What's THIS button do? ...
 

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...oops...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1172890283.jpg

Is that the Kenny Roberts team sponsor?

I was curious to find if this was a photoshop job but I found info that tells the story.
http://reddit.com/info/11yva/comments

Here is a video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zD3fdKmMdQM

Here is a good video of a another ejection.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YX6D_u_5vk

My youngest brother is a fighter pilot in the [British} Royal Air Force and had the misfortune to be at the controls of a stalled jet trainer less than 200 feet above the ground ... only one option left at that height ... head down, pull the lever and hang on!

They say that after the second ejection you can't fly anymore due to the strains put on the body. My brother was a half inch shorter after ejecting ... spinal compression or something :eek:

Nick

I was in the USAF at Nellis AFB (Las Vegas, NV - home base for the Thunderbirds) in the late 70s and had a Riding Buddy that worked in the Parachute Shop. He said there's a 50% chance of surviving Ejection and another 50% chance the Parachute will work correctly.

We typically had a Fighter Jet go down every ~3 months. Typically the pilots didn't eject for whatever reason and ended up dead. I never did volunteer for recovery duty...some found body parts or a helmet with head still inside.

The Funeral Ceremonies were always a sad part because there was usually a Widow dressed in black w/small children.

Our Soldiers/Airmen/Seamen deserve the highest respect for their service and sacrifice for our Nation.

oops... and there goes 15 mil. bucks

by the looks of it, the pilot at least didn't "buy the farm"

That would explain why a new #6 was in last week...
Used to work with the Thunderbirds quite often until I changed shops, still talk with the PA guy though, have to ask him about this next time we chat...

as inherently unstable as all the modern stuff is, it's a miracle of software engineering they fly at all. Motorcycles have a huge margin for error compared to fighter jets, when mechanical 'oopsies' occur.
40 hours of maintenance for every hour of flight time, at least it was back in the day, with Apaches.