Don't buy a Rafale Ticket.......

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Boac
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Don't buy a Rafale Ticket.......

#1 Post by Boac » Fri Mar 22, 2019 9:21 pm

Some poor 64 year-old 'civilian' was strapped into a FAF Rafale at Saint-Dizier for a flight but somehow managed to be ejected during the take-off run and is 'not very well'. Not sure what prize he won for the trip but.............

I expect he was totally unprepared for either the ejection OR the landing and having suffered back troubles from a late decision ejection myself when I was not properly 'braced' I can sympathise.

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Re: Don't buy a Rafale Ticket.......

#2 Post by 4mastacker » Fri Mar 22, 2019 10:31 pm

Wonder if he was a Fighter Controller in a previous life?
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Re: Don't buy a Rafale Ticket.......

#3 Post by Rwy in Sight » Sat Mar 23, 2019 6:56 am

If a touch and go was scheduled and he was ejected after it he would have got more than most civilians from similar events (a flight and a parachute jump).

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Re: Don't buy a Rafale Ticket.......

#4 Post by boing » Fri Mar 29, 2019 2:54 pm

The briefing of a non-aircrew passenger for a flight in an aircraft equipped with ejection seats had to be handled carefully. You did not want to make the passenger nervous so that they felt their hands had to continually hover around the seat handle but you needed them impressed enough that they would not hesitate if you said go.

The usual joke, that did not help very much, was for the pilot to brief "I will order you to eject three times as in , eject, eject, eject, if you hear the word eject a fourth time it will be an echo because I will already be gone.". Very funny but often times not helpful.

In the Jet Provost you could keep an eye on the situation because you were sitting side by side with the passenger, how you handled fore and aft seating I do not know, it would make me more nervous.


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Re: Don't buy a Rafale Ticket.......

#5 Post by Alisoncc » Sat Mar 30, 2019 7:54 am

Boing any tips for techies who find themselves upside down with their head between the pedals, hands up behind the panel, with yellow and black handle in the middle of their back caught on their denims. In this instance a Lightning at Leconfield. o:-)

Not as if you can yell out for help if out on the line somewhere.

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Re: Don't buy a Rafale Ticket.......

#6 Post by ian16th » Sat Mar 30, 2019 9:28 am

In 1956, when I was posted to Coningsby, where we had Canberra B2's, all us Techies had to do a half day 'Ejector Seat Course'.

I remember being informed that ejector seats killed more ground crew, than they saved aircrew.

I was always very careful around them.

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Re: Don't buy a Rafale Ticket.......

#7 Post by boing » Sat Mar 30, 2019 3:33 pm

One major problem that I thought was pretty stupid and could have been easily fixed is that different commands had different ejection seat safety drills.

When the seat was live the safety pins were usually stowed in a pretty visible rack so you could easily tell the status of the seat. Unfortunately the details of when and where those pins were inserted and removed varied. Some commands only fitted all the pins for servicing, some fitted all of the pins after the last flight of the day and left others in the rack on through flights. Darned dangerous and probably the reason for some of the ground crew accidents especially on transit flights where two of the same type of aircraft could pass through using two different safety pin configurations.

The other tricky bit was that individual pins locked the seat handles and the cartridge sears. Even with the seat handles safe you could still fire the cartridges by pulling on the length of cable between the handle and the sear if the cartridge sear pin was not in place.

Never had a problem myself but if I was interrupted during any seat drill I started at the beginning again.

You've probably seen this video before but it is always fun.




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