A bad day at the office.

[JValk]

Can someone save that canopy for my custom valk? Go Angel Birds!

[KingNor]

how can the plane being on fire count as "pilot error"?

[drifand]

Those flames look to be from the ejection seat... Maybe he got into the wrong plane? ha ha

[Opus]

I bet he's off the team.

[Nightbat]

guess he needs to adjust the height in his passport

[fulcy]

I doubt the flames you see are actually the plane on fire - that's almost certainly from the ejection seat, well, being ejected.

[Anubis]

The flames are most definately the ejection seat. The Rocket Catapult, and STAPAC's vernier rocket both leave nice flame trails.

The rocket catapult is a cylinder in the ballpark of 4 feet with a 4 inch diameter.

[drifand]

Hypothetical Question: If your plane has been badly shot up and you eject leaving a blazing trail of flames (as seen above), will it be hot enough to attract an IR-seeking AAM?

Edited February 11, 2004 by drifand

[Capt Hungry]

That's a rather dramatic pic.

Wow.

[Southcross]

Hypothetical Question: If your plane has been badly shot up and you eject leaving a blazing trail of flames (as seen above), will it be hot enough to attract an IR-seeking AAM?

LMAO funny thought

Great now I'm worried... the Air Force show in August is going to feature the Thunderbirds

[Anubis]

Hypothetical Question: If your plane has been badly shot up and you eject leaving a blazing trail of flames (as seen above), will it be hot enough to attract an IR-seeking AAM?

An F-16's entire ejection takes just under only 1.5 seconds to finish. Canopy pops, seat goes, seat disengages from pilot, parachute deploys and pulls the pilot away, all in that timeframe. Short version. Really is an impressive ballistics sequence.

[Southcross]

Hypothetical Question: If your plane has been badly shot up and you eject leaving a blazing trail of flames (as seen above), will it be hot enough to attract an IR-seeking AAM? 

An F-16's entire ejection takes just under only 1.5 seconds to finish. Canopy pops, seat goes, seat disengages from pilot, parachute deploys and pulls the pilot away, all in that timeframe. Short version. Really is an impressive ballistics sequence.

I can't remember did they ever perfect the VLAE System (if I recall the acronym correctly, Verly Low Altitude Ejection System)? I remember they used to say an ejection under 100 feet (?) was suicidal. That it was safer to try to ride the plane in. My "technical" memory is kinda... sketchy anymore. I could be recalling information from the Korean war for all I can remember.

[Jawjaw]

I read about that recently. It sounded like the pilot made an error and steered the plane away from the crowds and ejected right before impact. Bad day indeed. His insurance rates are going to skyrocket!

[Anubis]

I can't remember did they ever perfect the VLAE System (if I recall the acronym correctly, Verly Low Altitude Ejection System)? I remember they used to say an ejection under 100 feet (?) was suicidal. That it was safer to try to ride the plane in. My "technical" memory is kinda... sketchy anymore. I could be recalling information from the Korean war for all I can remember

The ACES II ejection system the Air Force uses has different ejection modes. There is an enivronmental sensor inside the seat, with the pitot tubes on the headrest serving as input for the sensor, that somehow can distinguish low-altitude low-airspeed, low-altitude high-airspeed, and high-altitude high-airspeed (i believe these are the 3 IINM, it's been a year and a half since I touched the seats last). Based on that the recovery sequencer decides wether or not the drogue chute is needed. If at high speed, then yeah, the drogue chute will fire first when the seat clears the rails, and keep the seat straight as well as slow it down, then the lap belts disengage and the main chute takes you away. If you do a ground ejection, the drogue shute will not deploy, and the seat will disengage immediate and the chute will take you away.

The vernier rocket and gyro mounted under the seat also keep the seat upright, so the chutes fire in the right direction. If you eject inverted you are probably screwed. You need to at lest be partially aimed towards the sky. Ground/runway ejectons were part of the design of the ACES II, just don't try it in a hangar because you will splatter on the ceiling.

Edited February 11, 2004 by Anubis

[Southcross]

The vernier rocket and gyro mounted under the seat also keep the seat upright, so the chutes fire in the right direction. If you eject inverted you are probably screwed. You need to at lest be partially aimed towards the sky. Ground/runway ejectons were part of the design of the ACES II, just don't try it in a hangar because you will splatter on the ceiling.

ROTFLMAO... thanks Anubis for the clerificaiton, and the laugh... I really needed that

[Anubis]

The vernier rocket and gyro mounted under the seat also keep the seat upright, so the chutes fire in the right direction. If you eject inverted you are probably screwed. You need to at lest be partially aimed towards the sky. Ground/runway ejectons were part of the design of the ACES II, just don't try it in a hangar because you will splatter on the ceiling.

ROTFLMAO... thanks Anubis for the clerificaiton, and the laugh... I really needed that

You're welcome.

[Blaine23]

"Airshow? Buzz-cut Alabamians spewing coloured smoke in their whiz-jets to the strains of "Rock you like a hurricane? What kind of country-fried rube is still impressed by that?"