...so does hanging out in your space suit like that really draw them in like flies?
Only if they like the smell of piss wrapped in burnt bacon.
Serious question...once you suit up for a flight and go to pure O2, do you have to leave the visor down permanently....even when flying?
You're supposed to, since having the visor up exposes you to the dangers of a rapid decompression. That said, I'm sure many-a-pilot pops the visor up and scratches their nose when required.
Awesome pics! How common/difficult is it for guys from other services to come on over and play yankee air pirate spy?
More common than you'd think. We have a BUNCH of ex-Navy/Marine Interservice Transfers. Currently in training, we have a P-3 guy from Whidbey, and we are interviewing 2 Navy and 1 Marine officer between now and the end of March.
Also, are all chase cars as sweet as the mustang convertible, or was this just for the Airshow? I think I'd probably be okay with just driving that, for my collateral duties.
That was a Roush Convertible that Mr Roush kindly loaned us for Oshkosh. These days, we normally use Pontiac GTO's.
How long does it take you to don the "space suit"?
Not long. Maybe 15 minutes to put it on, do all the O2 and pressurization checks, and have the Supervisor re-check it all.
I must say of all the gizmos we used and learned about in ARSS wrt to disentanglement, a U-2 get up was never mentioned. I realize the odds of ever having to rescue a U-2 pilot are probably astronomical.
Funny you mention that. My classmate in U-2 training is now the Vice Commander of the USAF Flight Test Center at Edwards. When we went through training, he died because the rescue folks didn't know the suit. He suffocated in it, and his heart stopped. Obviously, they CPR'd him back to life, but even though I"m skipping a bunch of the story, it would have helped if the Rescue folks had been trained on our equipment. And if you EVER want to come down here and train on it, contact me and I'll do what I can to facilitate. Seriously.
Just kidding.
