Eject! Eject! - John Nichol
About 15 years ago I attended a Flight Safety briefing given to all the staff at BAE Systems Brough by Pete 'Wizzer' Wilson. One of the real life examples presented was the accident to Tornado ZE759 at Blackpool. The aircraft was overshooting the airport there when a washer jammed one of the taileron PFCU control valves leading to a rapid uncontrollable roll while the aircraft was still at low level. The radio comms were recorded and Paul Hopkins call to the navigator (whose name I can't remember) was 'F***ing hell, get out' Both crew did, managing to time their ejection to the brief interval when the aircraft was upright. Rumour had it that Paul subsequently named his twin boys Martin and Baker.
Apart from emphasising the importance of preventing FOD, what struck me was how quickly the situation changed from a routine, relaxed approach and overshoot to a life or death situation in a matter of seconds.
Walbut
Apart from emphasising the importance of preventing FOD, what struck me was how quickly the situation changed from a routine, relaxed approach and overshoot to a life or death situation in a matter of seconds.
Walbut
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B52 Nam
just got to the end of that part..Was doing a circumnavigation of the french canals when I met a B52 ex NAV doing same in the Arsenal marina adjacent to the place de la bastille in Paris (france).
Electronic counter measures ment the Sams were relatively unguided so the Viet Cong just sent up barrages of them in the hope of getting lucky. One lodged in the wing of the bomber he was in with the pointed bit sticking out of the top.
The Israelis had recovered a ground battery intact during the six day war but hadn’t got a missile so the B52 was ordered to fly stateside iirc with the missile to be re-engineered.
Brave men.
just got to the end of that part..Was doing a circumnavigation of the french canals when I met a B52 ex NAV doing same in the Arsenal marina adjacent to the place de la bastille in Paris (france).
Electronic counter measures ment the Sams were relatively unguided so the Viet Cong just sent up barrages of them in the hope of getting lucky. One lodged in the wing of the bomber he was in with the pointed bit sticking out of the top.
The Israelis had recovered a ground battery intact during the six day war but hadn’t got a missile so the B52 was ordered to fly stateside iirc with the missile to be re-engineered.
Brave men.
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Enjoyed the book very much John; sadly reminded me of a few near misses and deaths in civil aviation, preventable and lucky.
My first very near miss was with a Tornado whilst practising stall patter with Joan Hughes - one of the ATA girls..it obliterated the ground view as the nose dropped.
I had a couple of notable ones (that I saw)..one was with a Lufthansa 747 in the Frankfurt hold who descended through our level ..I ducked and swore..the second was in leaving the Ekron hold into Zurich with a plump German who had a cigar in his mouth..I had been warned by a controlled ex Chicago that there would be a mid air in Swiss airspace a long time before. All covered up of course.
This leads me to the Tornado mid air passing through a narrow corridor..30 years on from when two of my course mates flying with ex military instructors had a mid air over the Isle of Wight..1970..even with my limited experience I thought it was stupid for the college to concentrate general handling in two small areas. So why did/does the RAF expect to avoid using the mark 1 eyeball at those sort of speeds.
My biggest surprise that Ash was wearing a synthetic flying suit! My twin instructor, Pat Courtney who had left a wing tip and aileron from his Hurribomber on a tree stump, had spied my nylon socks and warned me to never wear synthetic materials in an aircraft.
I write this with a compression fracture of T12 and some cracked ribs the result of hitting a 10m shear cliff in April…lucky to get away with it and 110% my fault..now to read Lancaster.
My first very near miss was with a Tornado whilst practising stall patter with Joan Hughes - one of the ATA girls..it obliterated the ground view as the nose dropped.
I had a couple of notable ones (that I saw)..one was with a Lufthansa 747 in the Frankfurt hold who descended through our level ..I ducked and swore..the second was in leaving the Ekron hold into Zurich with a plump German who had a cigar in his mouth..I had been warned by a controlled ex Chicago that there would be a mid air in Swiss airspace a long time before. All covered up of course.
This leads me to the Tornado mid air passing through a narrow corridor..30 years on from when two of my course mates flying with ex military instructors had a mid air over the Isle of Wight..1970..even with my limited experience I thought it was stupid for the college to concentrate general handling in two small areas. So why did/does the RAF expect to avoid using the mark 1 eyeball at those sort of speeds.
My biggest surprise that Ash was wearing a synthetic flying suit! My twin instructor, Pat Courtney who had left a wing tip and aileron from his Hurribomber on a tree stump, had spied my nylon socks and warned me to never wear synthetic materials in an aircraft.
I write this with a compression fracture of T12 and some cracked ribs the result of hitting a 10m shear cliff in April…lucky to get away with it and 110% my fault..now to read Lancaster.
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My copy just arrived - silly bugger delivered it two doors down and left it outside; thanks be to email updates, I collared him as he scratched his head further down the road and retrieved it just before an "isolated and thundery downpour" (well, no thunder yet) unleashed itself.
And of course the gliders.
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Enjoyed the book very much John; sadly reminded me of a few near misses and deaths in civil aviation, preventable and lucky.
My first very near miss was with a Tornado whilst practising stall patter with Joan Hughes - one of the ATA girls..it obliterated the ground view as the nose dropped.
I had a couple of notable ones (that I saw)..one was with a Lufthansa 747 in the Frankfurt hold who descended through our level ..I ducked and swore..the second was in leaving the Ekron hold into Zurich with a plump German who had a cigar in his mouth..I had been warned by a controlled ex Chicago that there would be a mid air in Swiss airspace a long time before. All covered up of course.
This leads me to the Tornado mid air passing through a narrow corridor..30 years on from when two of my course mates flying with ex military instructors had a mid air over the Isle of Wight..1970..even with my limited experience I thought it was stupid for the college to concentrate general handling in two small areas. So why did/does the RAF expect to avoid using the mark 1 eyeball at those sort of speeds.
My biggest surprise that Ash was wearing a synthetic flying suit! My twin instructor, Pat Courtney who had left a wing tip and aileron from his Hurribomber on a tree stump, had spied my nylon socks and warned me to never wear synthetic materials in an aircraft.
I write this with a compression fracture of T12 and some cracked ribs the result of hitting a 10m shear cliff in April…lucky to get away with it and 110% my fault..now to read Lancaster.
My first very near miss was with a Tornado whilst practising stall patter with Joan Hughes - one of the ATA girls..it obliterated the ground view as the nose dropped.
I had a couple of notable ones (that I saw)..one was with a Lufthansa 747 in the Frankfurt hold who descended through our level ..I ducked and swore..the second was in leaving the Ekron hold into Zurich with a plump German who had a cigar in his mouth..I had been warned by a controlled ex Chicago that there would be a mid air in Swiss airspace a long time before. All covered up of course.
This leads me to the Tornado mid air passing through a narrow corridor..30 years on from when two of my course mates flying with ex military instructors had a mid air over the Isle of Wight..1970..even with my limited experience I thought it was stupid for the college to concentrate general handling in two small areas. So why did/does the RAF expect to avoid using the mark 1 eyeball at those sort of speeds.
My biggest surprise that Ash was wearing a synthetic flying suit! My twin instructor, Pat Courtney who had left a wing tip and aileron from his Hurribomber on a tree stump, had spied my nylon socks and warned me to never wear synthetic materials in an aircraft.
I write this with a compression fracture of T12 and some cracked ribs the result of hitting a 10m shear cliff in April…lucky to get away with it and 110% my fault..now to read Lancaster.
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Spot the ejectee chum?
A few who have banged out attended the book launch in the RAF Club last week.
Excellent idea by Bob A to do the photo (we were all a tad squiffy by the time the idea was mooted) - but it was quite late and a few of the gang (Gwynn Edwards, Gordon Moulds, Nathan Gray, Harv Smyth) had stumbled off for the train....
Chap in the middle with the book is Tony Gaunt from Martin-Baker - an ex-Armourer so quite popular that night!
A few who have banged out attended the book launch in the RAF Club last week.
Excellent idea by Bob A to do the photo (we were all a tad squiffy by the time the idea was mooted) - but it was quite late and a few of the gang (Gwynn Edwards, Gordon Moulds, Nathan Gray, Harv Smyth) had stumbled off for the train....
Chap in the middle with the book is Tony Gaunt from Martin-Baker - an ex-Armourer so quite popular that night!
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Very pleased you enjoyed the book; thanks for the kind comments. I don't think our 1980/90s flying suites were 'synthetic' - but the Life Jacket and G-Suit were certainly nylon-based. So in Kate's case (in the back seat with Ash), the LSJ & G-suit were melting onto her body which contributed to such catastrophic injuries. The kit did change after that but not for many years. I suspect the thinking was, that the chances of landing in the burning wreckage was fairly slim. As in so many of these case of course ... right until it happened......
not fit into the parameters of the seat ergonomics one wasn’t flying. A Cpl female dental hygienist at Colt had been drawn in a charity raffle to fly in a Jag. Soon after, post report, It was canned. The recommdations also put paid to Colt groundcrew from AMF being involved as supernumary back.seaters on minor amd minor star air tests.
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Your incident is mentioned Mog, but sadly (apologies from me!) I simply couldn't include individual names and comprehensive details of every ejection in the Falklands War section. I hope you'll forgive me....