember any specific directive. Other (as many others have said) than on my first JP trip at Finningley with Dai Rees, his brief on the runway was, "If we have to get out, I will call EJECT! EJECT! but you won't hear the 2nd one as you'll be looking at the soles of my boots...."
And many, many thanks to those who have bought the book, propelling it to the number 2 slot on the Sunday Times bestseller list.
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It might be aprocyphal, but I gather that the requirement to say "EJECT" several times came about after the pilot of a Sea Vixen muttered "Oh SH*T" - whereupon much to the pilot's surprise, his looker who had misheard him, pulled the back and yellow!
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