Opening an F/A 22 cockpit with a chainsaw.

[zahc]

http://tinyurl.com/lg4ej

They say just the canopy costs 180,000.

[Fly320s]

A real man would have ejected through the canopy.

[K Frame]

"A real man would have ejected through the canopy."

I'd say a real man avoids ejections at all cost...

An old neighbor of mine punched out of jets twice in Vietnam in the span of about 3 months. He had scars and compressed vertebre to show for it. Said comparatively speaking wrapping his car around a tree on ice at 50 mph was a cake walk compared to how he felt after ejecting.

[Gewehr98]

Re: avoiding ejections...

My ejection seat upstairs on the B52H model was a scary thing.  You pulled the ejection rings upright on the ends of your armrests, then had to visually confirm the hatch above you had departed the aircraft, before squeezing the trigger levers in those rings to fire the seat.  Otherwise, you could very easily eject into a closed hatch, which wasn't the best idea. Then, 1/2 second after the seat kicked you out of the airplane, another initiator kicks you like a mule in the small of the back to separate you from the seat.  Supposedly, that 1/2 second was all the time needed to make sure you cleared the vertical stabilizer on the way back through the slipstream.  If your seat malfunctioned and didn't fire, you could try initiating it a second time if altitude and airspeed permitted, otherwise you were to crawl to the nearest open hole created by a fellow crewmember's ejection seat and jump out with your chute and seat kit.  Yeah, right.  

At least it wasn't as bad as the guys downstairs.  Their two ejection seats fired downwards through the belly of the B52.  They had to make sure their ankles were firmly against the ejection seat bases, otherwise as they ejected they'd be missing their legs from the knees down.  The aircraft commander's job was to yank and bank the plane in the event of the emergency, so that the bottom-firing ejection seats had some altitude, and were aimed in a horizontal trajectory, giving those guys some time for their parachutes to deploy.  Sometimes, it wasn't enough.

A fellow B52 crew at KI Sawyer AFB in Michigan ran into trouble almost immediately after takeoff some years ago.  I talked to the x-ray technician at the base clinic, quite by accident, several years after the fact.  He said they x-rayed the bomb navigator's body while it was still in the bag.  He knew it was the navigator because of the writing instruments, whiz-wheel, dividers, and plotter still in the pockets on the x-ray image.  He also said that almost every bone in the deceased's body had been broken, some in several places, blunt force trauma as he ejected downwards into the trees and ground. I'm hoping he didn't suffer long.

[Lennyjoe]

Our A-10's have a canopy breaker tool that you use to bust your way out of the canopy.  Seen it used a couple of times when guys got stuck in the cockpit during ground maintenance.  Never seen anyone use a chainsaw before though.

[Fly320s]

Mike, I'm sure you realize that my post was in jest, considering how thick that polycarbonate canopy is.

My father-in-law has ejected twice, as well.  Once from an A-4 and once from a A-6 (IIRC).  He hasn't suffered any long term effects.  He received minor injuries (chipped teeth from the mic) during one ejection.


Gewehr98, I was based at K.I. Sawyer a few years ago with Great Lakes airlines (United Express at the time).  We were flying out of the Marquette airport.  We lived in the old housing units, B.O.Q. or something similar, since it was dirt cheap to live there.  I used to ride my bike around the base for fun and exercise.  It was a little eerie riding through a well maintained ghost town.

[K Frame]

"Mike, I'm sure you realize that my post was in jest, considering how thick that polycarbonate canopy is."

Oh I know.

Both of Rick's punchouts were from F-4 Phantoms after having been hit by ground fire.

[Strings]

>"A real man would have ejected through the canopy."

I'd say a real man avoids ejections at all cost...<

Only the premature ones need to be avoided... :neener:

 Sorry... couldn't help it...


 Actually... couldn't they have (theoretically) blown the canopy?  Or can't the canopy charge be ignited without also igniting the chair?

[Iain]

A fellow B52 crew at KI Sawyer AFB in Michigan ran into trouble almost immediately after takeoff some years ago.  I talked to the x-ray technician at the base clinic, quite by accident, several years after the fact.  He said they x-rayed the bomb navigator's body while it was still in the bag.  He knew it was the navigator because of the writing instruments, whiz-wheel, dividers, and plotter still in the pockets on the x-ray image.  He also said that almost every bone in the deceased's body had been broken, some in several places, blunt force trauma as he ejected downwards into the trees and ground. I'm hoping he didn't suffer long.

Gewehr - at university I knew a guy who had done upwards of 300 jumps. I dropped round one day and caught him in quite a state. He had used to joke about people 'going in', I don't think he ever did again after that day. Horrible story.

[K Frame]

"Actually... couldn't they have (theoretically) blown the canopy?  Or can't the canopy charge be ignited without also igniting the chair?"

I think they're part of a single unified process.

The last thing you want to do is accidentally blow the canopy at 800 knots.

[zahc]

Plus there may well be crazy perhipheral damage done by blowing the canopy, since usually when you blow the canopy the plane is going to be crashing. It might blow the hinges, and big gaping holes in the surrounding metal, and who knows what happens to the canopy when it comes down. Think about it. If they just cut the pilot out then they can just fit a new piece of glass and vacuum out the interior.

[Azrael256]

blow the hinges, and big gaping holes in the surrounding metal, and who knows what happens to the canopy when it comes down

Pfft!  Forget the plane!  I'd rather not be sitting in a jet while the ground crew blows the canopy from over my head.  I'm sure it's better than crashing and burning, but while on the ground, I would definitely be vetoing any explosions in my immediate vicinity.

Can you imagine how incredibly annoying that was?  Imagine being in a bell jar while the FD chainsaws it in half.  I know they have all kinds of hearing protection because of the engines, but jet engines are an almost pleasant noise by comparison.

[m1911owner]

There's something rather disconcerting about the way the guys cutting him out are all dressed up in flame-proof suits and air packs.

"Don't worry, we haven't had a plane blow up yet while we were doing this!"

"How many times, exactly, have you done this?"

"Well, um, this here would be the first time, actually."



.

[Standing Wolf]

You have to expect a few problems with low bid contractors.

[MillCreek]

There's something rather disconcerting about the way the guys cutting him out are all dressed up in flame-proof suits and air packs.

"Don't worry, we haven't had a plane blow up yet while we were doing this!"

"How many times, exactly, have you done this?"

"Well, um, this here would be the first time, actually."

"But don't worry.  Ed here stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night, and Bill over there with the hose gave the manual a quick skim."

[garrettwc]

I was talking to one of my co-workers who was part of an A-10 Warthog crew about this today. His first comment was that someone messed up or there was a major malfunction because when you are cycling the canopy as they described you never go down to the fully locked position.

He also told me that due to all the oil and debris that entered the cockpit during the extrication, the plane will be taken out of service and completely dismantled, and components serviced and then rebuilt. That's gonna cost a bunch of taxpayer $$$.